Final answer:
Goods available for sale can be calculated by adding beginning inventory to purchases. Another, less common method involves adding ending inventory to sales, although it is not typically used in practice for this purpose.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the goods available for sale, there are two main formulas one can use. The first method is to add the beginning inventory to the purchases made during the period. This provides the total amount of goods that were available for sale before sales are subtracted. An example of this formula would be if a company starts with $20,000 in inventory and purchases an additional $10,000 during the period, the goods available for sale would be $30,000.
The second method involves the calculation of the ending inventory plus sales during the period. However, this method is not commonly used to calculate goods available for sale as it does not provide an accurate picture before the sales are made. Typically, the ending inventory figure is used to determine the cost of goods sold during the period when subtracted from the goods available for sale and not to calculate goods available for sale itself.