Gold

[Matthew Pounsett]

On 11 January 2017 at 22:10, Leo Bolta <lbolta at rogers.com> wrote:

>
> In other words, in addition to the price of the fluctuating price of gold,
> there would be two other currency variables playing a part in determining
> it's value in the currency of the foreign country.  Is my theory right or
> am
> I way off?  And if the theory is correct, can GnuCash handle such an
> ongoing
> valuation?
>
> I'm fairly new to GnuCash so perhaps take what I have to say with a grain
of salt.

Just to be clear that I understand your situation... you have gold in a
foreign country, which you bought in an international transaction using US
currency?

I would set up the gold asset as a stock or mutual fund (I don't think it
matters to the way GnuCash handles the account) and use the price editor to
track the value of the gold *in the foreign currency*.   Then, also track
the value of that currency against the US dollar.

Create a new asset account called "Gold" and create a new FUND commodity
type to track it (when creating the account, hit "Select" on the
Security/Currency line, set the type to FUND, and click New).  Make the
initial purchase from your asset account (presumably in US dollars).  Then,
go to the price editor (Tools -> Price Editor) and Add a new price for the
"Gold" fund, using the foreign price/currency.   Then also use the price
editor to Add the current value of that currency.  GnuCash should give you
a total worth of the Gold fund in US dollars, but it will be converting
twice to get that.

Of course, test all this in a dummy GnuCash file before trying it in your
active accounts.