2025-03-27 GnuCash IRC logs
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02:17:43 <Sherlock> @tell Gimp3 Your assumption is correct. It went in on December 23rd but is identified as fixing bug 799494.
02:17:44 <gncbot> Sherlock: The operation succeeded.
02:17:45 <gncbot> Sherlock: Sent 10 hours and 42 minutes ago: <Gimp3> Awesome, I think that's the bug! The patch from comment 5 fixed the issue for me as well. The bug is marked as fixed so I assume this will be included in the next release?
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08:30:35 <bauen1> okay, now I should be registered and be able to chat I think ...
08:32:01 <bauen1> anyway, hello, I have a, probably weird, setup with multiple currencies, and I'm very annoyed that GnuCash asks me to enter the exchange rate for every split separately. even if entered correctly, that sometimes leads to rounding errors in my main currency
08:34:27 <bauen1> So, I have some receipts in KRW that I payed with my credit card, so there's some exchange fee in EUR, the actual exchange, after I've imported the transaction from online banking, I go and manually merge the fee into the transaction and then also enter the original KRW total and exchange rate
08:35:36 <bauen1> But if I now want to split the total to some 3-5 splits from a receipt I have, GnuCash will ask me for every single split to enter the exchange rate again - which is laborious, error prone, and seems to also lead to the occasional rounding error
08:35:36 <bauen1> Am I doing something wrong, or is that simply a "not so great user experience" part of GnuCash ?
08:51:57 <bauen1> I think what I'm expecting to happen is that for multi-currency a transaction has separate balances for each currency, so e.g. if a transaction involves USD, CAD, HKD, EUR, KRW, ..., the splits for each currency must add up to 0 for the transaction to be balanced - and to exchange a currency you make a deposit to TRADING:CURRENCY:EUR and a withdrawl from TRADING:CURRENCY:KRW
08:53:02 <bauen1> So only the trading accounts set the exchange rate and that would also avoid rounding errors when splitting up other currencies than your main one ... but evenidently that's not how GnuCash works - so why is that ?
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09:06:36 <warlord> technically you don't need to use the Trading Accounts, but they do help you keep it all in balance. me, I just just record foreign-currency transactions in my local currency -- especially credit-card transactions.
09:08:46 <bauen1> warlord: hmm, the thing is, I wanted to avoid having to do that ... because that means I would have to split up receipts by hand, and calculate exchange rates by hand - which is a bit worse than what I'm currently doing - but I would also loose the ability to reconcile accounts in KRW (which is tbh. much nicer if I owe someone money for food etc..., rent, ...)
09:09:24 <bauen1> I've realize that trading accounts don't do the thing I would have expected them to do, but yes, they are still useful to me to some extend
09:09:26 <warlord> Do you have bank or credit-card accounts in multiple currencies?
09:10:02 <bauen1> warlord: I will probably end up having a KRW bank account so, and I have a couple of asset accounts in KRW too - so I guess yes ?
09:10:03 <warlord> trading accounts exist to balance out a standard "I exchanged USD for MXN" transaction.
09:10:36 <bauen1> I know what I'm doing is massively overengineered / overcomplicated
09:10:46 <warlord> Okay, then you probably do need to record it. IMHO, you should have Income and Expense accounts in the various currencies to make it easier.
09:11:04 <bauen1> yes, that is actually what I'm doing - and it's working great
09:11:10 <warlord> And yes, if you have a transaction with multiple currencies, you DO need to supply the exchange rate between the transaction currency and each foreign-currency split.
09:11:22 <bauen1> except for the way GnuCash handles multiple-currencies for each split individually
09:11:48 <warlord> The key is choosing the correct transaction currency, which will depend on the account register where you create the transaction
09:12:06 <bauen1> is there a way to view in the transaction currency inside GnuCash easily ?
09:12:12 <warlord> No
09:12:33 <warlord> There is no GUI visibility into that.
09:13:15 <bauen1> I guess for most parts it would be fine (spending from credit card would be in EUR, so have to enter exchange rates for each KRW split, transfers between KRW accounts are in KRW, ...)
