Balancing the balance sheet (multi-currency issues?)

[Derek Atkins]

Egbert van der Wal <ewal at pointpro.nl> writes:

> On 20/12/13 19:50, Derek Atkins wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Egbert van der Wal <ewal at pointpro.nl> writes:
>>
>>> How can I generate a balance sheet that has a total under 'Assets'
>>> that exactly matches the total at the bottom of 'Liabilities &
>>> Equity'?
>> You need to account for the gains/losses of your currency exchanges.
>>
>
> Be that as it may, in all my accounting classes I've always been
> taught that a balance should be... well... balanced! And it's not,
> currently. Is there any way to reroute these gains / losses of
> currency exchanges to an expenses account, for example, to make the
> balance balance?

It's not in balance because you made money appear or disappear without
accounting for it.  For example, assume you buy €100 for $125.  Then
some time later you trade them back for $120.  Now you have €0 and $120,
but $5 magically disappeared.  I.e., your accounts are now out of
balance unless you account for that $5 you lost in trading.  GnuCash has
no way to track this due to the way multi-currency transactions are
implemented, so you have to add the gain/loss manually.  Either that or
you need to turn on Trading Accounts.

> Thanks,
>
> Egbert van der Wal

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
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