Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Buddha Buck]

All those cards represent something that you own and can convert into stuff
of value. As such, they are assets, much like cash. They are not, in and of
themselves income, any more than cash is. They are not your liabilities,
which makes them different than credit cards, and should not be tracked
that way.

Well, I guess it matters what you mean by a "merchant card" -- if you mean
a credit card that can be used only at one merchant, then it's a credit
card; if you mean a gift card that can only be used at one merchant, then
it's a gift card.

Looking through my wallet, I see the following items:

A debit card
A credit card
A stored value card

The debit cards are tied to my bank accounts, and so any transaction I do
using them comes out of the relevant Asset account (debit Expense:Misc,
credit Asset:Bank)
The credit cards are tied to my credit accounts, and so any transaction I
do using them comes out of the relevant Liability account (debit
Expense:Misc, credit Liability:CreditCard)
The stored value cards ideally would each have their own asset account, and
each transaction I do using them references that account (debit
Expense:Food, credit Asset:StarbucksCard)

Come the holidays, I get from my mother a gift of a $50 Amazon.com gift
card. This is technically "income", and should ideally be recorded as such
(debit Assets:AmazonGiftBalance, credit Income:Gifts). When I buy something
from Amazon, I'd first credit the Assets:AmazonGiftBalance account.


On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 5:09 PM Phil Longstaff <phil.longstaff at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I track gift cards as assets, under Current Assets
>
> On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Paul W. <pfwoolverton at juno.com> wrote:
>
> > I am seeking guidance on methods to track items such as gift cards, gift
> > certificates, merchant cards,  bank reward cards, and store-credit cards
> > for returned purchases.
> >
> > On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could
> track
> > them as income.
> > On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to
> make
> > purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
> > Are there other hands with other methods?
> >
> > I am looking for a simple, consistent method for all of these items so
> > that I can easily track when I received the item and its initial value,
> and
> > track the expenditures.  I want to keep all of these items in the same
> part
> > of my account tree.   Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.
> > Imbalance on one side of a transaction is OK.
> >
> > What are the pros and cons of the various methods to track these items?
> >
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