On 10/10/2014 09:40 PM, John Ralls wrote:
On Oct 10, 2014, at 4:14 PM, Alex Aycinena <alex.aycin...@gmail.com> wrote:
John,
On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 5:26 PM, John Ralls <jra...@ceridwen.us> wrote:
Alex,
How much clean-up/refactoring and C++ conversion are you willing to do in the
process?
I am willing to do some when I spot an opportunity, or it is pointed out to me.
May I consult you about this?
Of course.
[SNIP]
Be careful with automatically invoking the lots facility: In the usual
multi-currency transaction there is no potential for capital gain because the
holding period of the “foreign” currency is 0. That case is making a purchase
or sale of something in a foreign currency which is immediately converted to
one’s home currency. Even when the user has long-term holdings of the “foreign”
currency that *are* subject to capital gains and losses, those immediate
transactions won’t and shouldn’t clutter up the database with 0-value cap gain
splits.
I agree with you here. If someone, for example, use their credit card in a foreign
country (essentially 'buying' the foreign currency and then immediately spending it),
then I don't think lots would be involved as long as both accounts are in the
book-currency. If the user has a long-term holding in the "foreign" currency,
and then spends it, the system would have a cost for that holding, and if the cost is
used to value the spend, then there would be no capital gain/loss. If the uses wishes to
value the spend at, say, the then current exchange rate, then the system has the data to
calculate and show the resulting gain/loss and create the split to the account specified
for the account (with the user option to override).
Right. The credit card transaction in particular has the potential to ignore the
"foreign" currency. I was thinking more of the people who track "cash in
wallet". If I'm visiting
(my family says Japan is next) and get 10000JPY from the ATM I'd need a Cash
and some Expense accounts in JPY to account for spending that cash. Since those
transactions
wouldn't be in the book currency (USD in my case) I'd be presented with a
Transfer dialog box for each, and might select a different exchange rate from
the one used for the
ATM withdrawal, inadvertently creating a wholly bogus cap gain/loss. That's all
entirely hypothetical, I treat cash as an expense category and don't worry much
about how
I spend it because in general I don't use it that much., but since "Cash in
Wallet" is one of the accounts in the templates I'm sure there are others who do
track it.
Regards,
John Ralls
Decades ago, when I was doing more international business travel, I kept
track of my money exchange receipts and periodically counted the cash in
my pocket and wrote it down. I had a little basic program that tracked
my business and personal expenses.
Because I would exchange money at different times (and rates), it was
possible to assign the more favorable exchange rates to my personal
expenses. I don't know whether this minor 'profit' ever approached
paying for the (slight) extra time needed to keep track of things, but
it was fun.
Bob G
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