[GNC] multiple currencies in one transaction

Jeff Abrahamson jeff at p27.eu
Thu Aug 15 10:54:56 EDT 2019


Apparently the mailing list strips images, even very tiny ones.

The first image simply showed Transferwise associating 5.70 CFH = 4.67 GBP.

The second showed that gnucash is creating a correcting split in the
transaction I'd entered:

    512452_Transferwise CHF        5.70
    6212_cafe                      5.70
    512452_Transferwise CHF                5.70
    51245_Transferwise                     5.70
                                   2.80

And that 2.80 is rather odd.

Jeff Abrahamson


On 15/08/2019 16:38, Jeff Abrahamson wrote:
> I purchased a coffee in Switzerland using my GBP-based Transferwise
> card.  That card could hold a CHF balance, but on that day it held only
> GBP.  My local currency is EUR.  So I can think of my coffee purchase as
> two FX transactions: funding (GBP -> CHF) and an expense (CHF -> EUR).
>
> What Transferwise tells me is the amount of the purchase and the amount
> of the transaction.  (I can also poke further and find the exchange rate
> they used and the minuscule fee, but the important point to me is the
> the two endpoints.)
>
> Now what makes sense to me based on reading about accounting principles
> for multiple currencies is that I should make one transaction thus:
>
>     Coffee (CHF)   <--  Bank (GBP)        # This is the funding part of
>     the transaction.
>     Expense acct   <--  Coffee (CHF)      # Here I'm tracking the actual
>     expense.
>
> I put those in a single transaction for easier understanding later. 
> Here I've created a bank account for Transferwise (GBP) as well as
> subaccounts of that called Transferwise_CHF and some others, denominated
> in the indicated currencies.  Those three accounts are transfer
> accounts: I usually expect them to have zero balance.
>
>     Transferwise_CHF   <--  Transferwise (GBP)       # This is the
>     funding part of the transaction.
>     Expense/cafe       <--  Transferwise_CHF         # Here I'm tracking
>     the actual expense.
>
> Gnucash asks me for some exchange rates, and I answer for the CHF - GBP
> part with the specific numbers provided by Transferwise and for the GBP
> - EUR part with the exchange rate I've downloaded for that date.
>
> I expect to see this in the account Transferwise_CHF
>
>     5.70   <--  5.70       # This is the funding part of the transaction.
>     5.70   <--  5.70       # Here I'm tracking the actual expense.
>
> and this in the Transferwise (GBP) account
>
>     4.67   <--  4.67       # This is the funding part of the transaction.
>     4.67   <--  4.67       # Here I'm tracking the actual expense.
>
> and something similar looking at the splits in the (euro-denominated
> expense account).
>
> But what I see (from the perspective of the CHF account) is this, which
> makes no sense to me:
>
> Gnucash has entered the 2.80, and deleting that split just makes it pop
> up again.  Something is terribly wrong if any  account's view of the
> transaction doesn't balance.  (This is gnucash 3.4, ubuntu, build id
> 3.4+ (2018-12-30).
>
> Is this my error or a bug in gnucash?  Any pointers?
>
>
> Somewhat related, I thought to import historical currencies, as I'm back
> filling some data for analysis purposes.  I grabbed 10 years of daily
> quotes and imported them (3600 or so rows of data per currency).  All ok
> for GBP - EUR.  When I do the same for CHF - EUR, gnucash says it's done
> it, but the price database doesn't show more than a handful.  When I do
> it for JPY - EUR, gnucash says it's done but the price editor shows none
> of them.  The proposed exchange rates when entering transactions are
> consistent with what the price editor thinks it knows.
>
> Is there a limit on FX rates?  (This is about 4000, which doesn't strike
> me as terribly large.)
>
-- 

Jeff Abrahamson
+33 6 24 40 01 57
+44 7920 594 255

http://p27.eu/jeff/
http://transport-nantes.com/



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