Single Foreign Currency Account Payable

[Wm...]

Sun, 25 Oct 2015 12:22:17 <20151025122215.GA5517 at bamboo.electronicsoup>
John Whitmore <arigead at gmail.com> wrote...

>On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 03:27:04PM +0100, Maf. King wrote:
>> On Sat 24 October 15 14:30:44 John Whitmore wrote:
>> > Starting out on the Business side of things and on the wrong end of the
>> > learning curve so there may be one or two stupid questions.
>> >
>> > I'm operating in Euroland so all my accounts are in Euro. I've added a
>> > vendor of amazon.co.uk and purchased a couple of items. They operate in GBP
>> > Sterling so issue me an itemised bill in GBP but list the total payment in
>> > Euros because I've paid with a Euro Debit Card.
>> >
>> > Now I've added amazon as a GBP vender and created a Bill in which I enter
>> > the various items in the sterling amounts and the 20% VAT
>> >
>> > that's all good but the bill won't allow me to check the "Invoiced 
>> >?" field.
>> > I assume because it don't like the currency.
>> >
>> > I tried to post the bill but that won't happen either again I 
>> >assume because
>> > of the curreny issues.
>> >
>> > I have read the Foreign Currency section but the examples there deal with
>> > people who have actual Bank Accounts in US Dollars and Hong Kong whatevers.
>> > I don't have multiple currency accounts I only have one, Euros.
>> >
>> > Given all that I assume then that what I should do is change amazon to a
>> > Euro account and convert all the currencies manually. I know it's not
>> > difficult I've been given a total in GBP and in Euro so I should be able to
>> > work back from that ;-)
>> >
>> > My question is: Is there a simpler way? I guess I hoped that I could tell
>> > GnuCash the total in Euro and that it would automatically convert the
>> > individual items and VAT to the necessary Euro amounts before updating the
>> > Expense Accounts and Liability accounts.
>> >
>>
>> Hi John.
>>
>> Since you don't hold any GBP accounts, do you really need to track the GBP
>> value of the purchases?  If you've paid in euro and they show the euro total
>> on their bill, it seems to me that the GBP - EUR conversion rate is 
>>fixed, and
>> pretty much irrelvant, unlike where you hold a foreign currency 
>>account where
>> daily rate changes affect the value of your holding (in respect of 
>>your "base"
>> currency)
>>
>> What I'm trying to say is, is it worth tracking in GBP?
>>
>> 0.02
>> Maf.
>>
>
>Cheers Maf, like I say wrong end of the learning curve in both accounting and
>GnuCash. I guess there is no real need to keep track of the GBP at all and
>just use the Euro total given.
>
>thanks a million for your help

You probably don't need to use the business stuff at all if you are just 
paying for stuff with a credit or debit card [1] rather than actually 
running up a bill.

A debit card transaction is just the same as a cash one, direct into 
your Asset:Bank account, and a credit card goes into your Liability:Card 
account.

[1] not purchases on credit in accounting as you never owe them money

Are you considering using the business bits because you need to track 
VAT?

-- 
Wm...