multiple currencies in expenses
Imagine going on an international business trip and have the need to report all expenses. Each transaction would need to be in different currencies.
Is it possible to allow a different currency for each transaction when entering expenses. Each expense account can have its default currency but each transaction could be made in any currency with the right exchange rate. This would need to be done within each expense account rather than creating different accounts for each currency and then transferring the monies around. This is much easier to handle for us non-accountants who have to travel internationally on a regular basis.
i.e. expense amount is EUR10 * exchange rate = Y amount in default currency etc. etc. No need to use other accounts. You may have lunch in Miami and dinner in Sao Paulo but you still may need to expense these claims even though they are on different currencies.
Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately it won’t be possible to implement this the way you have in mind because your suggestion breaks one of GnuCash’ core design decisions namely: one account has exactly one currency associated with it. So it’s not possible to have one expense account which holds splits in different currencies.
However I don’t think this is necessary either if you look at the expenses from the money flow perspective:
Suppose you pay an expense in cash in EUR (a foreign currency). That would mean you have cash in your possession in EUR. So you should have a cash account in GnuCash in the EUR currency. Paying the expense from that account, GnuCash will ask you for a conversion rate because the expense account is managed in say CAD.
If you paid for the expense instead from a bank account in CAD currency, the bank will already have done the currency conversion for you and you simply create a transaction from your bank account to your expense account in CAD. You can if you like add the conversion rate as a note for your convenience.
So the main point is to create the proper asset accounts to model your real assets in their respective real currencies. From there GnuCash will do the rest.
-
Alen Siljak commented
I would like to know what is the best scenario for tracking expenses made in different currencies. And I'm not thinking of a 10-day foreign trip. I've lived in three different continents in the recent past but would still like to have an overview of the financial situation. And, yes, travelling to other places and entering expenses is a pain.
We do a conversion from EUR to whatever acccount (THB, for example). After that, all the expenses are in THB - food, lodging, entertainment... Are we supposed to create new accounts in THB currency just for this trip?
Thanks for any insights. -
Jim DeLaHunt commented
I think you can already do the arithmetic part of this. Say the exchange rate is EUR 1: DEFAULT 1.4, where DEFAULT is your default currency. In the amount field of the transaction, type 10*1.4, then push the TAB key to move to the next field. GnuCash does the multipllication, and fills in the resulting number, 14.00, as the transaction amount. See http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Keyboard_Shortcuts .
What this does not do is store the foreign currency or exchange rate in the transaction amount. You can make a comment in the transaction description, though: e.g. "EUR10 @ 1:DEF1.4".
If your transaction is between an account (e.g. Brasil cash) in the foreign currency and another cash (e.g. Expenses:Travel) in the default currency, then GnuCash is already creating a currency exchange. See the instructions at http://svn.gnucash.org/docs/guide/currency_purchase1.html .
For example,