Need HTML to doc help; Printing; non-profit in kind donations

[Cam Ellison]

Food Pantry Helper wrote:
> 3)  I understand the concept of double entry.  I'm trying to capture our
> Food Pantry's non-monetary donations (usually food from food drives, ect),
> and offset them with an expense.  Tried doing it under an income category
> for the donations, but they end up in red and in parenthesee's (ie, (120.00)
> but in red).  And, then, the matching expense category I've set up (Food to
> Clients) also is showing a number in red, in parenthesees.  Hmmmm.  Goal is
> to be able to assign/track these non-money donations, which are a huge part
> of our input, and put a value to them, as to Food to Clients.  In that
> category, I get a - I think it's a Charge, then a Rebate- IEEEE, what's up
> with that.  I don't mind re-entering last years stuff if I can find a way to
> make it clear out as an in/out, yet still be able to show the total non-food
> donations number.  I ended up using the reverse transaction option, and
> assigning it to the Food to Clients Category.  I'm missing something
> critical here, and if anyone understands what I'm referring to, please help. 
>   
I'm not sure what you're doing with this donated food; that is, what is 
the business/organization?  Is this a co-op or a food bank or what?  Is 
any of the donated product sold?

On the assumption that you need to put a valuation on it, I suggest that 
it should be put on the income side, and treated as an asset.  Just as 
you must have some fixed assets (furniture, phone, computer,...), you 
could treat the donated food as a tangible asset with a particular 
value, and put it in its own account under Assets.  Any transaction 
recording the receipt of donated food items should be between 
Income->Food Donations and Assets->Donated Food.  Any transaction 
involving selling or distributing these items should debit the 
Assets->Donated Food account and credit either Assets->Current 
Assets->Cash (or Chequing or whatever) or Expenses->Charity->Donations 
for the predetermined value.

Warning here - IANAA - but this is what makes sense to me.

HTH

Cam



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Cam Ellison  Ph.D.  R.Psych. #01417

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