I think the accounting for bitcoin production would be similar to any other manufacturing cost accounting although identifying the component costs may be interesting. If you are running your own hardware to do it then that is one cost, (depreciation, running costs etc) which will more than likely be in a conventional currency. If you are using cloud based facilities then you have the leasing/hire costs, labor costs, indirect costs and overhead costs. Life would be easier if those costs were in bitcoin itself. It would probably be better to set up a bitcoin currency and only convert to a conventional currency on sale or conversion.
In normal cost accounting you would use a Work-in-process Inventory (Asset) Account to accumulate the value any direct costs (materials, labor) and indirect costs (overheads), a debit to that account for the value of the costs over the time period of manufacture. The accounts for the other side of these transactions would be either an Accounts Payable (if purchase is on credit) or a bank account for cash purchases. On completion of the manufacture, this value would be transferred to a Finished-Goods-Inventory(also Asset) account. Any costs in conventional currency would need to be converted either with a conversion value at the time of purchase of production needs (or at the time of sale). Local legislation may affect when and in what form these costs can be recorded. Debit Credit Asset:Work in Progess zzzz Asset:Finished Goods Inventory zzzz At the point of sale there are two transactions Debit Credit Expense:Cost of goods sold xxxx Asset:Finished-goods-Inventory xxxx Asset:bank yyyy income:Sales revenue yyyy The difference between xxxx and yyyy is the markup on the cost or the profit (less any costs associated with sale/trading of the bitcoin). The major difference will be the comparatively short production time for a bitcoin, but there will still be costs which can be assigned to its production as distinct from costs associated with the sale or trading of the bitcoin. The above is also a very abbreviated description of cost accounting for manufacture but does illustrate the basic process behind it. Bitcoin seems to buy and sell largely like a stock so a trading account may be the best choice for an asset account to record the bitcoin inventory. As John mentioned the exact details are going to be determined by the regulations and legislation (usually primarily tax related) applying in your jurisdiction. These may govern what costs can be recognised and when you can recognise costs in your records and what conversion rates may be applied. ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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.