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BudgetManager with Multiple currencies

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guy.bursell

03 Apr, 2010 03:02 PM

Using MD 2010r2_735 on Windows. My base currency is GBP. I have USD accounts, including a checking account. I also have current/checking accounts in UK. I want to create a budget where I can set a budget for my US checking accound spend, and also my UK account spend. However, when adding categories to my budget, I get some automatically that appear using USD and some that appear usinig GBP.

It would be great to specify the account in the Budget when assiging categories, but right now it seems to be global for all accounts?

Any ideas if or how I can set this up? Thanks.

1. 1 Posted by Ben Spencer on 03 Apr, 2010 03:06 PM

   

   Each budget item is based on the currency of the income or expense category used. You can set the currency on an income or expense category when your create the category. You do this under Tools->Edit Categories.

   It is not possible to have two budgets on the same category in differenct currencies.

   Sincerely

   Ben Spencer

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2. 2 Posted by Jaume Miralpeix on 05 Apr, 2010 05:15 AM

   

   Hi Ben,

   I had the same problem and tried to change the currency of the category.
   However, I am not allowed to change the currency of an already existing category.
   What am I supposed to do if I want to budget a category in a currency different from the one it was created with?

   Thanks,

   Jaume

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3. 3 Posted by guy.bursell on 05 Apr, 2010 01:17 PM

   

   Jaume,

   I had this same issue! It's a bit cumbersome, but I ended up creating both UK and US categories, each with GBP and USD currencies. I then only used the Find and Replace extension to reassign my USD categories to USD accounts, GBP categories to UK accounts etc. Took me a day to do as I have records going back to 2001. Where I couldn't change the category currency, it's typically down to the fact that it has been assigned to transactions or that it's used in accounts of different currencies. Although, I couldn't quite figure out how MD was assigning the currency to the category, as it does seem to change based on the last account the transaction was used in if it's a different currency! Where I needed to change the category currency I went through this process:
   1) Add '??' to the end of the category name in Tools -> Edit Categories
   2) Create a new category with the same Name (just no '??') with the currency you want assigned to the category
   3) Use Find and Replace to reassign all transactions against the '??' category to the new one you created.
   4) Delete the '??' category and you're done!

   Worked for me. As I said, it is cumbersome, but there's no way I could have done anything like this in MS Money so I'm happy with this in MD. Hope this helps,

   Ben,

   Thanks for the fast response, as you can tell I've reorganised my categories and have the desired result. I'm also building a list of enhancements I'll submit for multiple currencies which I'll post soon.

   Thanks,

   Guy.
   

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4. 4 Posted by Ben Spencer on 05 Apr, 2010 02:15 PM

   

   Hi Jamie

   You are correct in that you cannot change the currency of an account or category that already contains transacitons. This would result in an incorrect change in the balance of that account or category.

   If you want to budget for a category in a different currency you would have to create a new category in the desired currency,

   Ben

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