How to Buy and Sell a Unique and Valuable Item?

Q:

I’m trying to account for a sale of goods to a single customer on a single invoice, of all of the goods received from a single vendor, on a single bill, at the exact same price as it cost. The sale can be dated on the same day as the purchase.

I think that I should create an item called “Pass-through Goods” and receive several pieces of jewelry from the vendor as this item, each piece on its own line with its own description and cost. I think that I want to then sell all of these pass-through goods to the customer in the same fashion – each on its own line with its own description and cost.

Should I make the “Pass-through Goods” item an inventory parts or non-inventory part? More importantly, does this make sense? Is there a better way of handling this?

A:

Assuming, as you say, that the purchase and sale happen during the same period, you could use a non-inventory part – WITH THE “This item is used in…” CHECKBOX SELECTED. Then you’d select the income and expense accounts for that item. I think this approach is reasonable, but your income and expenses will match only, as you say, if the bill and invoice are dated in the same period.

(Selecting this checkbox is very important as it allows you choose an Income and Expense account for a single item. If you didn’t check the box, you’d have to set up an item to be purchased and a a separate item to be sold because you can only select one account when the box is not checked.)