Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:25:55 <2234422.7n09t1o...@legolas.kobaltwit.lan>
Geert Janssens <geert.gnuc...@kobaltwit.be>
On Thursday 09 October 2014 14:30:28 Alex Aycinena wrote:
Developers,
I am planning to add a feature to gnucash, primarily, but not
exclusively, related to currency accounting, and wanted to summarize
what I was thinking of. I would welcome feedback.
Since version 2.4.0, GnuCash supports trading accounts as described in
'Tutorial on multiple currency accounting' and 'Multiple currency
accounting in GnuCash' by P. Selinger (see
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Trading_Accounts). I believe Mike
Alexander added this feature.
In his tutorial, he (P. Selinger) mentions a 'reference currency
method' as an alternative to the use of trading accounts. This is
essentially the feature I wish to add.
Today, in file->properties->Accounts tab, you can turn "trading
accounts" on or off. I propose to change this to a selection of three
alternatives: use trading accounts, specify a 'book currency', or
neither trading accounts nor book currency. If trading accounts is
selected, it would work as implemented by Mike. If neither is
selected, it would work as gnucash does now without trading accounts
selected. So no one would be forced to use the new feature.
What benefit does the current situation (without trading accounts) have
on its own compared
to your new proposal ?
That is part of what puzzles me, why would anyone, first moment that
they encounter anything that isn't HomeCurrency or HomeUnit *not* turn
on Trading accounts. Shouldn't GnuCash be doing it *for* people when
they
buy shares,
invest in a pension plan and
other ordinary life stuff or
even exchange some Euros for a family holiday just for the joy of
currency or a
teenager doing something on-line in a new-currency, etc (not my idea
of fun but it happens and should be recorded).
In other words should we really keep the old way or can it be modeled
in your new proposal as well by for example assuming a default currency ?
I'm wondering if the formalisation of a book-currency isn't seen by some
as governmental rather than natural accounting. I'm in URP flox
Or a related question: how hard would it be to migrate an existing
multi-currency book without
trading accounts to your proposal ?
That is something that interests me too. I am running a book (I don't
like that term, it sounds like gambling, but I'll use it) for a relative
as well as myself, we know how much we owe each other by common
agreement. I think it would be quite difficult without Trading
accounts, coz GnuCash doesn't do bunches of currency or shares
naturally.
--
Wm...
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