Tracking profit and loss for events

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>
>
> I have mostly worked for fairly large companies (now retired) and am 
> used to the idea of a profit-and-loss center within a company. For 
> example, Audi is part of Volkswagen and contributes to its bottom 
> line, but the profitability of Audi itself can be tracked. (OK, this 
> is on a wildly different scale.) I would think each trade show could 
> be thought of as a P&L center, and this would work. But does GnuCash 
> handle this?
>
> I can think of other examples where this sort of reporting is 
> necessary. For example, an orchestra needs to see if each concert is 
> profitable, as well as whether it made or lost money for the year.
>
> So, how do others handle this? Any ideas greatly appreciated.

You gave a perfect example (Audi owned by Volkswagen).

Do you imagine that Audi does not have its own set of books? Even in a 
much smaller enterprise it is not unusual for there to be sets of books 
subsidiary to the main books. For example, a business need not be very 
large before a set of "petty cash" books becomes useful (the details of 
the petty cash transactions appear here; only the summary amounts on a 
monthly or quarterly basis get transferred to the main books as the 
petty cash fund is replenished).

For an even of any size you could open a set of books for that event. 
Probably this event begins by borrowing "seed money" from the main 
organization and ends by closing any gain or loss to the main 
organization (the event books start with and end with zero equity). You 
then have a record of the financial details of the even (in the event 
books) and a summary of results in the main books.

Isn't that what you want?

Michael