Trial balance with currency exchange (was: gnucash-user Digest, Vol 51, Issue 25)

Daniel daniel.carrera at zmsl.com
Thu Jun 21 15:15:35 EDT 2007


Bottom-posting...

Carlo Marinoni wrote:
>> Daniel <daniel.carrera at zmsl.com> writes:
>>> Oh, here is another thought: I deal with more than one currency. Could 
>>> that be the problem? ...
>>> ...
>>> If I have income and expenses in more than one currency, I guess 
>>> currency fluctuations could ruin the trial balance.
>>>
>>> Do you think this might be the problem?
>> Yes, it could be!
>>
>> -derek
>> ...
> 
> It surely is; I had the same problem, with EUR and GBP exchanges...
> ...  The solution I adopted was to re-enter all the currency
> transactions with the same exchange rate as the first one...

Ok. Good to know what the problem is. But with your solution the 
balances on your ledger (GnuCash) won't match your bank statements.

You know what would be nice? To have GnuCash automatically add an 
Expense/Income entry called "Currency Exchange". So, if the currencies 
fluctuation in a way that cause you to make money, it's an income, and 
if you lose money, add an expense.

This would have the nice property that it matches the real world well. 
If you make money through currency speculation, that *is* income. If you 
lose money to spread, that *is* an expense.

I currently deal with three currencies regularly (my income is in GBP 
and my expenses are in CAD and EUR). I expect to start dealing with USD 
as well soon. I would love to have a good way to deal with currency 
fluctuations.

Cheers,
Daniel.


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