Recording all purchases under a vendor???

[Maf. King]

On Fri 27 March 15 03:04:47 nssimpson wrote:
> Hi Geert
> 
> I can confirm that no remaining payments are showing there
> 
> Now I have to figure out when not to log purchases under a vendor. For
> instance...
> 
> I ordered a copier from a vendor (manufacturer), which I sold to a customer.
> I've correctly accounted for that.
> 
> The vendor was unable to get hold of a particular accessory in time so
> agreed to reimburse me the cost of having to buy it elsewhere if I sent them
> an invoice. I've therefore bought the accessory from a none VAT registered
> private seller on eBay.

Hi Nick,

Do you mean that the vendor will re-imburse you if you send a copy of the ebay 
invoice, or if you invoice them yourself?

> 
> So firstly do I set the vendor as customer within gnucash and generate an
> invoice?

If you want to generate an invoice within GC, you'll need a customer.  :-(

If your supplier is going to refund on the strength of a copy of the ebay 
bill, then you don't need to raise an invoice.

> 
> Also since I probably won't be buying from this eBay seller again would I be
> right not to add them as a vendor? Should I manually enter the payment I
> made to them into the expenses account I've called "Distribution" or should
> I create another one and call it something like "One-off Purchases"?
> 

there is no right or wrong.  Personally, I wouldn't create a vendor in this 
case. 

I wouldn't have thought that the ebay supplied item would go to 
expenses:distribtion.  That sounds to me more like costs associated with 
transport, or costs associated with making a dividend distribution to 
shareholders.  But, it's your account tree, so whatever name works for you is 
fine by me.  

I'm not into buying product & straight re-selling, but my gut tells me that if 
you buy something for resale - which you will be doing if you raise an invoice 
- it isn't an expense. IMHO you convert it to Assets:StockOnHand (or whatever 
you want to call it).  I suggest a quick chat with your accountant about the 
flow of money and "Costs of Goods Sold (COGS)" accounts, then I ( i mean we, 
the list) can confirm that your GC transactions are what you intend...

> If I do manually enter the payment I made to the eBay seller into an expense
> account do I simply set it so the money came out of my checking account or
> is there some other stuff I'll need to do?
> 

That is what I'd do (subject to Assets:StockonHand as mentioned above)


HTH,
Maf.


> Thanks
> 
> Nick