When I view accounting tutorials or articles online, they seem vague and unrelatable to me because they are presented from the perspective of a large business already in operation.
I am looking for a book (preferably free or low cost and preferably digital) or online course that presents accounting topics / principles starting from the the perspective of an individual selling a few goods here and there and expanding to one owning a large company, so that one can learn as the business grows.
Here are some examples / scenarios that I am interested in:
You bought 3 pencils. They cost $0.50 each. The sales tax was 10% each, so your total cost is $0.55 each per pencil. The $1.50 (excluding taxes) / $1.65 (with taxes) total you spent on these three pencils is called ..... You sold 2 pencils at $1.00 each. The $2.00 you made in total is called ... The profit you made is ... obtained by subtracting the amount you paid for the goods minus the amount sold. The one pencil you haven't been able to sell or that you can't sell because it broke is called ... If it's another type of item, like a vehicle, to address depreciation and something perishable, like milk, to address those topics.
Here is another scenario I am very interested in at the moment because I don't want to have too much money tied up in things that are not selling or get too caught up in purchasing too many items to sell and selling them at a slow rate, thereby having a large amount of money tied up in inventory, but at the same time, if I sold a few items that gained a lot of profit and have lots of items that didn't cost much or won't gain much of a profit, for me to not be too concerned with the quantity but rather the value (i.e. 500 of something in inventory, but each one only cost $0.10). So, let's say I bought more items to sell and have spent $100 on merchandise. After a few weeks, I sold 2 of those items at $25 each and made $30 in profit ($15 each). Assuming the two items sold cost $10.00 each and I didn't buy any more items to sell, I now have $80 in merchandise sitting to be sold. Since I made $30 profit, I can say I have $50 that I am still out of (-80 + 30), and that if I sold more items to the point where I have for example $40 in inventory cost and $40 in profit, while I still have $40 in inventory, I could say that if that remaining $40 in stuff never sells that I broke even (-$40 in goods + $40 in profit = 0). This is of course not factoring in things like my time spent in obtaining the goods, listing them online for sale, packing the items, and so on.
Anyhow, I am looking for something that starts really, really basic, with an individual purchasing some items, storing them in his home, selling them online, and then taking it further and further--i.e. one purchasing a container full of goods, in which there are freight charges, which I suppose one way to share the cost would be to allocate it evenly or somehow proportionally to all the items in the container (i.e. $200 freight / 20 items, means adding $10 in additional cost to each item), one paying family members, friends, employees to assist, one purchasing an office / storage unit, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help.
P.S. Also, any software recommendations, other than Excel, for recording the above: quantity and value of inventory sold, remaining to be sold and never sold -- broke or doesn't work, discarded, expired, donated or given away -- amount of funds remaining to spend on more inventory if a specific starting amount was entered, and so on.
I am looking for a book (preferably free or low cost and preferably digital) or online course that presents accounting topics / principles starting from the the perspective of an individual selling a few goods here and there and expanding to one owning a large company, so that one can learn as the business grows.
Here are some examples / scenarios that I am interested in:
You bought 3 pencils. They cost $0.50 each. The sales tax was 10% each, so your total cost is $0.55 each per pencil. The $1.50 (excluding taxes) / $1.65 (with taxes) total you spent on these three pencils is called ..... You sold 2 pencils at $1.00 each. The $2.00 you made in total is called ... The profit you made is ... obtained by subtracting the amount you paid for the goods minus the amount sold. The one pencil you haven't been able to sell or that you can't sell because it broke is called ... If it's another type of item, like a vehicle, to address depreciation and something perishable, like milk, to address those topics.
Here is another scenario I am very interested in at the moment because I don't want to have too much money tied up in things that are not selling or get too caught up in purchasing too many items to sell and selling them at a slow rate, thereby having a large amount of money tied up in inventory, but at the same time, if I sold a few items that gained a lot of profit and have lots of items that didn't cost much or won't gain much of a profit, for me to not be too concerned with the quantity but rather the value (i.e. 500 of something in inventory, but each one only cost $0.10). So, let's say I bought more items to sell and have spent $100 on merchandise. After a few weeks, I sold 2 of those items at $25 each and made $30 in profit ($15 each). Assuming the two items sold cost $10.00 each and I didn't buy any more items to sell, I now have $80 in merchandise sitting to be sold. Since I made $30 profit, I can say I have $50 that I am still out of (-80 + 30), and that if I sold more items to the point where I have for example $40 in inventory cost and $40 in profit, while I still have $40 in inventory, I could say that if that remaining $40 in stuff never sells that I broke even (-$40 in goods + $40 in profit = 0). This is of course not factoring in things like my time spent in obtaining the goods, listing them online for sale, packing the items, and so on.
Anyhow, I am looking for something that starts really, really basic, with an individual purchasing some items, storing them in his home, selling them online, and then taking it further and further--i.e. one purchasing a container full of goods, in which there are freight charges, which I suppose one way to share the cost would be to allocate it evenly or somehow proportionally to all the items in the container (i.e. $200 freight / 20 items, means adding $10 in additional cost to each item), one paying family members, friends, employees to assist, one purchasing an office / storage unit, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help.
P.S. Also, any software recommendations, other than Excel, for recording the above: quantity and value of inventory sold, remaining to be sold and never sold -- broke or doesn't work, discarded, expired, donated or given away -- amount of funds remaining to spend on more inventory if a specific starting amount was entered, and so on.