Balance and Stocks in foreign currency (Was: Removing user:xfer-dialog in Price Editor, safe ?)

[AmigaPhil at ping.be]

(Sorry, I missed to CCed to the list again.  :-° )

> I wrote:
>
>> Me stupid.  :-°
>>
>> All I have to do is to create a separate "Commission" account (Expense)
>> in USD.
>
> I've just did that, and the problem of a difference in balance
> I had is GONE !
>
>> So I'm going to ensure that any incoming/outgoing money in a stock account
>> in USD will be coming from (and going to) another account in USD as well.

I think I shouted "Hurray" too early: I'm still having some balance woes.
(I wonder if it's worth hitting my head against the wall for such
 a small difference, but I'm puzzled and curious...)


Let's start with an example again:

On 10th November 2008, I bought 30 shares of XYZ at 15 USD.
My bank statement told me that the commission fee was 30.58 EUR,
the exchange rate was 1.3115 USD (1 EUR = 1.3115 USD), and the
total debited from my bank account was 373.70 EUR.

Based on this statement, I created a price for USD-EUR with the
Price Editor to 0.762475 EUR (1/1.3115) for 2008-11-10.
I also created a price for EUR-USD (just in case...) to
1.311518 USD (1/0.762475) for the same date.

Then I tried the following methods to register the Stock purchase:


Method 1:
=========

  Bank A    -->  Bank B   -->  Stock XYZ
  (bank)         (bank)         (stock)
   EUR            USD             USD
    |
    |
    ----------> Commission
                 (expense)
                    EUR

- PROS:
  - Amounts are accurate
  - Balance is right (Debits = Credits)

- CONS:
  - The Advanced Portofolio does not know about the Brokerage Fee


Method 2:
=========

  Bank A    -->  Bank B   -->  Stock XYZ   --> Commission
  (bank)         (bank)         (stock)         (expense)
   EUR            USD             USD              EUR

- PROS:
  - The Brokerage Fee is right in the Advanced Portfolio report

- CONS:
  - Both the Chart of Accounts and the Balance Sheet report
    are showing a difference (That's the begining of this thread.)


Method 3:
=========

  Bank A    -->  Bank B   -->  Stock XYZ   --> Commission
  (bank)         (bank)         (stock)         (expense)
   EUR            USD             USD             *USD*

-PROS:
 - Changing the Commission account in EUR to a commission
   account in USD did the trick: the Balance Sheet report
   was right (Debits was equal to Credits again)
   (I then had a 0.01 EUR difference when I tried to correct
    the amounts of the transaction, probably something I have
    introduced, like modifying the exchange rate calculation.)

- CONS:
 - The Advanced Portfolio report (and other reports) are not
   showing the Brokerage Fee I DID payed in EUR (30.58).
   (Showing 29.61 EUR instead.)


Method 4:
=========

  Bank A    -->  Bank B   -->  Stock XYZ   --> Commission
  (bank)         (bank)         (stock)         (expense)
   EUR            USD             USD              USD
                                                    |
                                                    |
                                     Commission  <---
                                      (expense)
                                         EUR

- PROS:
  - The ammount I *DID* payed for the brokerage fee is now
    fixed (to 30.58 EUR)

- CONS:
  - The Advanced Portfolio report is still not showing the
    right ammount in EUR for the brokerage fee
  - Both the Chart of Accounts and the Balance Sheet report
    are again showing a difference.


    Taken from the balance sheet - with the defaulted "Average
    costs" as quote source - I can see that the XYZ stock is
    valued at 348.49 EUR, which imply a 0.774422 USD exchange
    rate (348.49/450).

    Shouldn't THAT exchange rate be: 0.762475 USD, as it is the
    ONE and ONLY exchange rate used for the XYZ stock purchase
    transaction (so is the AVERAGE COSTS) ?



Bottom line: I think I will revert back to Method 2, as at least,
the Advanced Portfolio is showing the right brokerage fee...


AmigaPhil

(Using GnuCash 2.2.7 and Finance::Quote 1.15)