@flanRan8 , having read through your post and those of @Critter-3 and @Carl , I am even more confused. what all the noise is about.
Cash method implies you book things only when you have paid and when you have received .
In the accrual method you book items ( expense and income ) when orders accepted and/or delivered . So you carry a Payable and Receivable book in addition to Paid and Received books. Thus if you received material on 12/20/2021, you will book the expense in the book as completed in 2021 even though you have not paid this till 01/01/2022. There are advantages / disadvantages/ reasons for this -- sometimes you even have to carry reserves on the books for this kind of situations.
On inventory , for most small businesses, you buy, you pay and book the cost. You compute your cost of Goods on a rolling basis i.e. average over the whole year ( the easiest way ) -- take inventory at the start ( which includes left-over from the year before and you take the same again at the end of the year -- thus giving you an average cost of each item you sell during the year.
So where is the confusion here ? What am I missing here. It is still cash basis ( you pay , you book )
IMHO
