On Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM Boniforti Flavio <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I've got a collection of (vintage) music instruments - I have an account
> for each item, where I put the money I've spent to buy such items. Each
> item is a sub-account of a super-account "Instrument collection" - and I
> got 2 of them: one in CHF and the other in EUR.
> I've also got different bank accounts for CHF and EUR of course.
>
> Let's pick this example, where I'm struggling to put the numbers in the
> correct accounts:
> - Item ABC, sub-account of the CHF "instrument collection", bought for CHF
> 79.- (which I've entered as "opening balance");
> - selling this item in EUR, therefore I've received money to increase my
> EUR checking account;
> - no shipping costs involved this time (the intermediary took 57 Euros from
> the buyer and sent me 50 Euros, the other 7 Euros were already used by the
> intermediary to buy and send me a shipping label).
>
> Now the question is: how should I correctly enter all the different
> transactions? My approach would've been:
> - increase my EUR checking account of 50 Euros - the corresponding account
> would be "item ABC";
> - at this point the account "item ABC" still shows a positive value - which
> cannot be true as I've sold it, so it's not anymore in my possession. How
> do I register this loss?
>
I remember your post from last year; I'm only going to attempt an answer to
the first case in this email.
I assume that item ABC, purchased in CHF is listed in CHF. When you sold
it, presumably it lowered the item ABC balance. However, because you sold
in EUR, how did you mark that in item ABC? Did you convert EUR to CHF for
the date of the sale, and then use that number?
(Assuming that you converted EUR to CHF), you'll want to move the remaining
balance to either an Income account called something like "Instrument Gain"
or an Expense account called "Instrument Loss". Personally, I favor the
Income account, os I would think that it would be more usual to sell the
instruments for gain. Of course, you could have one of each and put the
gains in one and the losses in another. (If I were doing it, I'd have a
single Income account; however, you might need one in CHF and one in EUR,
if instruments have been purchased under both currencies).
So, using your numbers above (and looking up current exchange rates and
simplifying for example), I'd enter
Increase EUR checking by 50 EUR
Decrease Item ABC by 47 CHF [about what 50 EUR is - you should use
the real value; I'm using this for the example]
Decrease item ABC by 32 CHF [the remaining value]
Record a loss (decrease, I Think) in the Income account "Instrument
Gain" by 32 CHF
That should leave you with zero value for item ABC (which you could now
"hide" the account so you don't see it).
Note that you could merely enter ONE entry into item ABC, decreasing by 79
(the total value), but I did the above in two entries to (hopefully) make
it clearer.
I seem to remember from your earlier post that you are not concerned with
tax consequences of the sale, so I that didn't influence my thinking.
I hope this helps you.
--
_________________________________
Richard Losey
[email protected]
Micah 6:8
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