What is Accounting? Accounting is a set of concepts and techniques that are used to measure and report financial information about an economic unit. The economic unit is generally considered to be a separate enterprise. Some also describe accounting as been a story teller or giving a description of events. The story is always about items that have a value -- where they came from, how much they were worth, how much they cost, how much they were sold for, what happened to them, and how much of them are on hand at any given time.