&Thomas.Baumgart; &Thomas.Baumgart.mail;
&Michael.Carpino; &Michael.Carpino.mail;
&Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail;
2024-12-01
5.2.0

# Currencies

&kmymoney; supports the use of multiple currencies in different accounts. For example, you can set up a savings account in Euros, a checking account in British Pounds, and still have your credit card account in US Dollars.

## Base currency

During the initial &kmymoney; New File Setup, you are asked to select the base currency. Usually, the base currency is the currency you use in your home country. The base currency is the one that all income and expense categories use and that reports will be based on. When you set up a new account, &kmymoney; will automatically default to the base currency. If your account requires you to use a different currency, you can change it during the New Account Setup.

&kmymoney; is released with a list of all currencies known at the time, and that is the list from which you chose the default currency when you created your data file. The Currencies dialog is where you manage the list of currencies used in your data file. To display this dialog, select the Tools Currencies... menu item.

### Adding a currency to your data file

currencies dialog
currencies dialog

For a newly created data file, the Currencies dialog will show only the currency you chose as the default currency. If you want to use a different currency for a new account, you must first add that currency. By clicking Add, you will be presented with the same list of currencies from which you chose the default currency. You can either scroll through the list or use the search box at the top to find the currency you wish to use. Click that currency, and click OK. The Currencies dialog will then include that currency in the list displayed, and you can now select that currency when creating a new account.

### Adding a new currency

add a new currency
add a new currency

Although it does not happen often, sometimes a new currency is introduced. This can be a new virtual currency, such as Bitcoin, or a change introduced by a country for financial policy reasons. While any such currency will be added to the next version of &kmymoney;, it is possible to add it to your data file manually, in case you have a need to begin using it immediately.

To manually add a currency, bring up the Currencies dialog, as shown above. Right-click any existing currency and select New currency from the Currency Options context menu, or click New. This will bring up the Currency editor.

currency editor
currency editor

The Currency editor has some similarities to the dialog for editing details of securities

- ISO Code: the official alpha code for the currency. ISO also specified a numeric code, but this is not used in &kmymoney;.

- Name: the full name of the currency.

- Symbol: the graphic symbol that represents the currency, such as $ for United States Dollar (USD) or € for the Euro (EUR.) In some cases, the symbol can only be specified in a particular character set that includes the appropriate glyph.

- Smallest account unit: the smallest officially supported unit of the currency.

- Smallest cash unit: the smallest unit for which there is actually a bill or coin.

- Rounding method: this dropdown provides a list of possible rules for rounding amounts calculated with more precision than allowed by the smallest account unit.

- Price precision: the number of digits or decimal places to be used for recording values in the currency.

Enter the information and click OK, and the currency will be created.

## Entering transactions using different currencies

Whenever a transaction is entered that refers to more than one currency, the exchange rate editor pops up and allows you to enter an exchange rate. Initially, the most recent price available from the price database will be used as the exchange rate. See Entering exchange rates for currencies for more information on how to provide exchange rates manually and obtain online price information.

Optionally, the exchange rate is saved in the price database once entered by the user.

## Exchange rates for currencies

### Entering prices manually

The Price Editor, also called the price database editor, allows you to enter or modify prices for both investments and exchange rates between currencies. You can pull it up using the Tools Prices... menu item.

security and Currency price editor
security and currency price editor

The first column in the dialog is labelled Commodity, which displays both trading symbols of securities and the symbols of currencies. In &kmymoney;, a Price is the price of security in terms of a currency, or of a currency in terms of a second currency. For example, as I write this, the price of 1 USD in terms of 1 EUR is 0.94; that is, 1 USD costs 0.94 EUR. The first currency is the one being bought or sold, and the second one is the currency used to buy or sell it.

To manually enter a new exchange rate, press the New button, and you get the New Price Entry dialog.

new price entry
new price entry

Enter the first currency (USD in the example above) in the Security field. Enter the second currency (EUR in the example above) in the Currency field. Enter the effective date of the price in the Date field.

Press the OK button, and you will then see the Exchange Rate/Price Editor dialog.

exchange rate/price editor
exchange rate/price editor

You can specify a price in two ways. You can enter the To amount or total price of the first currency in terms of the second, or you can enter the actual Exchange rate. In this case, since you are entering the number of EUR for 1 USD, those two values are the same. However, this is the same dialog used to enter an exchange rate when you enter a transaction which involves two currencies. In that case, you will generally enter the amount, and let &kmymoney; calculate the exchange rate, taking care of any rounding.

### Online currency updates

&kmymoney; can fetch currency conversion rates from the web. Once you have entered a single price for a pair of currencies, the online quote feature will always list that pair amongst its options.

See the section on Online Price Quotes in the Investments chapter for more details.