Invoicing/billing in foreign currency.

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting Wouter van Marle <wouter at squirrel-systems.com>:

>> 1.8 did this, too.  The business features are not multi-currency.
>
> In 1.8 (.10 I think) I was using this function a lot. I at this 
> moment HAVE bills and invoices in EUR, USD and HKD.
>
> Posted of course in EUR, USD and HKD A/R resp. A/P accounts.

It may have APPEARED to work, but it didn't.  The numbers were all
wrong.  Let's say you used an HKD Income account and a EUR A/R
account -- the numbers would be the same.  It wouldn't handle
exchanges.  So you would get a transaction that said, effectively,

      100 HKD
               100 EUR

Which is just wrong.

> That's what I mean with "it worked". I've been using this function 
> for several years now with dozens of bills, and save some workarounds 
> it worked quite nicely. Now it doesn't work anymore. So please don't 
> tell me 1.8 can't do what I did. It did, I was quite happy with it, 
> and now I'm doing exactly the same with exactly the same data and it 
> doesn't work anymore.

The behavior is 2.0 just makes it more clear that it's doing the wrong
thing most of the time.  The difference is that the Engine functionalty
in 2.0 changed to be more strict about what it would accept in terms
of setting Split values.

> Existing, posted bills and invoices are there. With the correct 
> amounts. And show up nicely and (afaict) correctly in the reports in 
> 2.x.

I disbelieve that they are correct.

>>> It's a complete show-stopper, this issue. NO idea what I'm doing wrong;
>>> I changed the default currency for the vendor already, and for the rest
>>> doing everything like I used to do in 1.8. Even unposting and reposting
>>> a bill results in the amount being empty!
>>
>> What you're doing wrong is not using the same currency.  For every
>> currency you do business you need an A/R account, an Income Account,
>> and an Asset (Bank) account in that currency.
>
> All this I have in place already, as said, it worked in 1.8 and I'm 
> still using the same data (of course). So there's an obvious 
> programming difference between 1.8 and 2.x here.

True.  2.0 is more strict about enforcing currency equivalence.

> In 1.8, if I posted a bill of EUR 1000 in a HKD A/P account, it would 
> end up as HKD 1000 in that account. Nasty, but manageable. I just had 
> to make sure to post it in a EUR denominated A/P account. The counter 
> account is of course also denominated in EUR.

"Nasty" is the right word for it.  And that's what it's not letting
you do now..  Or rather, it is still LETTING you do it, but the posted
transaction isn't correct as a result of the disconnect.

> In 2.x, if I post a bill of EUR 1000 in a EUR A/P account, against a 
> EUR expenses account, then it shows up, but with empty amount! And 
> that's the problem here. When posting a bill by the way it also often 
> automatically adds a "payment forward" - a payment from the A/P to 
> the same A/P account (I see two lines), with again empty totals.

HUH?  I disbelieve that!!!  If you have a EUR bill against a EUR Expense
Account posted to a EUR A/P, it should work just fine!!
What's the "currency" setting for your Vendor?

> Wouter.

-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
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