[GNC] closing of books and multiple currencies: a question on exchanges

[Andrea Borgia]

   Il 22/03/21 21:25, David Cousens ha scritto:

In that case just credit paypal:usd for US$5.56 and debit the paypal:eur
account for the relevant amount in euros at the date Paypal made the
transfer (Paypal will usually have the exchange rate somewhere in the
massive CSV file if you download their activity statement). If you enter the
USD and EUR amounts for the USD and EUR paypal accounts when you create the
transaction GNuCash should generate a price entry with the exchange rate in
the price database.

   David, hi. Indeed that's precisely what I have done, it was this
   transaction (from the USD side):
   paypal:usd / paypal:eur) -5.66

   (it was 5€, I think).

At the end of the year close the paypal:usd to Capital:USD and in the new
book create the new paypal:usd in the new book  with an opening balance of
USD:0.88 against the transferred balance for Capital:USD in your new book
just as you would for any other asset.

   Paypal:USD is an asset and, as such, I simply carry it over without
   closing. Just as you say, it will be opened for 0.88 against
   Capital:USD.

   I only close Income and Expense accounts, in order to get an economic
   result value, and then "Results:*" to "Capital:*" to derive the initial
   Capital values for the following year.

   Expenses:USD:IT only has one entry, 6.54, and this account gets closed
   to Results:USD which gets closed to Capital:USD which gets 6.54 as
   value.

   It is the result of this account which is a bit perplexing: I know I
   had at the end of 2020 only 0.88USD yet the capital shows 6.54 because
   of a credit note.

   So now the questions are: is that correct? Can I leave the rest there
   and only use 0.88 to open Paypal:USD? If not, which type of account
   holds the unused capital?

   I hope it is now clear what I am trying to understand. If the
   transaction sequence is still murky, I'll try to create a composition
   of screenshots to show the whole story.

   Thanks,

   Andrea