[GNC] New Australian user questions

[gnucash at 4forl1st5.slmail.me]

On Sunday, September 8th, 2024 at 11:40, Megan Tilley <megan.tilley at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Hi everyone!
> 
> You all appear to have a good handle on GnuCash, but I am a brand newbie!!!
> 
> My environment is:
> Local Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD)
> Exchange Rates required for:
> == USD
> == GBP (UK)
> == EUR
> == SEK (Sweden)
> - and are usually purchases that I pass through Paypal (no balance in
> Paypal, at all) => buy with AUD and currency conversion made by Paypal into
> seller's currency
> All my investments are AUD

Hi Megan,

the following comes from my tracking of a "multi-currency" card in GnuCash,
though I can't speak to the "windows" side of your environment.


One way to handle this sort of thing, or at least one thing to try out to 
see if it works for you, would be to create a "top level" Asset account 
called

Paypal

Then create sub-accounts below that called 

AUD Balance
GBP Balance
EUR Balance
SEK Balance

each with the Security/Currency set to to be the "foreign" Currency.


Beneath the top-level Expenses account, similarly create accounts
such as

Forex Purchases EUR
Forex Purchases GBP
Forex Purchases SEK

again with the relevant Security/Currency.

Now, when you make. say, a "Forex Purchases SEK" purchase, you could
withdraw the money from the 

Assets::Paypal::SEK Balance

which would be a Transaction (TXN) soley enacted in SEK. but which 
would leave you needing to "move" some AUD into the SEK Balance, so
as to leave that as 0.00) at which point you would be able to record
the AUD-SEK exchange rate.

You might not even need the 

Assets::Paypal::AUD Balance

account, depending on where you withdraw the AUD monies that go via
Paypal, but, having that account as a "staging" account might help
you keep track.

As I say, set up a test Gnucash file an play around

Depending on which currency Paypal deduct their fees in, you might
also want/need to create Expense accounts for, say 

Forex Fees AUD
Forex Fees EUR
Forex Fees GBP
Forex Fees SEK

and play around with a few TXNs to see if you think that lets you
keep a better record of where your money went.

HTH