[GNC] strange lack of exchange rates in a new currency cash account

[David Cousens]

Scott 
Upgarding is discussed in the wiki under Installation instructions further down,
https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Installation
David Cousens


On Tue, 2023-07-25 at 08:34 +0700, Scott Ellsworth wrote:
> *Hi John,*
> 
> <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> 
> ----- Original message -----
> From: john <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> To: Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us>
> Cc: GnuCash user forum <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] strange lack of exchange rates in a new currency cash
> account
> Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 00:38
> 
> Your issues with the transfer dialog seem strange. I just tried a 2,000,000
> transfer with a rate of 1/23600 in the dialog and got a value of 84.75. The
> decimal display on the right of the rate entry is 0.000042, but that's just
> because that display is limited to 6 decimal digits; GnuCash actually stores
> the number as 1/23600. i'll have to probe that some more to figure out what's
> going on.
> *I should mention that when doing ATM withdrawals I've always entered the
> actual amount I received instead of the exchange rate, since that keeps it
> accurate. I've done ATM withdrawals this way in ten other currencies so far in
> the past couple years, and have never had problems. but the Vietnamese dong is
> a very small unit of currency. I suppose if I had to enter the exchange rate
> instead, I'd have to calculate it pretty precisely and then watch carefully
> for discrepancies in the final amount. I'll probably try that for now.
> *
> 
> In the report the 0 or 1 prices in the transaction report are due to
> transaction currency: Notice that it's either $0.00 or ₫1.00. The latter
> transactions were started in the VND account so the transaction currency is
> VND, hence the price of  ₫1.00. The $0.00 is a display issue: The default
> price display is 2 more digits than the currency's smallest fraction, .00 for
> both USD and VND, so .0000, and 1/23600 rounded to 4 places is 0.
> *Okay, I overlooked that. So basically, $0.00 is for converting dollars to
> dong, while ₫1.00 is for my transactions in dong with no currency conversion.*
> 
> Be Well,
>  
> Scott
> 
> 
> > On Jul 23, 2023, at 22:02, Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us> wrote:
> > 
> > *Hi John,*
> > ----- Original message -----
> > From: john <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> > To: Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us>
> > Cc: GnuCash user forum <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] strange lack of exchange rates in a new currency cash
> > account
> > Date: Monday, July 24, 2023 02:09
> > > On Jul 23, 2023, at 03:11, Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us> wrote:
> > It works off the latest price in the pricedb. If that's 0 then so will be
> > the home-currency values on the accounts page and in the summary bar.
> > Editing transactions won't change an entry in the pricedb. Only creating a
> > transaction will, and then only if there isn't already a corresponding price
> > for that day. That means that if you create the first transaction of the day
> > with a zero price and immediately correct it you still have a 0 price in the
> > pricedb that you have to manually fix or delete.
> > *Okay, that's good to know. I went into the Price Database and created a
> > price entry for dong for today. I had not made any transactions before that
> > today. When I went over to the Account Summary and refreshed the page, for
> > the very first time so far it showed a non-zero value for my total dong
> > cash: ₫1,232,000.00   $52.20. And when I created a **test transaction, it
> > showed an exchange rate waiting for me for only the second time I've seen so
> > far.*
> > 
> > Not in the register view, in Transaction report options on the Display page,
> > but in light of your other answers I think that it's not necessary.
> > *Okay, I did that report and I'm sending a screenshot here. This might be a
> > useful result, because it looks like it's showing an exchange rate of either
> > 1 or 0 throughout. I don't understand that.***
> > **
> > *So far, it seems like I can enter an exchange rate in the Price Database
> > but it hasn't taken my exchange rates that I enter into the register
> > manually (which I always do because the exchange rate is blank). I have a
> > hypothesis about this: I normally type "1/23600" in the exchange rate field
> > for transactions. Perhaps the program automatically truncates the calculated
> > values to four decimal places. When I added a price for today in the Price
> > Database I tried typing it instead as "0.00004237" just in case it might
> > make a difference. I think it still truncated it to six decimals, so
> > "0.000042," but at least that registers as a normal exchange rate, even if
> > it's less exact. So when I add money to my dong cash account by doing an ATM
> > withdrawal, those exchange rates are calculating automatically because I
> > always input the exact number of dong that I received. Maybe it calculated
> > and truncated from that as well, giving me zeroes all the time. ***
> > **
> > *But the Transaction Report with binary exchange rates is still confusing to
> > me. *
> > 
> > *Let me know what you suggest.***
> > **
> > *Kind Regards,***
> > ****
> > *Scott*
> > 
> > > 
> > > *Be Well,***
> > > * ***
> > > *Scott***
> > > <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> > > On Jul 22, 2023, at 01:34, Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > Hi John,
> > > > 
