Reporting question

[Des Dougan]

Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 06:17:05PM -0700, Des Dougan wrote:
>> Is there a way in GnuCash of showing net profit for a hardware sale 
>> (e.g. acquisition price - selling price) alongside other income streams 
>> such as consulting income? I'm trying to get better analysis data out of 
>> GC, and having income on one side and expenditure on the other doesn't 
>> fully do what I want.
> 
> probably. I'm not sure exactly what you're asking here, but as I take
> it, you could track inventory costs as an asset. Then record inventory
> sales as money flowing in from that asset with a split to some income
> account to record profit. That would then show the net profit as
> income, and the cost of goods, and the repayment of such, would not
> show up in P&L at all. 
> 
> .02
> 
> A
> 

Andrew,

Thanks for your response. At present, I record hardware I order in 
Expenses:Computer Hardware and sales of said hardware (which is ordered 
as required as I don't hold inventory) to clients under a similar Income 
account.

If I understand what you are suggesting, I would record hardware 
acquisitions under an Asset account instead of Expenses:Computer 
Hardware. When I pay the vendor, that also comes out of the Asset 
account tree (Chequing Account in this case). How would the sale to the 
client reflect back to this? The split on sales to clients is the 
Assets:Accounts Receivable account. Would doing what you suggest not 
mess that up?

Sorry if I appear dense - it's because it's true!


Regards,

Des
-- 

Des Dougan, Principal
Dougan Consulting Group Inc.

Office:     604-628-5434
Cell:       604-866-2848
Email:      des at DouganConsulting dot com

         www.DouganConsulting.com

Peace of Mind, One Computer at a Time.