Currency translation

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Posted on by Paul Cogger

Hi,

I am new to Business Central and I have questions on posting general journals in a foreign currency. Our main currency is GBP, but I need to be able to post a general journal in USD to a balance sheet account. I can post the journal lines OK, for example I enter a posting date, a value of USD 5,000 and the system immediately converts this to GBP equivalent and posts this to the ledger. BUT - when I then look the posted general journal, nowhere has it recorded the USD 5,000 .... only the GBP equivalent amount.

Question 1 - why is this happening, and how can I see the original amount of USD 5,000 which I entered in the journal??

Next problem - because of the above issue, I need to revalue the USD 5,000 entry to the month end rate of exchange. I have run then Adjust Exchange Rate batch job, but of course if comes up with nothing, as the system has completely LOST the fact that a USD journal was poste din the first place??

I have been looking everywhere on the internet for information, and can find nothing.

PLEASE HELP!!!

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Gavin 2,480 on at

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RE: Currency translation

Hi Paul,

Sorry to hear you are having so many problems and frustrations with this.

You probably know this but with regards USD balances for bank accounts and debtors you could use the subsidiary ledger entries to view the USD amounts for those transactions and manually calculate "as at" balances.

I know this is far from ideal, and might not help you, but the USD and GBP amounts will be stored on those ledger entry tables. Therefore for bank account postings look at the "Bank Account Ledger Entries" and the debtors the "Customer Ledger Entries".

Thanks

Gavin
Paul Cogger 5 on at

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RE: Currency translation

Thank you again.

Just tried the CTRL ALT F1, and select View Table but all that does is open the Posted Journal Lines in a web browser. So no good there. The Config Package option worked and exported the transactions to Excel.

Another problem though was when working with general ledger accounts which represent a USD balance, so a USD Bank Account or a debtors GL account which represents a USD balance, then there isn't a way to see the "as at" balance of the account in USD. Regardless, if I use the Chart of Accounts screen, or a Trial Balance report, the balance is always in GBP equivalent.

To be honest, having been recommended BC and using it for 3 months, I have come to the conclusion that it is by no means a proper general ledger system with standard GL functionality which should have basic financial accounting functionality. I'm struggling to do the simplest of standard accounting tasks which is proving that a cheap system is not fit for purpose. I am seriously considering scrapping it and implementing a proper GL system.

Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated.

Regards,

Paul
Gavin 2,480 on at

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RE: Currency translation

Hi Paul,

A couple of ways you could export the posted journal lies would be:

1) Create a configuration package and export the Posted Gen Journal Lines to excel.

You can can then filter the data in Excel and calculate the gains and losses.

2) Use Page Inspector to export the data from Gen. Posted Journal

In the Posted General Journal page press CTRL+ALT+F1 to open the page inspector and click "View Table"

This will open the table and you can try and export to excel.

I hope this helps

Thanks

Gavin
Paul Cogger 5 on at

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RE: Currency translation

Hi Gavin,

Thank you so much for replying ... I totally follow what you have said. I am an also an ex-Dynamics GP and a SunSystems user and every other general ledger system I have ever used has full multi-currency capabilities. So no idea why Business Central doesn't have this. I need to be able to produce balance sheets in currency (ie. USD in USD, CAD in CAD etc...) but also a consolidated balance sheet in GBP whereby all foreign currency transactions are revalued at the month end closing rate for the balance sheet, and average rate for the P&L. But as you say this isn't possible in BC. CRAZY!!

So I have tried the copy to posted journal lines in my Text company and this works. So at least this method retains the USD transaction value and currency code. My next issue is how to I export this data to Excel so that I can manually calculate revaluation entries. I have looked through the Excel Add-In for BC and the list of tables, but cannot see a table which stores the USD value using this function. So again, another dead end. Don't suppose you know how I can export this?

It may be that I will need to create totally separate companies for each currency I need to produce balance accounts for, but this will be a nightmare as I will need to then maintain multiple companies in terms of charts of accounts/dimensions etc...

Thanks!

Paul
Gavin 2,480 on at

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RE: Currency translation

Hi,

As you have already found, unfortunately the currency amount isn't stored on the GL entries in Business Central. The foreign currency amounts are only ever stored on the subsidiary ledger entries i.e. if you were to post a Sales Invoice in USD, it would be stored in the "Customer Ledger Entry" but not the associated "General Ledger Entries". Likewise if you were to post a payment journal affecting a bank account it would store the USD value on the "Bank Account Ledger Entry" but not the associated "General Ledger Entries". This is why when you run the Adjust Exchange Rates batch job you only get options for Customer, Vendor and Bank Accounts. (and additional reporting currency)

Therefore in answer to question 1 :- its happening because the USD amounts aren't stored in the GL Entries. Therefore you wont be able to see the USD5000 in the GL Entries.

If you do want to see the original journal, with the original currency amounts, for future reference you can switch on "Copy to Posted Journal Lines" on the General Ledger Journal Template.

Then when you post the journal you can go to "Posted General Journal" and see the original currency amount.

Doing this won't mean you can revalue it. It just means you can refer back to the original posting to see the USD amount you posted on the journal. (otherwise as far as I can see its fairly pointless posting a general journal in USD or any other currency)

With regards your other options, the only option you do have is to set an "Additional Reporting Currency" in the "General Ledger Setup". However if this was set to USD, then as I understand it, every single transaction you posted would get a USD equivalent. Therefore this still wouldn't be ideal, although you could play around with it in your TEST company. (you can revalue an additional reporting currency and see the additional reporting currency amounts in the GL entries)

I must admit I was a little confused why currency wasn't stored in the General Ledger Entries when I started using BC, as Dynamics GP, which is the product I've used for many years, does post the currencies to the GL entries. Therefore you can revalue any GL account.

Therefore I think the only options available would be to look into the additional reporting currency a little more, or post a manual adjustment for the revaluation to a gains / loss currency account.

Maybe I'm also missing something here and others might have suggestions as well.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it helps.

Thanks

Gavin