What expense category do you assign stock photography purchases too?

[tstesen]

I'm working on my taxes for last year. I'm a graphic designer and I regularly purchase stock photography credits for projects I'm working on. How should these purchases be categorized accounting wise (in QuickBooks)? Stock photographs don't seem to logically fit in any of the current categories. Do I create a new one called "stock photography". To me that doesn't seem right.

Should I be expensing them under expenses -> Cost of Goods Sold because I use them in client projects.

I'm confused.

Maybe some other business owners or graphic designers who purchase stock photos can help me out here.

[borisg]

Yes. Categorize under Cost of Goods Sold if you are using them in client projects and you are passing the cost of the images back to your clients. Basically you are buying them and reselling them...if you want to be specific you can create a sub-category under CoGS called "Stock Photos" just to help jot your memory later.

If the images are to be used by you/your firm to market your services via web or paper collateral then you categorize them as an Expense under Marketing.

[tstesen]

Thanks Boris. That's what I was thinking but I wanted to make sure I was handling it all correctly. Thanks again for your help!