I am trying to create my business plan and am not sure where/how to account for the trailer. If I am opening a mobile workshop in a 6'x12' trailer that has no motor but will be towed by a car, what bookkeeping/accounting category(ies) heading(s) would be created/affected by purchase of said trailer for start up costs, and also for the ongoing expenses of maintenance/depreciation/other afterwards, please? Thank you in advance for your help in clearing this up for me.

Elf

It's a fixed asset, so just call it Trailer and debit it for its cost. The trailer isn't a start-up cost. Even during the start-up period, you can buy fixed assets that will be used as normal in the operations of your business and these are still recorded as fixed assets.

Ongoing maintenance will be expensed as incurred.

Depreciation - depends on how you want to depreciate it, and I also don't know the rules for Canada. If this is just a small company, you may not need to follow the "official" rules (i.e. like GAAP in U.S. - I don't know what it's called in Canada), and then you might want to follow tax rules instead just to make it easy. Don't know that we have any Canadians on this particular board - used to but he hasn't been around for a while. (I thought he told me they were now calling it Amortization up there.)