> > > > Every transaction is big enough to equal more than one cent. And the
> > > > dong cash register starts with an ATM withdrawal of 2 million dong. 
> > > > 
> > > > In the Price Database, which I was not familiar with before, I see three
> > > > entries, two of which are at zero value. The Account Summary now shows
> > > > "₫540,780.00 $0.00" but the transactions do usually have dollar
> > > > equivalent values: When I look at my Food account I see that the most
> > > > recent transactions were worth $1.18, $0.25, and $38.53. But I notice
> > > > one transaction from the 19th, a split transaction where the Food
> > > > component came out to zero and the number fields are simply blank on
> > > > that line, not with zeroes shown. The other parts of the transaction
> > > > were $6.19 spent from Assets:Cash:vn dong balanced against $3.18 spent
> > > > on Expenses:Health, so the transaction obviously does not balance. When
> > > > I go to the blank line for Expenses:Food and click on Jump, nothing
> > > > happens. But when I go to the Cash:vn dong account and find that
> > > > transaction, I see an amount for the food component, 549,000 dong, which
> > > > was missing in the Food account.
> > > > 
> > > > This is confusing. I hope my file is not corrupted, since my financial
> > > > data is important to me. And it's strange that even after I created a
> > > > second dong cash account to test, the new account had the same exact
> > > > problems.
> > > > 
> > > > Be Well,
> > > > 
> > > > Scott
> > > > <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> > > > 
> > > > ----- Original message -----
> > > > From: john <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> > > > To: Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us>
> > > > Cc: GnuCash user forum <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > > > Subject: Re: [GNC] strange lack of exchange rates in a new currency cash
> > > > account
> > > > Date: Friday, July 21, 2023 23:24
> > > > 
> > > > Scott,
> > > > 
> > > > Did you perhaps get the balance to  2M VND in small increments so that
> > > > the USD value of every transaction rounded to $0.00? That would have
> > > > prevented the price from being recorded, resulting in the symptoms you
> > > > describe. If you've been trying to use VND for several days you can look
> > > > at the price database entries to see if any of the earlier transactions
> > > > recorded prices.
> > > > 
> > > > Regards,
> > > > John Ralls
> > > > 
> > > > > On Jul 21, 2023, at 01:14, Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us> wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > Another strange thing: It might be starting to work normally now: I
> > > > > just entered a couple of transactions and accidentally entered the
> > > > > exchange rate as 23,600 instead of 1/23,6000. Now it's starting to
> > > > > show the dollar equivalent on the Account Summary, even after I went
> > > > > back and corrected the exchange rate on those two transactions. I'm
> > > > > not sure if it's fixed, but at least for right now it appears to be
> > > > > working normally again.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Be Well,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Scott
> > > > > <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> > > > > 
> > > > > ----- Original message -----
> > > > > From: Scott Ellsworth <scott at fastmail.us>
> > > > > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > > > Subject: strange lack of exchange rates in a new currency cash account
> > > > > Date: Friday, July 21, 2023 15:06
> > > > > 
> > > > > Dear fellow Gnucash users,
> > > > > 
> > > > > I have a strange problem with a new currency account that I just added
> > > > > the other day: I created a cash account for Vietnamese dong (VND), and
> > > > > somehow it's not working with exchange rates. The two strange things
> > > > > I'm noticing are:
> > > > > 1. Every time I create a new transaction in this account, I have to
> > > > > type in an exchange rate manually. (With other cash accounts (other
> > > > > than USD, my default currency) an exchange rate always is remembered
> > > > > from earlier transactions.)
> > > > > 2. On my Account Summary report, I see the new account, which I've
> > > > > named "vn dong" and placed under Assets > Cash, and the number of dong
> > > > > that I have in cash, but the US dollar equivalent always shows up as
> > > > > zero. (I use "Cash" as a placeholder account, under which I have all
> > > > > my cash currencies including US dollars, euros, Japanese yen, etc.)
> > > > > Right now, for example, it shows "₫2,080,870.00   $0.00" but in
> > > > > dollars that should be about $88.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I thought maybe the new account was somehow corrupted, so I tried
> > > > > creating a new one from scratch, but the same problem occurred again.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The one thing that is different about this currency compared to all
> > > > > others for which I have cash accounts is that it's very tiny: It's
> > > > > about 23,600 dong per US dollar. Is Gnucash not able to handle such
> > > > > extreme exchange rates?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Be Well,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Scott
> > > > > <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> > > > > 
> > > > > _______________________________________________
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> > > 
> > > 
> > > Be Well,
> > > 
> > > Scott
> > > <<<< Scott Ellsworth || +1 (775) 386-2519 >>>>
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > <Screenshot from 2023-07-24 11-27-56.png>
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