09:13:15 <bauen1> I don't think I've had the issue of a wrong transaction currency - i.e. having to enter exchange rates where unnecessary
09:13:48 <bauen1> oh well, but I guess that part is working for me
09:13:50 <warlord> Then it sounds like it is working as designed.
09:14:27 <warlord> My recommendation is to enter the foreign amount, not the "rate". It's the amount/value that gets stored; the rate is computed.
09:15:00 <bauen1> but then, is there an accounting reason for having one transaction currency, instead of computing the balance for each currency individually ?
09:16:08 <bauen1> currently I have a transaction from my credit-card (EUR) to e.g. expense1 (KRW) expense2(KRW) - and my bank tells me I spent 10€, original amount 15500 KRW and exchange rate 1/1550 - and a receipt telling me expense1: 5000KRW, expense2: 10500KRW
09:16:42 <warlord> Arbitrage. The receipt and CC can be different due to the fluctuating exchange rates.
09:17:19 <bauen1> when I enter the split in GnuCash, I enter the KRW to expenses, and then fill in the exchange rate using the "rate" (not direct amount in EUR), since I would otherwise have to manually calculate how much 5000KRW actually was in this transaction
09:17:22 <warlord> Each split has an amount and value; the amount is in the currencu/commodidy of the Split->Account, and the value is in the Transaction currency.
09:17:42 <warlord> well, that's why you get rounding errors.
09:17:50 <bauen1> warlord: ah, I have a debit card thingy, so when I get the transaction from my bank, the exchange rate has already settled
09:18:23 <bauen1> yes, I know that's why I get rounding errors, obviously annoying, not the end of the world
09:19:07 <bauen1> ah okay, so then I am entering the "amount" (in KRW), and GnuCash asks me for the exchange "rate" to calculate the "value" because it uses that internally ?
09:19:28 <warlord> Yes. Or the other way around, depending on how you enter the transaction.
09:19:42 <warlord> (you enter the value, and it asks you for the rate to compute the amount)
09:20:16 <bauen1> wouldn't it be easier for me to have the transaction currency in KRW if I used my credit card (EUR) to pay in KRW ?
09:20:59 <bauen1> since, then I'd only have to enter the exchange rate once, right ? (Technically I'd have to add it for the exchange fee I currently also add as a split too ...)
09:25:31 <bauen1> okay, so using "creditcard" (EUR) and then actually using "creditcard:KRW" (KRW) to create the transaction will make the transaction currency KRW - and entering things much easier ... but that doesn't work with importing statments in EUR
09:25:51 <bauen1> And I'm guessing there's no way to change a transactions currency after creation ?
09:26:12 <warlord> correct, there is no way to change it
09:26:54 <bauen1> I guess what I'm currently doing is already the best way I currently have
09:27:46 <bauen1> but then, is there an accounting / legal reason for having a transaction currency, instead of balancing the currencies amongst themselves and using trading accounts to exchange currency ?
09:43:51 <bauen1> I guess another option would be to record the bank statement from `prepaid credit card:EUR` to `prepaid credit card:KRW` and then enter a separate transaction splitting the expenses to various KRW accounts
09:44:37 <bauen1> that would mean a transaction currency in EUR for the exchange and a transaction currency in KRW for the actual spending - with only having to enter the exchange rate a single time
09:45:58 <bauen1> that's pretty much how I had it setup for the occasional paypal spending in USD ... except I'm bothered by then having 2 transactions that are not actually linked to each other
09:53:12 <bauen1> and thinking about it, that would seem like the correct way to do it - since in the case of a credit card that's how you would also record exchange gains/losses
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10:08:31 <bauen1> warlord: thanks for the help
10:13:12 <chris> CDB-Man: i'm seeing messages from time to time but losing track due to less time. maybe bugzilla would be safer
10:14:55 <chris> CDB-Man: wrt "Net Sales" "Net Proceeds" etc can you add into bugzilla or the truth-table exactly which scenario would trigger the texts?
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17:52:40 <jralls> fell, is https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash-docs/pull/350 OK?
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