One account for both Income and Expenses possible?

[Robert Heller]

At  Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:

> 
> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 08:15:56 +0100 Jeff Abrahamson <jeff at p27.eu> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > On 11/02/18 05:22, Norbert Klein wrote:
> > > I am a complete newcomer to GNUcash, using version 2.6.19 on Windows 10.
> > >
> > > My name is Norbert, living in the countryside in Cambodia.
> > >
> > > This is my first posting.
> > 
> > Welcome, Norbert.
> > 
> > 
> > > I live on a farm =96 we produce, sell, and buy vegetables, fruits, and
> > > handicrafts.
> > >
> > > [...]
> > > When I now enter something like =93Selling vegetables=94 I can enter the
> > > price under =93Charge/Income=94 into Income. - When I enter something like
> > > =93Buying vegetables=94 I can enter the income under =93Expense/Rebate=94=
> >  into
> > > Expenses (and as a double-entry to Cash, increasing or decreasing).
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > But could I instead set up an account =93Vegetables=94 where I can enter
> > > both BOUGHT Vegetables and SOLD Vegetables? (same for fruits and
> > > handicrafts)
> > 
> > It depends what you want to do.
> > 
> > When you sell vegetables, you are making a transfer from an income
> > account to (probably) a cash or bank account.
> > When you buy vegetables, you are making a transfer from a cash/bank
> > account to an expense account.
> > 
> > So that cash/bank account is a common account where you see both.=A0 If
> > your goal is ease of entry, for example, that one account is the place
> > to do it.
> > 
> > Alternatively, you can construct reports where you see only vegetable
> > income and expense transactions (if you have dedicated expense and
> > income accounts for vegetables).=A0 I'm a bit new to gnucash, and I
> > haven't fully explored the report functions.=A0 But an appropriately
> > filtered income/expense report should be possible.
> > 
> > But maybe that's not what mean.=A0 Maybe you can let us know what need you
> > want to satisfy this way.
> 
> I expect that the OP wants to have an account that represents his stock of
> vegetables (or whatever). He can actually do that. What you do is think of the
> vegetables as a kind of currency or comodity or inventory, that is the
> vegetables themselves are an asset (Assets:vegetables). Then when you sell
> vegetables the vegetable account is redued and when you buy vegetables the
> vegetable account is increased. This happens by transactions which transfer
> "money" from the vegetable account to a bank account (income when you sell
> vegetables) and when you transfer money from a bank account to the vegetable
> account (an expense when you buy vegetables). *I* do this which my inventory
> of thumb drives. GnuCash does not have "inventory" accounts or any way of
> dealing with inventory as such -- the two "features GnuCash lacks are payroll
> and inventory management features. Payroll processing is a huge process (not
> trivial to implement) but inventory management can be "faked" by considering
> inventory as if it were a currency of sorts, by just having an account with a
> balance representing the value of the inventory, which then goes up or down as
> inventory is bought or sold. Since he is a farm, I expect he is growing
> vegetables, so things are slightly more tricky. Maybe it might be useful to
> think of his farm like Bitcoin mining -- maybe someone with that sort of
> experience can describe how to represent a Bitcoin currency and how to
> represent the mining process -- one would do the same with growing vegetables
> somehow.

Here is a "practical" application:

Lets say you buy a case of tomatoes for $10 -- this would be a transaction
from your bank account (for the check you gave the vegetable wholeseller) of
$10 to your Assets:vegetables account. (It is not actually an expense!). Then
you sell that case of tomatoes for $12. This would be a split transaction: $10
from your Assets:vegetables account and $2 to an income account. The $12 would
come from whatever account the $12 was paid into (eg "Cash" if it was a cash
transaction). This brings the Assets:vegetables down to zero (you have no
vegetables in stock right now). At the end of the year you generate a report
showing the Assets:vegetables at the beginning of the year and and the end of
the year. The difference is your "cost of goods sold" -- this is what goes on
your tax form (actually, the form has your inventory at the beginning of the
year, and your inventory at the end of the year, plus whatever you spent to
acquire your inventory during the year, at least that is how the 1040C form
works and I guess theo 1040F is similar).

> 
> > 
> > -- =
> > 
> > 
> > Jeff Abrahamson
> > +33 6 24 40 01 57
> > +44 7920 594 255
> > 
> > http://p27.eu/jeff/
> > 
> > 
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> >                                                                         
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> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
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