[GNC] Multicurrency Splits and the resulting Transfer Funds dialog

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Hello, Homer 99:

On 2025-06-25 01:06, homer99 homer wrote:
> ... still I hope for a better solution or acknowledgement that this could be a legitimate bug or very least an enhancement request.
>
> Scenario:
> My base currency is CAD (Canadian), therefore the majority of my Expense accounts are in CAD. I travel regularly and incur expenses paid with foreign cash. To support this, I create foreign cash accounts, funded with ATM withdrawals from my CAD bank account (this transaction is also affected by the below issue). I then wish to add various entries to the foreign cash account that deduct foreign cash and increase my various CAD Expense accounts.
>
> Starting from the foreign cash account open in both cases:
> ... [omit Case 1, it appears to be working well for you] ...
>
> Case 2:
> Attempting to directly enter a transaction into the register with a split to an Expense Account (CAD) opens the Transfer dialog ..., but most every section is now prepopulated and disabled. The entire "Basic Information" section is disabled yet has the amount entered from the register before the Transfer dialog was presented (which, logically to me, is in the foreign currency, as that is what is known at the time of data entry and in the context of the foreign cash account). The "Transfer From" section is disabled yet shows Currency as CAD (likely due to the Expense account being CAD), the "Transfer To" section is disabled and for some reason shows the Currency as that of the Foreign account I started in, and the account lists for both have disappeared altogether. Only the Currency Transfer section is enabled, but, of course, it is in the wrong context as the above "Transfer From" and "Transfer To" currencies are reversed (in my opinion) evidenced by the Amount being in the Fo
>   reign currency context.
>
> I prefer to enter transactions using Case 2, as the data entry effort is quicker when taking advantage of the auto-lookup of accounts in the register and the Transfer dialog being prepopulated as a result. Yet Case 2, in GNUCash current form, is only possible if the amount entered for the CAD expense split is manually converted to the CAD currency at the time of entry. Cannot the Transfer dialog be enhanced to support Case 2, by having the Transfer From and To reversed and having the Amount be dynamic based upon whatever option is chosen in the Currency Transfer section?
>
> Am I not understanding something?

I think you are understanding well, and that you are wishing for the 
same enhancement to GnuCash which I would like to see.

I am also in your situation: base currency in which most of my 
transactions are denominated, but frequent enough use of foreign 
currencies that I have income, expense, asset, and liability accounts in 
those currencies also, and my reporting needs are informal enough that I 
don't feel compelled to mark every transaction to my base currency.

I routinely run up against the Transfer Dialogue in the course of 
entering transactions in foreign currencies. It frequently trips me up. 
I discover that I entered the amount from the wrong currency in the 
account register, so that the Transfer Dialogue appears with the foreign 
and home currency amounts in the reverse places. I know of no way to 
recover from this except to cancel out of the dialogue, change the 
currency amount I enter in the register, then enter the dialogue again, 
this time with the numbers the right way around.

So, the Transfer Dialogue is inflexible in a situation where I wish it 
would be flexible.  I sympathise with the GnuCash designers for this 
dialogue. The inflexibility makes the dialogue easier to implement.

The enhancements I would like to see in this dialogue are:

 1. Have it show the base currency of the transaction
 2. Let you change the base currency of the transaction
 3. Show you the actual from and to currencies in the dialogue
 4. Let you swap the from and to currencies and amounts in the dialogue
 5. If you change the split value brought into the dialogue from the
    account register, write the changed value back to the account register
 6. By default, re-use the exchange rate from another split when
    calculating the base currency amount of a second split to an account
    in the same non-base currency
 7. (Maybe) let the user enter the total debits and total credits for a
    transaction in the base currency and in each alternate currency, and
    use this exchange rate for all splits in the transaction. (While the
    transaction is incompletely entered, there will be some surplus
    which is unassigned or orphan until the remaining splits are entered.)
 8. The combination of 6. and 7. mean that one can enter multiple splits
    in an alternate currency without having to fret about th exchange
    rate to the base currency, each time, redundantly.

That would let me recover when I started entering a multicurrency 
transaction the wrong way, by making corrections within the dialogue. I 
would not need to back out of the dialogue, change my starting entry, 
and enter the dialogue again.

I entered this enhancement request into the bugs database five years ago 
as Bug 797660 - /Unexpected From/To relationship in Transfer Funds 
dialogue /<https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797660> . Thank you 
for giving me a reason to write this out again. I will add this 
description of the enhancement to that request.

Some other related bugs in the bug database (I've added this list to Bug 
797660:

https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797661 "Exchange rate persists 
even when edits make transaction single-currency"
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797664 "Per-split exchange 
rates confusing, and UI doesn't explain well"
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797701 "Trading Accounts _ 
Improve Documentation"
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=796798 "Transfer Funds Dialog 
Confusing" (which I would entitle, "Share price handling is confusing in 
Transfer Funds Dialog")
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=796545 "Multi currency 
transaction can in split view confuse users."
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=534618 "Currency should also be 
set in the transaction and not just the account"
https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=796997 "Currency Conversion 
Dialog appears when recording transactions between same currency accounts."

Best regards,
       —Jim DeLaHunt