[GNC] Income in foreign currency - unrealized vs realized gains / losses How To

Anton antonphp at protonmail.com
Fri Nov 27 11:47:35 EST 2020


Dear Gnucash community,

Residing in Australia, I work with US customers and get paid in US dollars. I don't always convert money from USD to AUD, and if I do, it's usually an arbitrary amount on an arbitrary day.

Now, how do I setup my accounts in Gnucash, and what would be the corresponding income and exchange transactions, in order to be able to report report unrealized and realized currency exchange gains and losses?

Here's how I have it now (simplified):

Income
US Client A
Assets
US Bank
AU Bank
Trading:Currency (automatic accounts)
AUD
USD

When I got paid USD 1000, I recorded the first transfer:

Income:US Client A => Assets:US Bank
USD $1000
This was worth AUD $1500 at 1.5 AUD = 1 USD, but I keep USD
Also, AUD $1500 is what I will have to report in my business activity statement for GST purposes.

Then say in 1 month time I convert USD $100 to AUD $130 at 1.3
My understanding is this transaction should generate a realized loss of AUD$20

At the end of the day, in my report for the taxation office I need to put something like this:

Income: AUD $1500
Expense:
Deductible
Realized currency exchange loss: AUD $20

Please advise. -- Thanks, Anton


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