Hi, I'm using ledger 3.0-pre and was wondering if I could simplify the following set of transactions?
Essentially we are invoiced 1,000 euros on feb 1 (2,000 aussie dollars at that time). However we don't pay the invoice until mar 1 at which point it only cost 1,950 aussie dollars to pay the account. Meaning that we need to record a foreign currency gain of $50 to make the books balance. I've implemented the following scheme described by Peter Selinger <http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~selinger/accounting/tutorial.html#4.2> D 1,000.00 AUD D 1,000.00 EUR 2009/01/01 First sale Income:Sales -10000.00 AUD Assets:Bank 10000.00 AUD P 2009/02/01 EUR 2.00 AUD 2009/02/01 Marketing (1 EUR = 2.00 AUD) Expenses:Marketing 2000.00 AUD Currency:AUD -2000.00 AUD Liabilities:Accounts Payable:EUR -1000.00 EUR Currency:EUR 1000.00 EUR P 2009/02/15 EUR 1.90 AUD P 2009/03/01 EUR 1.95 AUD 2009/03/01 Pay Marketing Invoice (1 EUR = 1.95 AUD) Assets:Bank -1950.00 AUD Currency:AUD 1950.00 AUD Liabilities:Accounts Payable:EUR 1000.00 EUR Currency:EUR -1000.00 EUR It works very well. At all times my balance sheet and income and expenses always are in sync and -X AUD allows me to report to my accountant what the current situation is in aussie dollars. However I was wondering if using more advanced ledger commodity treatment I could simplify this scheme? For example are the Currency accounts strictly necessary? As you can see the transactions for these accounts could be automatically derived. Regards, Peter
