Garage Sale

[David T.]

--- On Tue, 2/1/11, Aryeh Leib Taurog <vim at aryehleib.com> wrote:

> From: Aryeh Leib Taurog <vim at aryehleib.com>
> Subject: Garage Sale
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Date: Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 1:42 PM
> Okay here's another double-entry
> accounting question.  I'm not in the business of
> selling stuff, but I do it on occasion, as part of a spring
> cleaning/decluttering, because I find a great product at a
> low price and buy a few to sell, or because I picked
> something up at the store for a friend.
> 
> Say I dig up and sell some old camping gear that I haven't
> used for years.  It seems to me I could just use a
> generic income account for occasional sales:
> 
> Debit Assets:Cash 20
>     Credit Income:Other 20
> 
> Or use the expense categories I already set up.  I
> think of this as treating the expense account as a sort of
> inventory account as well:
> 
> Debit Assets:Cash 20
>     Credit Expense:Camping Gear 20
> 
> Advantages/disadvantages?  Better approaches?

Either approach is fine, in my opinion, and I might use either approach in the same set of books. I personally would use the income account for things I didn't really keep track of otherwise. But I would use the second method for expenses I track. If something is going to affect my taxes or my budgets, I would probably use this method.

Oh, right: I am DEFINITELY not an accountant.

David
> 
> Thanks,
> Aryeh Leib Taurog
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