It is fitting to point out that just the results of mathematical operations previously done on an abacus or yupana were knotted in the quipus. The abacus could be of carved stone or clay. Both had scoreboards that corresponded to the decimal system and one counted with the help of little stones or kernels of maize.

Quipus were a mnemonic system by means of which necessary information could be registered. It could be a matter of census news, of amounts of products and provisions conserved in state warehouses. The chroniclers also mention quipus with historical information but we have not yet discovered how they functioned. In the Inca state specialized personnel handled the cords and to the senior quipucamayo was in charge of the cords for a whole region or suyu.

Quipus continue to be used as mnemotechnical instruments in indigenous villages where they serve to register products of the harvest and animals of the community.