[GNC] ATM withdrawl

[Jim DeLaHunt]

On 2023-02-25 19:43, Fred Tydeman wrote:

> When I try to record an ATM withdrawal, I do not see any way to  add a
> split for the bank fee.
>
> I am taking 150 euros from an ATM.  There is a 10.50 euro bank fee.  My
> bank sees a withdrawal of 171.85 USD.  I have trading accounts turned on.
>
> In my US bank account, I enter USD 171.85; I say that the money is going to
> a euro account.  I get a popup where I enter 160.50 euros.  I see no way to
> split out 150 cash and 10.50 bank fee.
>
> This is in GnuCash 4.13 on Linux.

Ah, a person after my own heart: recording multi-currency transactions 
with a main payment and a split for a fee.

I suspect that what is going on here is that your transaction is not a 
simple ATM withdrawal, it is a multiple-currency ATM withdrawal.

For a single-currency ATM withdrawal, the GnuCash data entry is simpler. 
Imagine you are withdrawing 150.00 USD from an ATM, from your USD bank 
account. There is a 10.50 USD bank fee. Your USD bank sees a withdrawal 
of 160.50 USD.

In that case you would follow the instructions in the GnuCash Help 
documentation, 6.4. Multiple Split Transactions 
<https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=4&lang=C&doc=help>, to make the 
multiple splits of the transaction visible in the UI. There will be two 
splits, one withdrawing 150.00 USD from the USD bank account, and one 
adding 150.00 USD to your USD cash-in-pocket account. You simply add a 
third split, for 10.50 USD, for the fee, and increase the split 
withdrawing from the USD bank account to 160.50 USD.

But since this is a multi-currency transaction, you also has the 
Transfer Funds dialogue box, which also serves as the foreign exchange 
dialogue box. You will want to read up in the GnuCash Help 
documentation, 6.1. Transfer Funds Dialog Box 
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-help/trans-win-enter.html>, 
especially 6.1.3 Currency Transfer, and also 6.5. Multiple 
Currency/Commodity Transactions 
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-help/trans-currency-enter.html>. 
This documentation only tells you part of the story, and does not 
include screenshots of the dialogue box. Some day I may contribute an 
improvement to this section, because it keeps confusing me.

One thing to know is that each transaction has a base currency. This is 
set to the currency of the register from which you enter the 
transaction. If you enter the transaction from your USD bank account, 
the base currency of the transaction will be USD, and all splits with 
EUR amounts will put up the Transfer Funds dialogue box to get a USD:EUR 
conversion rate.

Another thing to know is that each split which has an account 
denominated in a currency different from the transaction's base currency 
has its own exchange rate. The Transfer Funds dialogue box deals only 
with that individual split and its exchange rate. Thus, a Transfer Funds 
dialogue dealing with the split for your EUR cash-in-pocket account is 
not the place to add a second split for Bank Service Charge in Euros.

For your USD and EUR mixed-currency transaction, you should first enter 
a third split for the Bank Service Charge. It is up to you whether you 
make an account for EUR Bank Service Charges, or record the charge 
against a USD Bank Service Charges account.

If you enter the transaction from your USD bank account register, the 
base currency of the transaction will be USD. When you add a split with 
a EUR Bank Service Charge account, you will want to enter a EUR amount 
of 10.50 EUR, and an exchange rate of (150+10.50)/171.85 EUR/USD. (You 
may need to enter the inverse of this fraction; the Transfer Funds 
dialogue box always confuses me, and I usually enter the rate in the 
wrong direction at least 50% of the time.) But when you add a split with 
a USD Bank Service Charge account, you will want to enter the USD 
equivalent of 10.50 EUR directly in the split, which will be 
171.85/(150+10.50) USD (I am pretty confident about that fraction).

Note that you can enter simple expressions like this in a split's amount 
field, and GnuCash will do the arithmetic for you. See the GnuCash 
Tutorial and Concepts Guide, 2.9.2.4. Using Entry Shortcuts 
<https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v4/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_txns.html#txns-shortcuts1>, 
and the bullet point beginning, "In any of the amount fields, you can 
use a built-in calculator."

Does this answer your question?

Best regards,
      —Jim DeLaHunt