Re: inventory management examples or links

[Adrien Monteleone]

Matt,

Perhaps you are misunderstanding.

I’m not describing any integration between inventory and Gnucash.

Gnucash is an accounting application.

It can handle lots of situations without special features.

Inventory is just one of them.

Anything I’ve posted is just a regurgitation of accounting texts, either in 
print or online.

A simple search would turn up the same sample transactions and suggested 
accounts.

While it would be nice if Gnucash gave some direction in some areas, I see why 
pointing anyone in any one in particular direction could be a problem.

Accounting laws are different based on your business entity arrangement and 
local jurisdiction.

Gnucash is general enough to be flexible to allow you to accomplish your task. 
It is not designed to adhere to any particular set of laws.

It’s probably best if basic accounting questions were posed to the web search 
engines, or better yet, a local CPA.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Feb 13, 2018, at 3:20 PM, Matt Graham <matt_graham2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Inventory_Handling
>  
> This issue must have come up before. The wiki could ideally use some 
> discussion about separation of inventory and accounting systems. I imagine 
> for a small business that just wants to keep track of a few things they would 
> want them both integrated (but then later realise that they really need them 
> separate – unless GNUcash wants to branch into both worlds).
>  
> I didn’t find anything in the tutorials and concepts guide under the business 
> features – but unless Gnucash is going to get an “inventory” capability, 
> that’s probably okay.
>  
> Adrien – do you have time to put your example on the wiki of how to integrate 
> inventory systems with GNUcash’s accounting?
>  
> Thanks and regards,
> 
> Matt
>  
> From: Adrien Monteleone
> Sent: Tuesday, 13 February 2018 10:11 PM
> To: Bert Heijne
> Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: inventory management examples or links
>  
> Bert,
> 
> I posted some more replies in the original thread containing various 
> inventory related transaction examples and suggested accounts.
> 
> Let me know if you need anything specific that isn’t covered and I’ll see 
> what I can do.
> 
> Really, these are just basic accounting entries for a retail business that 
> you can find in any standard accounting text book, or online.
> 
> There’s nothing special about them with regards to Gnucash.
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> > On Feb 12, 2018, at 6:25 AM, Bert Heijne <berthei...@outlook.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Hello All.
> > 
> > This is a nice treat about Inventory but are there some “real examples”  or 
> > “ putting it all together”  of gnucash for Inventory or stock of goods 
> > management?
> > And how this is covered with the invoice.
> > I now that gnu cash is not build for that but small stock would be nice
> > Woocommerce webshop is in construction so this will be covered mostly by WC.
> > 
> > Would be nice to see some real samples in gnucash to study.
> > Any links or G search links  would be nice
> > 
> > Gr. Bert
> > 
> > Verzonden met Windows Mail
> > 
> > Van: Robert Heller<mailto:hel...@deepsoft.com>
> > Verzonden: ‎zondag‎ ‎11‎ ‎februari‎ ‎2018 ‎17‎:‎15
> > Aan: stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com<mailto:stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com>
> > CC: gnucash-user@gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
> > 
> > At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 10:55:58 -0500 stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com wrote:
> > 
> >> 
> >> On 2/11/2018 9:03 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
> >>> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 08:15:56 +0100 Jeff Abrahamson <j...@p27.eu> wrote:
> >>> ... 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
> >> Inventory MANAGEMENT is something else (gnucash lacks this but that
> >> belongs in an inventory system*, not "general ledger".
> > 
> > Yes, I understand.
> > 
> >> 
> >> But you are saying that gnucash does not support inventory value and
> >> cost accounting and that is simply not so.
> > 
> > Only in the sense of not specificly labeling things as "inventory value and
> > cost accounting". You are right, one can use gnuca

RE: inventory management examples or links

[Matt Graham]

https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Inventory_Handling

This issue must have come up before. The wiki could ideally use some discussion 
about separation of inventory and accounting systems. I imagine for a small 
business that just wants to keep track of a few things they would want them 
both integrated (but then later realise that they really need them separate – 
unless GNUcash wants to branch into both worlds).

I didn’t find anything in the tutorials and concepts guide under the business 
features – but unless Gnucash is going to get an “inventory” capability, that’s 
probably okay.

Adrien – do you have time to put your example on the wiki of how to integrate 
inventory systems with GNUcash’s accounting?

Thanks and regards,

Matt

From: Adrien Monteleone<mailto:adrien.montele...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 13 February 2018 10:11 PM
To: Bert Heijne<mailto:berthei...@outlook.com>
Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
Subject: Re: inventory management examples or links

Bert,

I posted some more replies in the original thread containing various inventory 
related transaction examples and suggested accounts.

Let me know if you need anything specific that isn’t covered and I’ll see what 
I can do.

Really, these are just basic accounting entries for a retail business that you 
can find in any standard accounting text book, or online.

