request for comments on inventory experiment

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

"Lianto Ruyang" <lianto.ruyang at gmail.com> writes:

> I had in my mind the idea to implement inventory using the Commodities, but then
> i found out that the commodity is very attached to the idea of an
> Account. My understanding from looking through the source-code, now
> the commodity actually functions as a currency, deciding how much
> value an Account is. All the splits and lots inside an Account use the
> Account's commodity as the basic conversion unit.

I think you have it backwards.. Accounts are tied to Commodities,
but not the other way around.  There is no requirement that a Commodity
have any Accounts that use it.  I.e., you can have Commodities
without Accounts.  (The inverse is not true -- you cannot have an
Account without a Commodity).

> I think an inventory system should have items which are not so
> attached to Accounts.

That can still be a Commodity.

> Those items should be recorded in the Accounting system, but they are
> stand-alone entities.

Yep.

> I actually feel the items of inventory are more like Accounts than
> Commodities. But while Accounts is used to record values and amounts
> of imaginary items, the "goods" of inventory is used to record values
> and amounts of real items.

Well, I think it's both.  If you consider that a Commodity is an
Inventory Item, an Account (in that Commodity) maintains a count
of those items, and also the value of those items.  The Lots just
help you map purchases and sales to (eventually) properly account
for capital gains/losses.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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