[GNC] Purchases in foreign currency.

[John Ralls]

> On Jul 31, 2019, at 2:20 PM, Clint Chaplin <joatmon at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I travel a lot on business, frequently to non-US destinations, where I am
> using non-USD currency.
> 
> Currently in another financial program, I am handling this by essentially
> using an investment to keep the non-USD currencies.  I transfer USD to the
> investment, purchase the non-USD currency with the exchange rate in effect,
> sell the non-USD as needed back into USD, and then post the purchase as
> using USD.
> 
> I suspect that GnuCash is perfectly capable of handling purchases in the
> non-USD currency, but is the USD equivalent for the purchase set at the
> time of the transaction, or will the USD equivalent of the purchase change
> as the exchange rate changes later?

That depends on how you book the transaction.

Suppose that you regularly purchase stuff for cash in Europe, so you set up Euro accounts for Assets:Cash in Wallet and Expenses:stuff. You're in, say, Barcelona, and you visit the ATM and get €500 for $600. You dutifully enter that into GnuCash. That's a priced transaction and the exchange rate won't ever change.

Now you head over to the lovely stuff shop at the marina and but €100 of stuff. You dutifully record that transaction between your Euro cash and expense accounts. That's an  unpriced transaction because both parts (we call them "splits" in GnuCash) are in the same currency. It contributes to the balances of the respective accounts and those balances will be represented in GnuCash's base currency according to a variety of factors, most user configurable.

Regards,
John Ralls