Foreign Currency & Month End Amounts

[Dave Peticolas]

kjordan writes:
> Hi,
> 
>    I'm using GnuCash 1.4.1 for my personal finances (such as they are,
> ahem) and I have a few questions.
> 
>    I have bank accounts (and credit cards) in more than one country;
> let's say in Canada and the US.  I often make purchases in the US
> using my Canadian credit cards.  So it seems to me the reasonable
> thing to do is to just set up two `Bank Account' accounts, one in USD
> and one in CAD, and tell GnuCash what the exchange rate is.  Then,
> when I make a purchase in the US in USD using my Canadian card, the
> proper amount in the proper currency should be deducted from the
> proper account, and everything should magically work itself out,
> Right?  The problem is that I can't seem to figure out how to enter an
> exchange rate.  
> 
>    So what I'm doing now is sorta faking it.  My Canadian account is
> listed as being in USD (so, it's like the exchange rate is 1.00).
> Then, when I make a US purchase with my Canadian card, I do a
> double-entry transaction against that credit-card account and the
> appropriate expense account, and then I do an additional `dangling'
> transaction (horrors!) on *just* the credit card account to take care
> of the exchange rate.  This sorta works, but is pretty ugly, right?
> Right.
> 
>    I've read a bit about the foreign currency trading accounts  and
> I've seen boxes that allow me to enter an HTTP URL pointing to a site
> with the exchange information, but my machine really isn't connected
> to the net all that often, and what I really need is just have a
> regular old bank account in several different currencies, with a fixed
> exchange rate that I can set (and change) myself manually.
> 
>    Sooooo, my question is: Am I not seeing how to do this or is this
> not possible (yet)?

It is not possible, yet. Currency accounts are currently very
cumbersome to use and we will be rethinking/redoing the way this
works in the next version.


>    My other question concerns `accounting periods'.  (It's in quotes
> because I don't know if that's a real term or not.  I know nothing of
> accounting, if you really must know.)  Is there a way of resetting
> everything at the end of, say, every month?  What I'd really like is
> to see how much I've spent in each of my expense accounts at the end
> of every month, and maybe even compare month to month expenses. Am I
> also missing how to do this in the current version?

There is no automated way to do this in the current version. This will
be added in either the next stable version or the one after.


>    Another thing I'd really like to do is set objectives on each of my
> expense accounts at the beginning of the month and then see how close
> I come to these objectives by month end (or, more likely, how
> appallingly off I am).  But I read that the `budget' part of GnuCash
> isn't implemented yet.  Is that right?  Is this something that's in
> the works?

Budgeting will most probably be in the next stable release as well.


>    Overall, I'm pretty happy with GnuCash.  (Bravo Guys!)  And I'll
> very likely continue to use it.  (Woo Hoo!)  May you take this
> software to the loftiest heights of wealth, fame, and power and
> finally realize your true destiny to become supreme rulers of the
> universe crushing all that stand before you with the MIGHTY HORNED
> HEAD OF THE GNU!  MUUAAA HAA HAA HAA!  (Umm, that *is* the ultimate
> destiny of GPL-dom, isn't it?)

It is as far as I'm concerned, and thanks!

dave