Cannot change currency of a category
Hi. I used to live in Hong Kong, where I kept all categories in HKD. Now that I am based in the USA, I want to change the currency of the categories to USD. But when I select "Edit Categories", the currency window is greyed out (cannot be selected) and I can only edit the name. In this case, it is a sub-category that is in HKD whose parent category is already in USD.
Is there a reason why the currency of a given category cannot be edited? Is there some other amendment mechanism that will do the trick?
Jordan
Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
1 Posted by Ben Spencer on 07 Sep, 2009 02:17 PM
Hi Jordan
The software deliberately prevents users from changing the currency on an account or category once it contains transactions. It is possible to export your data to an XML file, edit the XML in a text editor changing the CURRID for the category. However I doubt that doing so will achieve the result that you desire. The trouble is that if your category already contains transactions the exchange rate and value for each of this transactions will not change when you change the currency in the XML file. I think that in your situation nthe best option would be to create a new category for the USD transactions and discontinue using the the HKD one. You could put both the USD and HKD categories under the same parent for convenience.
I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
2 Posted by Katherine on 01 Jun, 2010 10:34 PM
I am having the same problem - started using Moneydance - which I love btw, while living in the US but now live in Canada, and find that the reports are all converting to USD which is confusing, and every transaction wants to report USD so I manually change the rate to 1 , but still the budget reports convert all to USD. Good suggestion to set up a new sub-account I guess. Thanks
3 Posted by Ben Spencer on 02 Jun, 2010 04:54 PM
You can change your base currency to Canadian dollars. This will change the currencies many of the reports are displayed in. To change te base currency select Tools->Currencies/Exchange Rates. Select Canadian Dollar and click the "set base currency" button.
With regard to the categories. You'll have to create a new set of categories in the appropriate currency.
Ben Spencer
4 Posted by wanderingted on 08 Jun, 2010 09:20 AM
In this discussion, a solution is proposed but it doesn't work for me. Am I missing something. No ability to toggle currency of a category is a serious problem for me in reporting. Is there an extension solution? Any help is greatly appreciated.
5 Posted by Ben Spencer on 08 Jun, 2010 02:33 PM
Reports such as the income and expense report will display the currency of the category,the totals at the bottom of this report will be converted into the base currency. This functionality cannot be changed, however you can change the base currency as described above.
Ben
6 Posted by matso on 31 May, 2011 09:55 PM
BIgger question here is WHY do you associate a Category with a currency??!! I've used a lot of accounting programs, but never seen this one before. Like "wantderingted"above, this is a deal breaker for me. Unfortunate, as MD2011 is otherwise a very very nice program.
7 Posted by Ben Spencer on 01 Jun, 2011 01:28 PM
In Moneydance (and double entry bookkeeping in general) an income or expense category is an account like any other. All accounts in Moneydance have one and only one currency. It is hard to imagine how the running balance or the total balance of an expense account would work if it contained transactions that were in different currencies.
I realise that the reports in Moneydance need some tweaking to make this more usable.
I am sorry that the software does not currently meet your needs.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support
8 Posted by plzr on 26 Jun, 2011 08:23 PM
It would help to be able to do batch change from a category in one currency to a (newly created) category in the correct currency.
As it is, I'm having to go into 36 splits and re-assign 8 categories individually - a lot of work.
Otherwise, liking MD 2011 very much.
thanks,
Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 24 Jul, 2011 07:27 PM.