In my not-for-profit Community Cinema, our assets tend to be small - but I need to track how many I have.
Easy example : a popcorn machine. Registered as an asset, and I know I’ll only have one.
Complex example : wine glasses. I might buy 8 wine glasses in one month. I break two and dispose of them. , and another 10 two months later.
How do I write-off 2 wine glasses, and how do I see I now have (8 - 2 + 10) = 16 wine glasses ?
I could treat everything as inventory which would give me access to those reports … but technically it isn’t inventory.
Again, my apologies for lack of financial / book keeping knowledge !
Accounting practice–and often relevant law–considers fixed assets to be only those items with substantial service life. Typically the cutoff is one year or greater. Many times, a minimum value is also required, which is frequently more closely governed by local tax regulations. But common examples might be $1,000 or $2,500 or their equivalent in local currency.
So your popcorn machine would probably qualify on the basis of its durability, though it might be excluded depending on its value. Wine glasses, because of their fragility and low individual value, would be considered consumable items. The fact that you might count them periodically to make sure you have enough is immaterial. Record that somewhere besides your accounting records. From an accounting perspective, they are no different from a broom you use to sweep up after the show: necessary costs of running the enterprise. Or if you prefer an example in the comestible domain, consider them like paper napkins.
Inventory is definitely not appropriate, since inventory involves materials or products held for sale or production.
If it’s relevant to your organisation to keep track of such items then as an internal management mechanism you could use “Inventory” to monitor items that are countable but aren’t Fixed Assets. If it assists, rename the BS Inventory on Hand account to something else - say Cinema Consumables (CC). If you sell pop corn etc., then they can also be maintained here.
The Inventory Items tab itself can’t be renamed.
To process the 10 glasses invoice - split it over 2 line entries.
Line 1 - P&L Expense 2 glasses
Line 2 - BS CC : Wine Glasses 8 glasses
To account for breakages without an invoice use Journals tab and the Avg Cost values
Debit - P&L Expense
Credit - BS CC : Wine Glasses