GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 534618
Currency should also be set in the transaction and not just the account
Last modified: 2018-06-29 22:04:50 UTC
Please describe the problem: My standard currency is CHF and I have a credit card in CHF and an expense account in CHF. Unfortunately I have done a transaction in the UK, so the currency of this transaction is GBP. However, if I try to enter the value with an exchange rate, the system would not open the exchange rate pop up or let me specify a currency and records 5 CHF instead of 5 GBP. Steps to reproduce: 1. Create two accounts of the same currency. 2. Try to create a transaction, which was made in a currency different than the currency of the accounts. Actual results: There is no way (at least I could not find any) to tell the system that I want to record the amount of 5 in GBP instead of CHF (which is the base currency for these two accounts). Expected results: I would expect the system to offer the exchange rate dialog or have another field, where I can input which currency the amount is in. The whole thing works fine if one of the accounts has the currency of the transaction, however I would like to avoid creating several sub-accounts for all the currencies I use. Does this happen every time? Yes Other information:
I watched the same in bug 547335#c5 1. I think, I also described a workaround there. Could you test that?
Oops, I should look closer. How should a transaction from a CHF account to a CHF account in GBP work? How should the program know, that there a third currency should be related? If every transaction should ask for a potential third currency, this would be overkill. Your solution is really simple: Create a subaccount of expenses like expenses_in_GB with currency GBP. Then the transfer editor would pop up. I think, this is well explained at http://svn.gnucash.org/docs/guide/chapter10.html. If not, tell us please, how that can be enhanced. Further I think, this is no bug in GnuCash, at best the lack of the german documentation. You are invited, to help us, to fix that. See http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/De/FAQ#F:_Wie_kann_ich_zum_GnuCash-Projekt_beitragen.3F So, what is your opinion?
I think in general it would be nice if the register showed the currency of each split line and allowed the user to change them individually. However this would have to be done in a way that didn't cause inconvenience when you don't need to change the default (which is the usual case). For example, if the split line is USD by default, typing in "EUR 6.32" could change the split's currency to EUR and pop up an exchange rate dialog asking for a USD-EUR rate. We would also need to offer a drop-down list. Perhaps the currency could have its own column. Just a rough idea.
Sorry for not following up for a while. The mail got lost in the ever growing inbox... Situation: Lets say I buy something in Singapore, paying in SGD, but my expense account and the credit card are denominated in CHF. How to I convince the system to use SGD for the transaction and not CHF?! My current workaround is the following: I have created dummy accounts for each of the currencies I need to use (USD, SGD, GBP, etc). If I need to enter a transaction I open the dummy account for SGD and enter the split there. The dummy account itself will not be involved in the transaction at all, its sole purpose is to "force" GnuCash to see the transaction as SGD. Then the FX dialog pops up and I am happy, recording a transaction in SGD, even though both accounts are in CHF. Entering Transaction (in SGD): SGD Dummy 0 (SGD) 0 (SGD) CHF CreditCard 100 (SGD) CHF Expenses 100 (SGD) FX rate: 1:2 View from CreditCard Account (in CHF): SGD Dummy 0 (CHF) 0 (CHF) CHF CreditCard 50 (CHF) CHF Expenses 100 (CHF) .-. I am working in Finance projects and for business accounting it is common to have several currencies (account currency, local currency, transaction currency, group currency, etc.). I agree that diverting from the current account currency model in GnuCash to a more flexible transaction-currency model may be confusing to users, so I would suggest it becomes an option in the settings. To implement it in the GUI I would suggest that by switching this option on, the system offers a drop down list of currencies for each transaction / split. This way the UI can be simple for users who don't need it, but offers the choice if you have such transactions. Overall, I am quite satisfied with my current workaround. Technically I could remove the trace of the dummy account after entering the transaction, as the currency of the transaction is set to SGD, but it is certainly easier to keep the transactions in there to change the FX rate later (when the CC statement comes in). This way, I can see the original amount in SGD and I have the correct amount in CHF to reconcile expenses and credit card. .-. On a sideline, this concept could also be used to "tag" transactions. Not pretty, but it works.
Sorry. The second transaction should of course look like that: View from CreditCard Account (in CHF): SGD Dummy 0 (CHF) 0 (CHF) CHF CreditCard 50 (CHF) CHF Expenses 50 (CHF)
Re 4/5: Nice trick! Commited to http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/De/Aktienhandel#Zwei_Standardw.C3.A4hrungs-Konten_in_einer_Drittw.C3.A4hrung_bebuchen It should also become part of GnuCash-Docs. Re 3: +1 :-) I would like to have a currency column with a pulldown list.
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