reports without decimals?

[Divakar Ramachandran]

On Saturday 25 August 2012 06:21 PM, Dustin Henning wrote:
> I agree totally with being able to use non-ISO currencies, and asked about
> it some time ago.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem likely to happen at that
> time.  I don't remember whether I got no response or a negative response at
> that time, but while Skymiles are a good example and can be used to purchase
> something, so are points on credit cards and virtual currencies (I have
> never owned a linden dollar in my life, but it makes the news when large
> quantities of them get stolen in a hack, and police are even sometimes
> involved, and my post was about bitcoins, which could be equally popular in
> the future, but have 8 decimal places [also unsupported] and could be
> programmed to have more in the future).
>
> Regarding using an alternate currency, I like the idea, but I don't think it
> would solve the problem, because the user wants a report that meets certain
> requirements, and I imagine having the wrong currency denominator would also
> prevent it from meeting those requirements, so an export+edit would still be
> necessary.  A custom currency could presumably resolve this as well.  This
> is just my tw ocents and I suppose the OP has a much more compelling case
> for posting a change request to the bug system, but I don't even know how
> that is done, and I doubt the OP does either.
>
> Dustin

I am interested in this discussion - it would be very useful to be able
to custom define currency like assets. I have asked before on the list
about tracking assets such as gold and silver, of the various jewellery
grades. The standard XAU and XAG are not of use since they are quoted in
USD per ounce or pound - some such units while I need them in, say, INR
per gram. Also these fixed commodities refer to price for the pure metal
while jewellery comes in various grades 22ct etc. If there is another
way of handling this requirement I would like to hear about it.

Thanks,
Divakar


>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnucash-user-bounces+the00dustin=gmx.net at gnucash.org
> [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+the00dustin=gmx.net at gnucash.org] On Behalf Of
> Anna's unattended mail
> Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 03:29
> To: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: reports without decimals?
>
> On 2012-08-24, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
>> I am implying that.  The currency does have "cents".  Please see David 
>> T's response from 30 minutes before yours for a more detailed answer.
> David T's reply actually came hours after I sent my post, but there was a
> substantial lag in the distribution.  Apparently this list is moderated.
>
>> To sumerize, the currency has historically had cents and therefore 
>> GnuCash must keep them in order for older accounts to balance.  To 
>> change this within GnuCash would require changing the currency within 
>> GnuCash, but the ISO list hasn't been updated yet.
> The real problem here is the inability of GC to handle non-ISO currencies.
> There's no reason users should not be able to add a non-ISO currency.  It's
> a silly limitation that reduces the capability of the tool.  E.g., it would
> be useful for a user to be able to define a "Skymiles" currency for a
> particular type of air miles.
>
>> It doesn't handle it because the currency does have decimals (at least 
>> historically).  This is not a bug in GnuCash.  Arguably it might be a 
>> bug that GnuCash does not handle *changes* in currency like this.
> Just because ISO is calling two commodities with differing properties the
> same currency, doesn't mean you have to consider it a singular currency in
> your application.  Handling currency changes just so you could use the same
> currency name would be over-engineering.  There's nothing wrong with
> over-engineering, but it would be more practical for GC to have one currency
> for the obsolete national currency, and another currency for the modern
> currency.
>
> I checked on Japanese yen, and GC does in fact handle yen correctly (as
> whole numbers).  So if the OP is certain to never need to use yen, he could
> lie to GC, and use yen to represent the accounts of his new whole number
> currency, and let the ISO version of his national currency continue to
> represent the obsolete currency.
>
> Or better yet, use an obscure currency instead of yen.  These are the
> currencies that use whole numbers:
>
>    BIF 108 0 Burundian franc  Burundi
>    BYR 974 0 Belarusian ruble  Belarus
>    CLF 990 0 Unidad de Fomento (funds code)  Chile
>    CLP 152 0 Chilean peso  Chile
>    CVE 132 0 Cape Verde escudo  Cape Verde
>    DJF 262 0 Djiboutian franc  Djibouti
>    GNF 324 0 Guinean franc  Guinea
>    IRR 364 0 Iranian rial  Iran
>    ISK 352 0 Icelandic króna  Iceland
>    JPY 392 0 Japanese yen  Japan
>    KMF 174 0 Comoro franc  Comoros
>    KPW 408 0 North Korean won  North Korea
>    KRW 410 0 South Korean won  South Korea
>    LAK 418 0 Lao kip  Laos
>    LBP 422 0 Lebanese pound  Lebanon
>    MGA 969 0.7^[8] Malagasy ariary  Madagascar
>    MMK 104 0 Myanma kyat  Myanmar
>    MRO 478 0.7^[8] Mauritanian ouguiya  Mauritania
>    PYG 600 0 Paraguayan guaraní  Paraguay
>    RWF 646 0 Rwandan franc  Rwanda
>    SLL 694 0 Sierra Leonean leone  Sierra Leone
>    STD 678 0 São Tomé and Príncipe dobra  São Tomé and Príncipe
>    UYI 940 0 Uruguay Peso en Unidades Indexadas (URUIURUI) (funds code)
>    VND 704 0 Vietnamese dong  Vietnam
>    VUV 548 0 Vanuatu vatu  Vanuatu
>    XAF 950 0 CFA franc BEAC  Cameroon,  Central African Republic,
>    XOF 952 0 CFA Franc BCEAO  Benin,  Burkina Faso,  Côte d'Ivoire,
>    XPF 953 0 CFP franc  French Polynesia,  New Caledonia,  Wallis and
>    ADP 020 0 Andorran peseta (1:1 peg to the Spanish peseta)  ? 1999-01-01
>    ESP 724 0 Spanish peseta 1869 1999-01-01 EUR
>    GRD 300 0 Greek drachma 1954 2001-01-01 EUR
>    ITL 380 0 Italian lira 1861 1999-01-01 EUR
>    PTE 620 0 Portuguese escudo 1911-05-22 1999-01-01 EUR
>    SML ... 0 San Marinese lira (currency union with ITL and VAL) 1864
>    VAL ... 0 Vatican lira (currency union with ITL and SML) 1929
>    AON 024 0 Angolan new kwanza 1990 1995 AOR
>    AOR 982 0 Angolan kwanza readjustado 1995 1999 AOA
>    AZM 031 0 Azerbaijani manat 1992-08-15 2006-01-01 AZN
>    ECS 218 0 Ecuadorian sucre 1884 2000 USD
>    GHC 288 0 Ghanaian cedi 1967 2007-07-01 GHS
>    ISJ ... 0 Icelandic old krona  ? 1981 ISK
>    MZM 508 0 Mozambican metical 1980 2006-06-30 MZN
>    TMM 795 0 Turkmenistani manat 1993-11-01 2008-12-31 TMT
>    TRL 792 0 Turkish lira A/05  ? 2005 TRY
>
> Some of those are obsolete, which is ideal for the OP to hijack.
> E.g. the Italian lira.