Expenses with multiple currencies

[Derek Atkins]

I'd argue it's a bug.  GnuCash really should understand that "income"
and "expense" exchanges are permanent (fixed) and should use the
actual transactional exchange rate when reporting, whereas the values
of Assets and Liabilities can float as the value of the commodity
fluctuates.  Unfortunately this means we need to update the way most
of the reports work to differentiate between floating commodities and
fixed commodities.

If anyone wants to get their feet wet with reporting this would
be a pretty good way to start, I think.  I dont think it would be
a very invasive change (but I could be wrong).

-derek

Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera at zmsl.com> writes:

> If there's another way to do it I would love to hear it. I don't know 
> about the OP, but in my case I'm not sure that this idea would work 
> well. My expenses have been about half in CAD and half EUR. I also have 
> a good portion in GBP.
>
> Worse yet: I am in Germany, so my choice of base currency should be EUR. 
> But in a couple of years I'll move to Canada, and my choice of base 
> currency will become CAD. Switching all the transactions I've done in a 
> 3 year period to use another currency would be a lot of trouble.
>
> So var I've been keeping the expenses separate and just accepted that I 
> can't track them well. I would love it if I had a way to use historical 
> exchange rates to get a proper picture of my expenses, my assets and 
> liabilities.
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel.
>
> Derek Atkins wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> My suggestion is to compute the exchange rate when you enter the
>> transaction and just report it as a USD expense.  E.g.:
>> 
>>   Assets:Bank:Bank 2 (EUR)         100?
>>   Expenses:Bank Charges:Bank 2              $221.47
>> 
>> This will probably be the easier way to do it.
>> 
>> -derek
>> 
>> Quoting Youssef Ltaief <ltai0001 at yahoo.com>:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> I checked the archive but couldn't find a clear answer to following 
>>> situation:
>>> I have two bank accounts in two different countries with two 
>>> different currencies (USD and EUR)
>>> I have bank expense charges on these two accounts that I get from my 
>>> statements.
>>> I currently have the following setup:
>>>
>>> Expenses
>>> Expenses:Bank charges (USD)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges:Bank 1 (USD)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges:Bank 2 (EUR)
>>>
>>> The problem here is that the total on "Bank Charges" and subsequently 
>>> "Expenses" is in USD and adjusted according to the current exchange 
>>> rate which is not correct since the EUR charges were incurred in the 
>>> past.
>>>
>>> Should I go with a set up where I separate the Top expense accounts 
>>> like this instead:
>>>
>>> Expenses (USD)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges (USD)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges:Bank 1 (USD)
>>>
>>> Expenses (EUR)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges (EUR)
>>> Expenses:Bank charges:Bank 2 (EUR)
>>>
>>> Suggestions are appreciated
>>> Youssef
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
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>> 
>> 
>
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-- 
       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