Purchases in a foreign currency

[Derek Atkins]

John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> writes:

> On Apr 6, 2010, at 5:08 PM, Paul A. wrote:
>
>> 
>> I more or less understand how GnuCash handles accounts in different
>> currencies, but I still wonder how to handle individual transactions in
>> different currencies.  My Visa account is denominated in USD, and I want to
>> keep it that way.  If I travel to France, say, and pay for a hotel bill with
>> my Visa card, I know what I paid in euros.  But is there any easy way to
>> enter that transaction in USD?
>> 
>> An extra complication: exchange rates vary with time, so I need the exchange
>> rate at the time of the transaction, not as of today.  Can GnuCash help me
>> with that?
>
> Be patient and wait till your credit card transactions are posted to
> the CC company's website, then import them. The exchange rate they use
> will be either (at best) the one in effect at the time the transaction
> is presented to them or (more likely) one that they pick for their own
> reasons. In either case there's no chance that you'll be able to guess
> what it is in advance.

This is pretty much what I do.  I enter the transaction with a guess of
the exchange rate, put the foreign amount in the description with '???',
and then when the txn hits my credit card account I put in the correct
amount (and remove the ???).

E.g., I'll put in my txn:

2/3/10  Tokyo Sushi (¥2345) ???        23.45

And then correct it when I find the actual amount.

> Regards,
> John Ralls

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available