Re: Proposal for 1.4: CoA structure redesign

["Grant Likely" <..hidden..>]

On 10/19/07, Chris Travers <..hidden..> wrote:
> On 10/19/07, Grant Likely <..hidden..> wrote:
>
> > How does this work as the exchange rates change over time?
>
> There is a separate exchangerate table.  Not quite sure how this will
> change yet.  Probably will require some sort of general import of
> exchangerates from a central authority on a daily basis (manual entry
> poses a few problems at the moment).
>
> We may also want to add an fx_fee table associated with accounts.  For
> example, some institutions charge an additional fee, so the fx_rate
> appears to be different for some accounts.  This could be used to
> calculate bank fees and the like based on handling foreign currency.

How about taking into account how different institutions calculate the
exch rate?  There will always be slight variations between
institutions (especially between different countries) on what the
exchange rate was calculated to be on any given day.

It seems to me exchange rate is more a property of a single
transaction rather than a property of a single date.  Of course
exchange rates should still be retrieved from a central authority, but
it must be possible to deviate from them on a per transaction basis.

Also, a question from the user interface point of view: When I deposit
a USD cheque into a CAD account, I will know from my deposit
adjustment the exact CAD amount for that deposit.  Currently with
1.2.x I have to manually calculate the effective exchange rate when
entering the deposit because there is no way to say "I deposited
$100USD which resulted in $96 CAD".

Finally, I'm still confused about the handling of foreign currency in
asset/liability account (from the question below).  Am I off base in
my understanding of foreign currency handling?

Cheers,
g.

> > If I deposit a USD amount into a USD bank account, that amount needs
> > to be constant over time.  If the asset account balance is stored in
> > the master currency (let's say CAD), then that account needs to be
> > fixed to a certain exchange rate at a certain point in time.  When the
> > exchange rate changes, it seems like the stored account balance needs
> > to be adjusted so the USD balance will remain constant.  Plus when
> > doing a reconciliation or report, the fixup transactions need to be
> > hidden and each real transaction needs to be adjusted for whatever
> > exch rate was in affect for that particular transaction.
> >
> > Finally, on the user interface front, will I need to know what the
> > exchange rate is even if I'm doing a USD transaction on a USD account?
> >  (For instance, paying a USD invoice to a USD account).
> >
> > Am I understanding correctly here?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > g.
> >
> > --
> > Grant Likely, B.Sc., P.Eng.
> > Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.
> > ..hidden..
> > (403) 399-0195
> >
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-- 
Grant Likely, B.Sc., P.Eng.
Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.
..hidden..
(403) 399-0195