[GNC] New Australian user questions

[sunfish62 at yahoo.com]

If it were me, I'd just register everything in AUD, as an earlier person suggested. If everything comes through PayPal as AUD, why engage in this complexity? Is there a compelling reason to track costs in the original currencies? 

Having lived in a number of different countries around the world, I've only created native currency accounts for a very limited number of things, things where I was paying out in a local currency from a local currency-denominated account, such as a local bank account. That just makes reconciling a little easier. 

Transactions from my native currency to a local currency (e.g., when I buy something in a local store but use my native credit card) I register only in the native currency. 

Is there something I'm missing here? 

⁣David T. ​

On Sep 10, 2024, 1:45 PM, at 1:45 PM, Kevin Buckley via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>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
>
>
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