There’s nothing special about them with regards to Gnucash.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Feb 12, 2018, at 6:25 AM, Bert Heijne <berthei...@outlook.com> wrote:
>
> Hello All.
>
> This is a nice treat about Inventory but are there some “real examples”  or “ 
> putting it all together”  of gnucash for Inventory or stock of goods 
> management?
> And how this is covered with the invoice.
> I now that gnu cash is not build for that but small stock would be nice
> Woocommerce webshop is in construction so this will be covered mostly by WC.
>
> Would be nice to see some real samples in gnucash to study.
> Any links or G search links  would be nice
>
> Gr. Bert
>
> Verzonden met Windows Mail
>
> Van: Robert Heller<mailto:hel...@deepsoft.com>
> Verzonden: ‎zondag‎ ‎11‎ ‎februari‎ ‎2018 ‎17‎:‎15
> Aan: stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com<mailto:stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com>
> CC: gnucash-user@gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
>
> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 10:55:58 -0500 stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com wrote:
>
>>
>> On 2/11/2018 9:03 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 08:15:56 +0100 Jeff Abrahamson <j...@p27.eu> wrote:
>>> ... 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
>> Inventory MANAGEMENT is something else (gnucash lacks this but that
>> belongs in an inventory system*, not "general ledger".
>
> Yes, I understand.
>
>>
>> But you are saying that gnucash does not support inventory value and
>> cost accounting and that is simply not so.
>
> Only in the sense of not specificly labeling things as "inventory value and
> cost accounting". You are right, one can use gnucash to "manage" inventory
> value and cost accounting. From the point of a newbie, there isn't a specific
> menu of things relating to inventory value and cost accounting, so there is
> the *appearence* of a of lack of support for inventory. My intent was to point
> the OP in "right direction", one that is not obvious. Inventory value and cost
> accounting is handled in GnuCash under "other names" -- it is a matter of
> understanding that inventory is really a kind of asset (that is bought and
> sold) and can (should) be treated as such, at which point all of pieces fall
> into place. The OP wanted to treat his inventory as income or expense and that
> what was confusing (to him).
>
>>
>> Let's say incidental to its main activity an organization sells various
>> things (tee shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) as a fund raiser. You create
>> under Assets (after "current assets" and "fixed assets") a parent
>> "Inventory of goods". Under that might be accounts (more likely also
>> parents as batches of goods might have different basis) for "tee
>> shirts", "coffee mugs", etc. When the organization buys a new batch of
>> tee shirts that is a debit to "tee shirts" (or as I mentioned, perhaps
>> "tee shirts batch 4" 

Re: inventory management examples or links

[Adrien Monteleone]

Gnucash can easily track inventory valuations. You can set up asset accounts 
for various needed inventory categories as desired and expense accounts for 
Costs of Goods Sold, Damaged/Spoiled inventory, Free Samples, etc.

What it cannot do with ease, is track quantities on hand. That really should be 
handled by separate inventory management software. Even most ‘integrated 
packages’ keep the accounting and inventory management functions separate. 
Technically even in Quickbooks, these are separate modules. One of my clients 
used to use QB for inventory management and it was a pain. The functionality is 
very limited and the reporting quite basic. My first job for them was sourcing 
and installing proper inventory (and Point of Sale) software for their industry.

Most integrated packages are also not very good at the type of proper 
analytical reporting needed for proper inventory management. If your stock 
offerings are that simple, just use a spreadsheet.

If you’re using Woocommerce, there are plenty of inventory management plugins 
available. They should all be able to print/export activity reports which you 
can use to enter valuation transactions such as Cost of Goods Sold and 
Purchases.

(there are also some advanced reporting plugins for Woo that allow you to enter 
costs for products and get a COGS column on your sales reports that you can use 
in whatever your accounting software might be)

If you are really adventurous I’ve seen a few threads on here about abusing the 
stock/fund account types to fit a square peg into the proverbial round hole, 
but after reading them over, the amount of time it would take and still not get 
a proper inventory management system, to me, is just not worth the hassle.

Regards,
Adrien

> On Feb 12, 2018, at 6:25 AM, Bert Heijne  wrote:
> 
> Hello All.
> 
> This is a nice treat about Inventory but are there some “real examples”  or “ 
> putting it all together”  of gnucash for Inventory or stock of goods 
> management?
> And how this is covered with the invoice.
> I now that gnu cash is not build for that but small stock would be nice
> Woocommerce webshop is in construction so this will be covered mostly by WC.
> 
> Would be nice to see some real samples in gnucash to study.
> Any links or G search links  would be nice
> 
> Gr. Bert
> 
> Verzonden met Windows Mail
> 
> Van: Robert Heller
> Verzonden: ‎zondag‎ ‎11‎ ‎februari‎ ‎2018 ‎17‎:‎15
> Aan: stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com
> CC: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
> 
> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 10:55:58 -0500 stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On 2/11/2018 9:03 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 08:15:56 +0100 Jeff Abrahamson  wrote:
>>> ... 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
>> Inventory MANAGEMENT is something else (gnucash lacks this but that
>> belongs in an inventory system*, not "general ledger".
> 
> Yes, I understand.
> 
>> 
>> But you are saying that gnucash does not support inventory value and
>> cost accounting and that is simply not so.
> 
> Only in the sense of not specificly labeling things as "inventory value and
> cost accounting". You are right, one can use gnucash to "manage" inventory
> value and cost accounting. From the point of a newbie, there isn't a specific
> menu of things relating to inventory value and cost accounting, so there is
> the *appearence* of a of lack of support for inventory. My intent was to point
> the OP in "right direction", one that is not obvious. Inventory value and cost
> accounting is handled in GnuCash under "other names" -- it is a matter of
> understanding that inventory is really a kind of asset (that is bought and
> sold) and can (should) be treated as such, at which point all of pieces fall
> into place. The OP wanted to treat his inventory as income or expense and that
> what was confusing (to him).
> 
>> 
>> Let's say incidental to its main activity an organization sells various
>> things (tee shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) as a fund raiser. You create
>> under Assets (after "current assets" and "fixed assets") a parent
>> "Inventory of goods". Under that might be accounts (more likely also
>> parents as batches of goods might have different basis) for "tee
>> shirts", "coffee mugs", etc. When the organization buys a new batch of
>> tee shirts that is a debit to "tee shirts" (or as I mentioned, perhaps
>> "tee shirts batch 4" --- the account description can include what the
>> unit price was for this batch) and a credit to checking << note: we get
>> confused using the supposedly more 

