Billing Clerks

The need to record business transactions has existed ever since people began to engage in business and commerce. As far back as 3000 B.C., Sumerians in Mesopotamia recorded sales and bills for customers on clay tablets. Wealthy traders of early Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations often used slaves to make markings on clay tablets to keep track of purchases and sales.

With the rise of monarchies in Europe, billing clerks were needed to record the business transactions of kings, queens, and rich merchants and to monitor the status of the royal treasury. During the Middle Ages, monks carried out the tasks of billing clerks. As the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe, increasing commercial transactions, billing clerks became a necessary part of the workforce.

Computer technology has changed the way clerks record transactions today, allowing for billing information and financial transactions to be recorded electronically, eliminating the need for paperwork. But billing clerks continue to occupy a central role in the business world, managing the day-to-day inner workings of company finance.