Unbalanced balance sheet

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting JIm <javastead at fastmail.us>:

> How would one account for capital gains/losses when selling a commodity.
> For instance, I buy 10 shares of ABC for $10 each , then sell all 10 for $20
> each.
> 
> I would have something like:
> Asset/checking                                   $100
> Asset/ABC             10    $10   $100
> 
> Where 10 and $10 are the shares and price
> 
> Then selling I would have 
> Asset/checking                         $200
> Asset/ABC             -10    $20              $200
> 
> Would my balance sheet be off by $100 dollars (since my Asset/ABC started at
> $0, and ended at $0, but my Checking increased by $100)?
> 
> If so, is there a better way to enter the transaction, or another
> transaction to enter?

Asset:Checking                    $200
Asset:ABC            -10  $20             $200
Asset:ABC              0    0     $100
Income:Cap Gains                          $100

-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
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available