Handling multiple currency in GNUCash

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 08:32:34PM +0500, Abrash Pervaiz wrote:
> Let's say my base currency is Currency A from Country A and the owner sources his clothing material from Country B (having Currency B). However, Country B does not accept Country A's currency directly, so the owner has to first purchase US Dollars, take them to Country B, convert to Currency B there, and then purchase the required clothing he wants to sell back in Country A. During this time, the currencies will obviously fluctuate, and there will be gains or losses due this fluctuation, which have to be recorded in the books. I have currently set up different accounts for the US Dollars and Currency B he purchases and did a few example transactions based on different currency exchange rates. If the rates fluctuate, the balance sheet report shows some "unrealized gains/losses", and I do not know how to make those unrealized gains into realized gains.

I have generally done another operation, moving the gain into an account to track these things.  My experience with the foreign currency approach in GNUCash is sufficiently bad, however, that I recommend tracking in one account for the duration of the year (or whatever your reporting period is) and then doing the operation all at once.  To make it work really well, you have to track the exchange rates very finely, and I found that too hard to do.

My accountant hates the FC handling in GNUCash so much that I'm going to be forced to ditch it all and use QuickBooks, I think.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com