how to recors a layby

Robert A. Uhl ruhl@4dv.net
Wed, 19 Dec 2001 09:26:07 -0700


On Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 06:18:07PM +1300, Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote:
> 
> So the camera gear is always an asset, but if I ever sell it I wont get
> what I paid, at this point what do I do with the difference, the
> depreciation?  Pop it in to an expense account?

If it's an item of some value, I tend to put it in an asset account.
I calculate a sum-of-digits depreciation on it, pay out the first
installment on that date-of-purchase, then pay out on the first of
every month.

It'd be nice were such things automated:-)

> Truth is that for home accounts I did not see the point in recording
> computers and other toys as an asset, cars and houses sure.  Maybe I
> should... 

Well, I consider most anything which runs more than about $50 to be an
asset.  After all, I might end up selling it off eventually, and I'd
like to be able to gauge its value (actually, when selling I'd ask
based on a linear depreciation, and be happy based on a
sum-of-digits...).  It all gets costed out eventually.  Part of what I
like is being able to calculate accurate monthly cost-of-hobby
figures.  If I buy a $1,200 computer and take the charge immediately,
it looks as though my computer habit ran $1,200 one month and nothing
for the next four years.

This is not really all that accurate.

I figure that if I must represent liabilities accurately, I might as
well represent assets accurately as well.

But I'm part Scottish, so I may be a touch odd about money...

-- 
Robert Uhl <ruhl@4dv.net>

There is a strong tendency in the USA to equate democracy with freedom,
and to describe our system of government as a democracy.  I consider
these commonly-believed fallacies two of the clearer failures of the
public school system (or successes, if you want to subscribe to paranoid
conspiracy theories).                                --Brandon Blackmoor