GnuCash allows you to update the Currency Exchange Rates in two
different ways, manual and automatic. In the following two sections we
will work through both ways.
Before we start, let’s have a quick look at the Chart of Accounts
Initial setup of 3 bank accounts with different currencies.
Open the Price Editor by going to → .
Price Editor Window.
Click on the button to add a new currency exchange. A window will appear in which you can setup a new exchange rate. This window should appear like this:
Add Price Editor Window
Set the Namespace to Currency and the Security to EUR (Euro). Then set the exchange rate between the selected security and the selected currency. In this example, you will set the exchange rate to 1 EUR for 1 USD.
The Price Editor window after setting the exchange rate between Euros and US Dollars
Chart of Accounts after setting the exchange rate between Euros and US Dollars.
Observe that since you have no exchange rate for HKD, GnuCash
doesn’t convert the HKD accounts to USD. This will be added in the next
section.
In the previous section you saw how you could manually define a new currency exchange rate, but there must be an easier way to do it. And there is.
Open the Price Editor by going to → .
Price Editor Window before you obtain online quotes.
Click on the button to automatically load the various exchange rates you need.
 | Note |
|---|---|
If the button is disabled,
that means that the | |
Price Editor Window after we obtained online quotes.
You can observe that GnuCash will download exchange rates for all
currencies you are using in your various accounts. This will happen
every time you click on or have GnuCash
downloading quotes/exchange rates automatically as per Section 8.6.3, “Configuring for Automatic Retrieval of Quotes”
And if you check the main Chart of Accounts you will see that
GnuCash has automatically converted the HKD amount to USD amount on the
parent accounts that are in USD, as well as on the Total (USD) column.
Also the Euro accounts have been been updated with the latest exchange
rate.
Chart of Accounts after we obtain online quotes.
Whenever you create an account that uses a non-default currency,
exchange rate retrieval will be automatically enabled for that currency.
However, if you later delete that account, GnuCash will not automatically
disable exchange rate retrieval for that currency.
If you have deleted the last account for a particular currency, and you do not wish to retrieve exchange rates for that currency anymore, do the following:
Open the Securities window by selecting → .
Make sure the Show National Currencies box is selected.
Expand the CURRENCY row.
Double click on the currency for which you want to disable exchange rate retrieval.
Deselect the Get Online Quotesbox and click .