[GNC] Multiple currencies involved - how to correctly deal with it?

[Boniforti Flavio]

Hi all.
I thought I got this one sorted last year, but apparently my notes are not
correct/up-to-date... please bear with me.

I've got a collection of (vintage) music instruments - I have an account
for each item, where I put the money I've spent to buy such items. Each
item is a sub-account of a super-account "Instrument collection" - and I
got 2 of them: one in CHF and the other in EUR.
I've also got different bank accounts for CHF and EUR of course.

Let's pick this example, where I'm struggling to put the numbers in the
correct accounts:
- Item ABC, sub-account of the CHF "instrument collection", bought for CHF
79.- (which I've entered as "opening balance");
- selling this item in EUR, therefore I've received money to increase my
EUR checking account;
- no shipping costs involved this time (the intermediary took 57 Euros from
the buyer and sent me 50 Euros, the other 7 Euros were already used by the
intermediary to buy and send me a shipping label).

Now the question is: how should I correctly enter all the different
transactions? My approach would've been:
- increase my EUR checking account of 50 Euros - the corresponding account
would be "item ABC";
- at this point the account "item ABC" still shows a positive value - which
cannot be true as I've sold it, so it's not anymore in my possession. How
do I register this loss?

The SECOND USE CASE is (to me) a bit more complex:
- item POD, sub-account of the "EUR instrument collection", bought for 285
Euros;
- sold the item for 630 Euros, of which 27 Euros I would spend for the
shipping;
I've done it like this:
- increase my EUR checking account by 630 Euros - the account for this
transaction is the "Item POD" one, where it gets split into 285 Euros (to
zero the value of my asset), 27 Euros to "Expenses EUR:Post:Shipping cost
of sales" and 318 Euros to "Income EUR:Music Equipment sales EUR".
The problem I'm encountering here, is the fact that in the account
"Shipping cost of sales" I have 2 transactions: an earlier one of 27 Euros
(because I had to buy the shipping label before receiving the money from
the intermediary) and then a "rebate" of 27 Euros... but this is creating a
wrong total amount for the account "shipping cost of sales"...

Anybody willing to help me go through this? It'll be very much appreciated
(and I shall take screenshots and notes for the process, so that I can just
look them up for future transactions).

TIA!
F.


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