[GNC] Inventory

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 9/12/2023 8:02 PM, David G. Pickett via gnucash-user wrote:
> Does GNUCash do inventory at least on a small scale?  It seems like a security or stock, you could define a price for sales or a recent/current cost for supplies, and when you sell or order it might be like a stock sale or order.

Yes and no.

You CAN of course track the money part of inventory (the general ledger 
part) manually, which is what I was doing for the orgs (they might have 
had "tee shirts", coffee mugs, etc.). So let me give an example using 
tee shirts. These were both sold (fund raising) and given away 
(recognition) and were bought in batches, not necessarily at the same 
unit cost. As treasurer I would need to get "reports" from those who 
were selling them and/or giving any away or who ordered another batch 
from the supplier).

So a report "I sold X of these at an event" would result in a 
transaction debiting undeposited cash and "cost of goods sold" (at the 
unit price of the current batch) and crediting that batch (under the 
asset "inventory") and "income from goods sold". If they were given to 
volunteers would be debiting "recognition" and crediting the batch in 
inventory.

BUT --- an "inventory system" would be doing MUCH more, and not all of 
it in terms of money. For example, tracking where "shelved" (kept at the 
office vs given out to somebody tabling at an event, etc.) and 
information about the supplier, alternative suppliers, reorder level, etc.

Gnucash is only the ":general ledger" part of a complete business system 
(or personal system for that matter)


Michael D Novack