Who coined the term "profit and loss" statement?
American Institute of Certified Public accountants (AICPA) has formed Accounting Principle Board(APB) in 1959. And the purpose of the board is to issue pronouncement on accounting principles. In total 19 of the announcements issued by APB stands as a part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). For getting listed on major stock excahnegs in the United States, companies have to file financial statements as may be required by GAAP. With the rise of mandatory reporting requirements of financial statements it is expected that term Profit and loss statement came into picture. So, we can say that term Profit and loss statement is coined in 1959 firstly by APB through GAAP. However formally International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) formed in 1973 has issued IAS 1 in 1974 to deals with all requirements for financial statements, how it should be made and requires that a complete set of financial statements to comprise a statement of financial position, a statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, a statement of changes in equity and a statement of cash flows is to be presented. So we can say that the term may be coined in 1959 and got largely accepted after issuance of IAS 1 by IASC. Note:- The answer is based on term Profit and loss statement and not on any other term which may be related to it. As book keeping got started very earlier and there are large possibilities that the same statements may be prepared but with different names. Thanks for A2A.