Opening balance for foreign currency account

[litt.f...@gmail.com]

Hi,

Is there a way to specify the expected price/cost position for a opening balance at the time it was opened?

I have a new financial year and the foreign currency rate changed from the closing balance last year. My accountants did all my accounts in GBP so there is now a difference between my closing balance last year and opening balance the next.

I would like to know if there is a way to specify something like

2019-04-01 balance Assets:USDAccount 200.48 USD {{152.65 GBP}}

I know the above is invalid syntax, but it demonstrates what I'm attempting to achieve.

The only way I can think of doing this is with a price directive?

[Daniele Nicolodi]

On 05/11/2020 12:02, litt.f...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there a way to specify the expected price/cost position for a opening
> balance at the time it was opened?
>
> I have a new financial year and the foreign currency rate changed from
> the closing balance last year. My accountants did all my accounts in GBP
> so there is now a difference between my closing balance last year and
> opening balance the next.

I think I am missing something: unless you operate in a currency that
has a fixes exchange ratio with GBP it does not make sense to keep your
ledger in a currency different from the real one.

However, if you operate in a currency that has a fixed exchange ratio
with GBP, you would have the problem you describe only if the fixed
exchange ratio has been revised with the new financial year. AFAIK, no
such currency exist.

> I would like to know if there is a way to specify something like
>
> 2019-04-01 balance Assets:USDAccount 200.48 USD {{152.65 GBP}}
>
> I know the above is invalid syntax, but it demonstrates what I'm
> attempting to achieve.

This is not only invalid syntax, but I also don't see how it could be
true: either your Assets:USDAccount contains 200.48 USD or it contains
152.65 GBP.

If this situation in your ledger is caused by some funny accounting, you
can "fix" it with an explicit transaction:

2019-01-01 open Assets:USDAccount
2019-01-01 open Equity:Opening-Balances

;; just for demonstration purposes
2019-01-01 pad Assets:USDAccount Equity:Opening-Balances

2019-03-31 balance Assets:USDAccount 152.65 GBP

2019-03-31 * "Fixup"
Assets:USDAccount -152.65 GBP {{ 200.48 USD }}
Assets:USDAccount

2019-04-01 balance Assets:USDAccount 200.48 USD

Cheers,
Dan