Re: inventory management examples or links

[Rick Copple]

I have an inventory of books I keep on a spreadsheet. I've designed the 
spreadsheet to give me an average cost that I can then plug into gnucash.  Do 
you want a screenshot of my inventory account? I could probably get to that 
this afternoon central time.

Rick Copple

On Feb 12, 2018, 6:26 AM, at 6:26 AM, Bert Heijne  
wrote:
>Hello All.
>
>This is a nice treat about Inventory but are there some “real examples”
>or “ putting it all together”  of gnucash for Inventory or stock of
>goods management?
>And how this is covered with the invoice.
>I now that gnu cash is not build for that but small stock would be nice
>Woocommerce webshop is in construction so this will be covered mostly
>by WC.
>
>Would be nice to see some real samples in gnucash to study.
>Any links or G search links  would be nice
>
>Gr. Bert
>
>Verzonden met Windows Mail
>
>Van: Robert Heller
>Verzonden: ‎zondag‎ ‎11‎ ‎februari‎ ‎2018 ‎17‎:‎15
>Aan:
>stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com
>CC: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
>
>At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 10:55:58 -0500 stepbystepf...@dialup4less.com
>wrote:
>
>>
>> On 2/11/2018 9:03 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
>> > At Sun, 11 Feb 2018 08:15:56 +0100 Jeff Abrahamson 
>wrote:
>> > ... 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
>> Inventory MANAGEMENT is something else (gnucash lacks this but that
>> belongs in an inventory system*, not "general ledger".
>
>Yes, I understand.
>
>>
>> But you are saying that gnucash does not support inventory value and
>> cost accounting and that is simply not so.
>
>Only in the sense of not specificly labeling things as "inventory value
>and
>cost accounting". You are right, one can use gnucash to "manage"
>inventory
>value and cost accounting. From the point of a newbie, there isn't a
>specific
>menu of things relating to inventory value and cost accounting, so
>there is
>the *appearence* of a of lack of support for inventory. My intent was
>to point
>the OP in "right direction", one that is not obvious. Inventory value
>and cost
>accounting is handled in GnuCash under "other names" -- it is a matter
>of
>understanding that inventory is really a kind of asset (that is bought
>and
>sold) and can (should) be treated as such, at which point all of pieces
>fall
>into place. The OP wanted to treat his inventory as income or expense
>and that
>what was confusing (to him).
>
>>
>> Let's say incidental to its main activity an organization sells
>various
>> things (tee shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) as a fund raiser. You create
>> under Assets (after "current assets" and "fixed assets") a parent
>> "Inventory of goods". Under that might be accounts (more likely also
>> parents as batches of goods might have different basis) for "tee
>> shirts", "coffee mugs", etc. When the organization buys a new batch
>of
>> tee shirts that is a debit to "tee shirts" (or as I mentioned,
>perhaps
>> "tee shirts batch 4" --- the account description can include what the
>> unit price was for this batch) and a credit to checking << note: we
>get
>> confused using the supposedly more user friendly terms worrying about
>> what sort of "transfer" this is). Each sale of a tee shirt not only
>> debits cash and credits "sale of tee shirts" for the sale price but
>also
>> debits "cost of goods sold" and credits the inventory account "tee
>> shirts batch N" for the unit cost of batch N << going to be a policy
>> decision whether to simply use FIFO or to actually worry about from
>> which batch that shirt came. Maybe BOTH come into play. To use your
>> example, thumb drives, you might have 8 Gb drives (batches of those)
>and
>> 16 Gb drives (batches of those) so you might want under "thumb
>drives"
>> children "8 Gb drives" and "16 Gb drives" and under each of those
>"batch
>> 1, batch2, etc. and use FIFO there >>
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael D Novack
>>
>> * The data kept here things like "number on hand", "physical location
>> where shelved", "reorder point", etc.
>> ___
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>>
>
>--
>Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
>Deepwoods Software-- Custom Software Services
>http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux