AI: Where Have All The Yellow Legal Memo Pads and Green Ledger Paper Gone?

Why am I writing about yellow and green ledger paper? As a Forensic Accountant with over 40 years of experience, I often was exposed to these artifacts of the past and was impressed by their practicality, functionality, and the psychological benefits they provided.  2025 celebrates the 70th birthday of the unofficial coining of the term Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) by John McCarthy and it seems like an appropriate juncture to celebrate the positive attributes these venerable color schemes have provided lawyers and accountants with over the years.

Yellow and green are the color cornerstones of the legal and  accounting professions. Let us not lose sight now of the shades they can provide in the AI world we now reside in. With all the technological commotion and upheaval, let us not forget the clarity, creativity, consistency and comfort yellow and green can continue to provide. This short piece will share with you some fun historical facts and fiction, key discoveries, and milestones more specific to the field of accounting, without leaving the attorneys in the shade. I will also comment on some new challenges and risks to the legal and accounting professions as a result of our new friend in the room, and the potential failure of not embracing the tactile feel of looking through the yellow legal memo pad and green ledger paper of the past.

Ancient Accounting

The last 1,000 years have brought a tremendous amount of growth and prominence to the accounting profession, not without a few stumbles and fumbles. The transformation has been like traveling through Walt Disney World’s Spaceship Earth: through ancient Mesopotamian times from the use of clay tablets, handwritten ledgers, tally sticks, and of course the abacus, to today’s cloud-based and AI-powered accounting systems.

Accounting is the basis of business decisions, and the field has gone through a great deal of development more recently in the last 50 years. Even with all the constantly changing technologies, the more things have changed, the less things have changed. The accounting language remains the same: the debits are on the left and the credits are on the right!

The History of Green Ledger Paper

You may or may not have asked, or ever thought, or even care, why accounting ledger paper has historically been green. It is the green tint that serves several practical and productive purposes: 1) Green reduces eye strain as the green color is a little bit easier on the eyes than the white; 2) Green provides enhanced readability by reducing the glare from lights; 3) Green is often associated with calmness and focus –  like a beautiful field or forest; 4) Tradition – it dates back to the 20th century when strong and sturdy green paper helped preserve and maintain financial records; and 5) United States currency is green and it reinforces the appearance of financial stability.

OK, how about all those pre-historic green eyeshades – I knew there would be a question about that! These green visors also serve a practical purpose beyond a stylish trend; it protected accountants’ eyes from the strain and other effects caused by working under direct light. During the late-1800s up to the mid-1900s accountants widely used these eye shades to help reduce the glare from desk lights that were affixed to work desks to illuminate the documents. Today, the old desk lights have been replaced by fluorescent lighting (which is now being replaced by LED lights) which does not put a lot of strain on the eyes.

The History of Yellow Legal Pads

For the lawyers in the room: did you ever wonder why your legal paper is yellow? The paper is yellow for some similar reasons as accountants – great minds think alike! 1) Yellow has less glare as black ink stands out more clearly against yellow than white; 2) Yellow background improves readability and the psychological benefits of yellow supposedly boosts creativity as well as retention; 3) Yellow may assist lawyers to think more critically; 4) Yellow’s distinct color can help lawyers locate important documents within the white paper ocean we used to live in; and 5) Yellow projects  a certain level of professionalism and perceived authority.

By the 1950s yellow legal pads became a staple in many law offices and still today represent the tradition of the legal profession and symbolism of expert professionalism. For all you paper historians out there, Thomas Holly, a paper mill worker in Holyoke, MA, (GO UMASS!) is credited with inventing the legal pad in 1888, although it was originally produced in white.

Accounting Ledger History

Let us move on to one term accountants like to start with: the Who/What/Where/When/Why and How the company’s General Ledger is maintained. We can talk about the fascinating General Ledger in more detail another time (that could be a snoozefest!) but here is some history of the origin of its name.

The term ledger originates from Middle English and the word “leggen,” the Old Dutch word “leggen” or the Old English word “lecgan” all meaning to lay or lie down, or to place or to set down. Appropriate, given a ledger is where yesterday’s and today’s financial records are “laid down” in a permanent format. Before the double-entry system of accounting (this will be briefly addressed in a moment), merchants in ancient times used bound books to record transactions and these were called ledgers because they contained transaction and entries that were laid down.

Artificial Intelligence

How can the colors of green and yellow and the ancient ledger assist us in today’s AI world? Let us briefly talk AI.

Did you know there is actually an originator of the expression “Artificial Intelligence”? His name is John McCarthy. McCarthy is recognized with coining the term “Artificial Intelligence” back in 1955 when he created one of the most influential programming languages in the context of artificial intelligence.

He developed the concepts of time-share systems, allowing multiple users to interact with a computer simulation, a fundamental step toward modern computing. McCarthy also worked on automated reasoning, which helped computers simulate human logical thinking. In 1971, McCarthy received the Turing Award, the highest honor in computer science for his contributions to artificial intelligence.

2025 and Beyond

As we all begin to work with and better understand AI, the development of AI protocols, and its impact to society as a whole, the legal and accounting professions should not forget to use all the available assets of ancient times. Green ledger and yellow legal memo paper lenses can assist in evaluating the decisions and outputs of Generative AI and the risks of jumping to so called “Hallucinations” that used to be referred to in the past as wrong, incorrect, or misleading!

AI can assist accountants by providing automated data extraction and cleansing, the detection of anomalies in financial data, and predictive analytics for fraud risk assessment.  It will also increase the speed of performing analytics, investigations, and enhance fraud protection, however one must remember not to look through these AI rose-colored glasses without vetting your inputs, sources and results.

Be forensic out there, have your old spectacles in sight or at the very least you can have a black cup of coffee with your face in the sun and the trees or lawn in the background and remember to stop at any red light on the road that you may see.

Researched on AI, not authored by AI!