Currencies, Shares, etc.

Currencies and shares are special commodities which have value without unit of measurement.

Examples of currencies and shares are: EUR, USD, NOKIA, etc. Currencies and shares could be used as plain values without quantity unit.

Currency and share name has to be a valid ID element (same rules applies as with account names). Examples of valid names are €, $, ¥, ACME·INC, EUR, etc. See Character Sets for full list of all supported signs, scripts and languages.

Transactions with mixed currencies or shares

Transactions with mixed currencies without value positions are not allowed.

Example of mixed currency transaction without value positions:

2017-05-01 'this is not valid
 Expences:Ice·Cream  500 NOK
 Assets:Cash        -200 SEK
 Assets:Cash      -32.47 EUR

Mixed currencies and shares must be converted to common base with value positions:

2017-05-01 'this is valid txn with NOK, SEK and EUR
 Expences:Ice·Cream  500 NOK @ 0.1065 EUR
 Assets:Cash        -200 SEK @ 0.1039 EUR
 Assets:Cash      -32.47 EUR

Positions

Positions are additional information for postings. Positions attach value information to otherwise plain currency, share, etc. posting.

Position tells valuation of that posting at the time of transaction.

Value (Closing) position

When you exchange currency, close stock position or define value to commodity, you can provide value (closing) position to the posting.

Closing position can be provided either with Unit Price @ or with Total Price =.

For example following purchases are made in foreign currencies, which are later converted to EUR.

2017-04-01 'Ice cream in Sweden with Credit Card
    expenses        200 SEK
    l:credit·card

2017-04-01 'Ice cream in Norway with Credit Card
    expenses        500 NOK
    l:credit·card

2017-04-01 'SEK/EUR exchange transaction by CC-company with Unit Price '@'
    ; Unit Price with '@'
    l:Credit·Card    200 SEK @ 0.1039 EUR
    l:Credit·Card -20.78 EUR

2017-04-01 'NOK/EUR exchange transaction by CC-company with Total Price '='
    ; Total Price with '='
    l:credit·card    500 NOK = 53.25 EUR
    l:credit·card -53.25 EUR

If you know used exchange ratio, you can record that in single transaction:

2017-04-01 'Ice cream in Sweden with Credit Card
    expenses        200 SEK = 20.78 EUR
    l:credit·card

2017-04-01 'Ice cream in Norway with Credit Card
    expenses         500 NOK
    l:credit·card -53.25 EUR = -500 NOK

Opening position

You can record opening positions with transaction data, but those are not processed at the moment. This is planned enhancement, see Profit and Loss (PnL) tracking below.

2017-01-01
 Assets:Shares  1 ACME {120 EUR}
 Assets:Cash

Profit and Loss (PnL)

Profit and Loss (PnL) tracking is not currently implemented. You can record opening position with closing position for future profit and loss calculation.

2017-01-01
 Assets:Shares  1 ACME {120 EUR} @ 123 EUR
 Assets:Cash