Double-entry bookkeeping organized transactions through linked debits and credits, making some inconsistencies easier to detect. The brilliance here is that complicated accounts became easier to inspect.
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The method developed through practice and was later famously described in print by Luca Pacioli in 1494. Pacioli described a technique; he didn't conjure bookkeeping out of nothing.
Even the most perfect spreadsheet can't turn a bad loan into a good one. A balanced set of books does not guarantee honesty, sound assets or adequate cash to pay depositors.
Bookkeeping standards spread unevenly, and historians distinguish codification from the first invention of a technique. The difference between invention and popularization often gets lost.
Would you rather have better records or better judgment?