[GNC] Multiple currencies

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 17 15:19:37 EDT 2022


Norbert,

Further to Paul's comments: managing multiple currency accounts can be confusing at first, but it begins to make sense after a while. If your need to track funds in the alternate currency is limited to occasional transactions (for example, you go on vacation and take out a chunk of money in the local currency to cover costs while you are there) many suggest that you simply ignore the other currency altogether, and just indicate the amounts in your base currency. I say this mostly for reference, since you say you're living long term in Cambodia. 

In your case, you will probably want to create a series of currency-based subaccounts for the categories of expenses you seek to track on an ongoing basis. For example, you might create the following accounts to track your groceries:

Expenses
- Groceries
- - USD (USD-denominated account) 
- - KHR (KHR-denominated account) 

In my accounts, I've typically only created a few of these currency-based accounts, as I'm really only interested in a few broader cost categorizations while I'm overseas. 

When you spend KHR from your wallet at the market for groceries, you'll pay from Assets:Cash:Wallet:KHR into Expenses:Groceries:KHR, and it will be a simple KHR transaction. 

I have found that things do get a little tricky when you are transferring money from one currency to the other. Gnucash will pop up a conversion dialog (helpful!) that I have to think about every single time I use it (and I usually mess it up a couple of times every time!), but it's easy enough to see that you've got it wrong ("How did I end up with 700,000 INR from that transfer?") and start over. Personally, I like to use the box that lets me put the amount of the destination currency directly in; I find the results much more reliable. 

Once you get the hang of it, it makes sense. 

HTH,
David T.


On July 17, 2022 3:00:34 PM GMT+03:00, Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca> wrote:
>Each account in your CoA operates in a specific currency, which is specified
>when you create it. I expect you haven't seen this yet, as you haven't set
>up your accounts. I'm pretty sure you don't need to add anything new for the
>Riel (KHR), as all the standard currencies are already built in. In fact,
>you can't add any more anyway.
>
>I suggest you make a practice file, accepting one of the default Charts of
>Accounts and then play with doing things in two currencies. If your base
>system is US$, you should add a couple of accounts that use KHR, and
>practice moving money back and forth. Then it's a simple matter to throw
>away your test books and start a real one.
>
>By default your reports will be in US$; many or most reports will show
>amounts that are actually in KHR in a smaller font just to the left of the
>main US$ amount.
>
>Paul
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+paul=kroitor.ca at gnucash.org> On
>Behalf Of Norbert Klein
>Sent: July 17, 2022 1:14 AM
>To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>Subject: [GNC] Multiple currencies
>
>I am a new gnucash user, living in Cambodia (since 32 years).
>
>I downloaded (in Windows 10), installed and tried to set up gnucash with the
>US$ as the basic currency (which was already set-up as a default). I have
>not yet set up the accounts.
>
>Then I tried to find out how to make it possible to use, in addition, also
>the Cambodian currency - the Riel - which is used here, alternatively to the
>US$, every day. The Riel is available as one of the currencies that can be
>used in gnucash.
>
>I spent quite some time reading gnucash documents, but so far without
>success. I would be most grateful if somebody could help me.
>
>Norbert (Klein) - a German
>
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