The first question I’d ask is where does that money collected from the Etsy 
sale go?
Does it get auto-deposited into a bank account, or do you have to transfer it 
manually? (like Paypal)

Let’s assume it’s auto-deposited. (more like a regular merchant account with a 
credit card company)

To keep some sanity, I’d also rename the parent top level ‘Income’ account to 
‘Revenue.’ Or you could add a separate top-level Revenue account as type Income 
and only put business data there. (draws or payments to your wife from the 
business would translate to a personal Income account in that case)

I’ll also for simplicity assume a product cost of $5.00.


Here’s how I’d record that transaction:


Dr. Assets:Business:Current Assets:Bank         $16.32
Dr. Expenses:Business:Fees:Etsy Sale Fees       $  .76
Dr. Expenses:Business:Cost of Goods Sold        $ 5.00
        Cr. Revenue:Sales:Product                       $10.00
        Cr. Revenue:Shipping                            $ 6.65
        Cr. Liability:Business:Sales Tax Payable        $ 0.43
        Cr. Assets:Current Assets:Business:Inventory    $ 5.00

This shows you charged the customer $17.08.

Of that, $16.32 went into your business bank account, and 76¢ was retained by 
Etsy as a selling fee. (an expense)

The total sale was based on a $10 product, $6.65 shipping fee, and you 
collected Sales Tax on behalf of the government of 43¢.

Sales Tax is NOT income. It is money you collect in-trust for someone else. It 
was never yours.
Accumulate what you collect into a Sales Tax Payable liability account. When 
you make your payments (likely monthly) to the local jurisdictions, you balance 
that between your bank account and the Sales Tax Payable account. Sales Tax is 
NOT a business expense.

I’m also making the assumption that you charge for shipping, but pay the 
carrier separately. (perhaps weekly or monthly, even one at a time to the Post 
Office) If Etsy handles order fulfillment that’s a different story and requires 
a different approach. You could possibly treat this as a liability-payable 
similar to sales tax if the amount is calculated in real time and you know that 
is the actual shipping cost. But if you’re doing a separate shipping charge but 
might pay more or less to the carrier when actually sending it, you need to 
handle that money as revenue. (note, I help some small businesses with their 
e-commerce sites and they NEVER pay exactly what was calculated even in real 
time for shipping. The carriers always have a discrepancy)


When you pay the shipping carrier enter this transaction:

Dr. Expenses:Business:Postage
        Cr. Assets:Current Assets:Bank-Business 

An Income Statement after that one transaction and you paying the shipping 
carrier, using only business accounts would look like this:

        Revenue
                Sales:Product           $10.00
                Shipping                $ 6.65
                                        ======
        Total Revenue                   $16.65

        Cost of Goods Sold              $ 5.00

        Gross Revenue                   $11.65

        Expenses
                Fees:Etsy Sale Fees     $  .76
                Postage                 $ 6.65
                                        ======
        Total Expenses                  $ 7.41

                                        ======
        Taxable Income                  $ 4.24


Notice that Sales Tax appears no where on that statement. It is neither 
income/revenue nor an expense. It is merely pass-through money. (but the 
payable will show up on your Balance Sheet if the account is not zero when you 
run the report)

Assuming you started with only that one product in inventory and no cash on 
hand with no other liabilities, here’s what the Balance Sheet would look like 
after that sale, after paying the shipping carrier, but before remitting the 
sale tax to the government:

        Assets
                Business:Bank           $ 9.67
                Inventory               $ 0.00
                                        ======
        Total Assets                    $ 9.67

        Liabilities
                Sales Tax Payable       $  .43

        Equity
                Owner’s Equity          $ 9.24
                                        ======
        Total Liabilities & Equity      $ 9.67



Regards,
Adrien

> On Jan 15, 2018, at 2:35 PM, sszd <sszdk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/file/t377851/Sale_Sample_3.png

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