Inventory
In accounting, inventory means goods held for sale, or being made for sale, carried as an asset at cost until sold — when the cost moves to cost of revenue.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Nearby
- 4
Authority
This definition follows ASC 330.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
The lesson that teaches this
Accounting, 0 to 1 — a free course taught end to end on one month of one company, with the spreadsheet exercises to work it yourself.
Inventory, in use
Quoted from the 3 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
Prepaids, accruals, deferred revenue, fixed assets, intangibles, leases, equity, allowances, and inventory reserves are all this shape.
Schedules, accruals & roll-forwards — 1. The universal roll-forward
Unrealized profit in inventory — goods sold intercompany and still on hand — must be eliminated too.
Item lines participate in three-way match and inventory; expense lines do not.
Ledger APIs: Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite — The differences
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- Sales tax nexus for startups: when you owe tax in a stateSince Wayfair, selling into a state can create a sales tax obligation. How economic nexus works, why SaaS is taxable in some states and when to register.
- Registering in a new state: remote hires and nexusA remote hire or nexus in a new state means foreign qualification, payroll tax accounts and maybe a sales tax permit. What to register, in what order.
- Startup tax deadlines by month for a C-corpFederal tax deadlines for a calendar-year C-corp, month by month: W-2s, 1099s, Form 941, Form 1120, estimated taxes and Delaware franchise tax.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- stock in US copy
Nearby in the catalog
No component names this concept outright. These are the ones in its part of the system, which is a weaker claim — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Terms this one depends on
- Cost of revenueThe direct costs of producing the goods or delivering the services sold in the period — the line gross profit is measured after
- RevenueInflows or other enhancements of assets, or settlements of liabilities, from delivering or producing goods, rendering services or carrying out other activities — recognized when control transfers, not when cash arrives
- AssetA present right of the entity to an economic benefit (FASB CON 8 ¶E16)
Also in Statements
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.