Class Accounting?

[kasploosh at cox.net]

Jeff,

I think Hendrik's suggestion is a really good one.  I was going to suggest something similar.

One way of boiling down the problem is this:
1. You give the vendor money.
2. The vendor gives supplies to your project.

A good example of this is a builder.  A builder sends an employee to the store to buy materials.  The builder can't trust her hammer-swingers with the company credit card, so when they get to the store they just give the clerk a project number and the store releases the materials.

Essentially what happens is the vendor gives your "project" the materials it needs.  At the end of the month you pay the vendor to settle up.  All project expenses are accounted for.  All payments to the vendor are accounted for.

Now what happens if you receive the materials at exactly the same moment you pay for them?  I suggest you still make two transactions out of it.

Transaction 1: You pay the vendor $0.99 for one really great rainbow blinking LED, and you pay the state of California $0.07 of sales tax.  (You have to do a split to account for the sales tax).

Transaction 2: The vendor gives one really great rainbow blinking LED worth $0.99 to your project.

That's what I would do if I need to keep track of each vendor, because I really don't want to mess with the business features of GnuCash.