Hi Richard and thanks for replying. I do already have a "Income:Music Equipment Sales CHF" account, but perhaps I don't think it's correct to add a "decrease" in that account of CHF 32.- (which is the loss I suffered). Probably it's a matter of perspective... I could create a separate "Expenses:Music Equipment Sales Loss CHF" and put that amount in there? But in the latter case, it would be a positive number, whereas I think it really is a negative number (loss) - and therefore it would still be the best thing to put it in the "Income:Music Equipment Sales CHF" as a negative entry?!
TIA, F. https://www.instagram.com/boniforti_music https://soundcloud.com/boniforti_music https://bonny-j.bandcamp.com Am Mo., 16. Juni 2025 um 19:23 Uhr schrieb R Losey <[email protected]>: > > > 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 > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
