[GNC] How to treat a sale which involves more accounts?

[Chris Miller]

Hi Folks,

Pardon the interruption; I'm breaking into the middle of this conversation, so please forgive me if I misunderstand or repeat something that has already been discussed.

I believe the discussion is recording the acquisition of musical instruments and the occasional sale and how to account for that. I recommend an asset account, "Instruments", with a sub account for each instrument, which records the book value of each instrument. Remember the book value is the cost to acquire and *deploy* an asset, which would also include maintenance, so I would enter splits for "repairs", or "tuning", or "travel" anything else you might do that costs you. When it comes time to sell, you need to write off that asset and calculate the gain or loss on sale and apply that to "income".

Purchase:
Instruments:Flugelhorn			$2,000
Instruments:Expense:Travel		$150
Instruments:Expense:Repair		$50
Instruments:Expense:Maintentance	$25
Visa Card					$2,225



Several years later, add another split
Instruments:Expense:Tune-upTravel	$75
Cash						$75


The above activity is one transaction, that added a split as necessary, and maintained the book value of the instrument, which would now be $2,225 + $75 = $2,300



This is how you would record the sale for $3,500
Cash		$3,500
Flugelhorn		$2,300 (Write off the asset, you no longer own it)
Gain on Sale		$1,200 (credit to income, This could, of course, be a "Loss on Sale" which would debit income.
				If different instruments are taxed differently, then that could appear here, as well, 
				but tax is not typically an expense)


I hope I understood the problem and didn't just make a fool of myself answering a question nobody is asking.
-- 
Chris.