Transfers between foreign currency accounts

Fiona_8614545

Hi .. I just can't work this one out.

Home Currency is set to IDR

Scenario:

1: Invoiced currency is IDR (home currency)

2: Paid in SGD (Foreign Currency)

3: The SGD is converted to AUD and withdrawn from the bank.

I must be missing something - At the moment, the only way I can seem to record all the steps is

1: Recording the payment of the invoice (Receive payment to undeposited funds, then transfer to Reckon SGD account.

2: Perform a transfer in Reckon (SGD, Back to Undeposited Funds)

3: Perform a transfer in Reckon from Undeposited Funds to Reckon AUD account.

The reason for this is that it doesn't seem possible to transfer between two foreign currency accounts.

As I have multi currency turned on, I would have thought I would be able to record multi currency transactions with some efficiency. I must be doing something wrong / missed a basic function somewhere.

Help / workaround appreciated!!

John Graetz

Arrr! Fiona. The joys of working with multi-currency accounts, as I found out through trial and error, commencing 12 months ago. This may help you. It is possible to transfer between two foreign currency accounts, when you use the Transfer Funds function (Banking> Transfer Funds). In your particular case, it seems likely that it would be a matter of:

1. Transfer Funds From (use your SGD account)
2. For the Exchange Rate use the rate for SGD to AUD
3. For the Transfer Amount you need to use the AUD equivalent amount (the only option because the recipients account is designated in AUD.
4. For Transfer Currency you only have the option of selecting AUD

I have also found that in various circumstances, the only way that I can get something through is to use a General Journal.

John L G

Fiona_8614545

Still having this same problem and I must say, it is doing my head in.

Many thanks to John LG for his reply above, however it does not seem to work (for me at least).

Process I have followed is (screen shot is at bottom of comment)

1: Banking

2: Transfer funds

3: From (Euro in this instance) - foreign currency account

4: To (AUD in this instance) - foreign currency account

5: I receive the below message

(Warning – you cannot transfer from one foreign account to another without going through home currency)

My home currency is IDR.

Multi Currency is turned on.

I really can't believe that this is not possible.

It is called Multi-Currency, not 'Bi-Currency' or 'Home-Currency + Other Funny Currencies'

The name Multi Currency suggests that it is possible to work in foreign currencies. As such, I think recording transfers between foreign currencies is a reasonable expectation.

I am afraid I am at the end of my rope with this. I have been trying to operate a business overseas and keep the books in Reckon Accounts for years. An exercise in frustration ... what is it about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

If I am wrong on this, and recording a transfer between foreign currencies is possible (in a sensible and efficient way), please let me know and I will not only be thrilled and extremely grateful, but I will also follow up with an apology for my unjustified anger.

Fiona

John Graetz

Hi Fiona. You might be quite surprised to find out how easy this is to resolve (I believe). Your problem is that you are trying to get Reckon to transfer between Euro and AUD using the exchange rate for EUR/AUD, but, your problem is that you home currency is in IDR and Reckon has no idea what exchange rate it needs to use to convert your transfer into IDR because you have not supplied either a EUR/IDR or an IDR/AUD rate. You have to complete this exercise using two separate transactions. In my case I use an intermediary suspense account and I designate it as a bank account and call it Internal Overseas Transfers (IOT for short). I have a similar one called Internal/Internet Transfers where all sides of the transaction is in the Home Currency (IDR in your case). In my case I use the medium of Writing a cheque. In testing, I have found out that the transaction you are trying to do cannot be made using the Transfer Between Accounts medium. If you look at the example that you have provided, it is telling you that you have to use an amount which you have to calculate manually, to end up with EUR converted to IDR and this Transfer facility just does not allow this. In other words, from what I have found in testing, inputting the exchange rate of 1.65796 is meaningless. No wonder you are having problems. Instead, this is what I would be doing using the Write Cheques facility. There are some preparatory steps that you need to do first:

1.     Set up a supplier called Transfer from Wise EUR. On the right hand side of the New Supplier box, go down until you find the Currency Box and from the drop down menu change the currency from IDR to EURO. Do not try to enter a conversion rate as you cannot do so at this point. Then press Ok. You will be presented with a Reckon warning that you will need an Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable account type. Click OK and then No to just ignore the warning, as you don't require such an account for what you are trying to do.

2.     Similarly set up a supplier called Transfer to Wise AUD and in this case select the currency as AUD. Now you are set to go. Now -

3.     Using Write Cheques for your Wise EUR account, use supplier name Transfer from Wise EUR and in the cheque details section, select the account IOT and change the exchange rate at the bottom left of the cheque to the rate for the day of this transaction. i.e. using the exchange rate of EUR to IDR. Then complete your transaction. Now have a look at your IOT account and you should see the IDR equivalent of the EUR conversion.

4.     When you executed that transfer through Wise, you will have been told the exchange rates that was used and you will be able to determine from your Wise AUD account, the AUD amount that you received.

5.     Now write a cheque from your IOT account using the supplier Transfer to Wise AUD. You could use the exchange rate EUR/AUD but because of varying charges involved in your Wise transfer etc,, this may not fully work and it could leave a small residual in your IOT account. So here is a tip for you to try. Therefore, knowing what the AUD amount is from your Wise AUD bank account and knowing what the IDR value of this transfer is in you IOT account, divide one by the other so as to determine the actual rate that ended up being applicable, which should then cause your IOT account’s balance to come back to zero, and the correct amount should be showing in your AUD account. Whereas Reckon appears to only allow for an exchange rate to 5 decimal points, I have found that you can input more (to get to a more accurate end figure) even though it then seems to truncate this back to 5 decimal points.

 I hope that this all works out for you, as complicated as it might seem. I have found this method to work for me. I would also add that I might have had to fine tune the post that I originally provided above because of further experience on this subject. John L G