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Re: Changing the default currency



Chris Travers wrote:
On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:51 PM, John Bell <..hidden..> wrote:
How easy is it to change the default currency of an existing installation?

I'm setting up LSMB for an Estonian company. At the moment, the accounts
would be in Estonian Kroon (EEK). At some point in the next 2-3 years
the national currency will change to the Euro.  The exchange rate of EEK
is pegged to  the Euro which simplifies things a little. We also do our
export pricing in Euro.

Which is easier:
a) Start off in EUR and live with a little hassle in the short term
or
b) Start off in EEK and switch when the national currency changes

My gut feeling would be (a)

any suggestions?

A would be easier.

However, b is a situation which may be important to have a
recommendation for in the long-term because it happens in Latin
American countries periodically.  I.e. the currency changes to avoid
worthless currencies.  My current thinking as to a recommended
approach is to:

1)  Copy the current database to another location for historical purposes.
2)  update tables to show forex(?  Not really foreign) conversions.

Unfortunately this is a fairly complex problem so until I get
customers who need it and I can actually spend time discussing the
problems with them, I am going to leave this as it is.


This may be a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but if you ever do get "a round tuit", one approach may be to do the accounting in "Internal Currency Units" (ICU) the default exchange rate between ICU and the default currency is 1:1 - then, if there is a change of currency, one simply changes the exchange rate between ICU & Default currency.

John