[GNC] Two currencies handling

[Norbert Klein]

Dear GnuCash Users,

I am fairly new here – no coding, just learning to use GnuCash 2.9.16 on 
Windows 10.

I live and work in Cambodia, on a farm, where I do some administration 
assistance.

In Cambodia, booth the Cambodian Riel (=KHR) and the US$ are legal, and 
both are being used everywhere and daily. So for many bookings (in and 
out) I have set up the possibility to enter either of the two 
currencies. The basic currency for the whole system is set to US$, with 
a standard exchange rate of US$1.00 to Khmer Riel = KHR4000.00

For Example (as we buy and sell vegetables):

I set an INCOME account “Vegetables” as a “Placeholder” marked for US$.

I set up two Sub-accounts under it, one in US$ and the other in KHR (and 
in both are Expense and Rebate [why is this called “rebate” and not 
“income”???] columns).

As it happens, there are vegetables SOLD in US$, and there are 
vegetables sold in US$, and I make the entries in the respective 
sub-accounts.

And there are vegetables BOUGHT in KHR, and there are vegetables bought 
also in KHR, and I make the entries in the respective sub-accounts.

Of course every sale or purchase in Vegetables is also shown (“double 
booking” system) in the “US$ Cash in Wallet” or the “KHR Cash in Wallet” 
accounts.

Now I thought GnuCash will add up the sub-accounts – one in US$ and the 
other, changing the KHR also into US$, and show the sum in the 
Placeholder above of the two.

But actually, the placeholder shows only the US$21.00 which were booked 
in the US$-Sub-Account, while the KHR2114400 are still only visible in 
the KHR-Sub-Account, where they were entered.

I can also change cash US$ to cash KHR, or the other way round, with 
ACTIONS and TRANSFER – no problems.

Where/when/how are the Expenses/Incomes in KHR re-calculated and their 
exchanged values will be combined with the original US$ entries?

Please help me, I want to learn.

Norbert KLEIN