For all "Assets" and "Equity" sub-accounts, I enforce a single-commodity only structure. While I haven't consciously enforced this in "Liabilities" and "Income" sub-accounts, they've ended up as single-commodity-only in practice. However, with "Expenses", I end up having multiple commodities in a single sub-account.
The main considerations for me are: 1. It is a bit easier to type queries, as I don't have to use the syntax for currencies. 2. There is no penalty for sub-accounts: the depth of the accounts can be limited using `--depth`. 3. Reports look neater, in my opinion, with single-commodity sub-accounts. I guess the one quasi-exception / breaking of a rule is that while I keep USD in Assets:Cash:USD, and GBP in Assets:Cash:GBP, I keep ₹ in Assets:Cash rather than Assets:Cash:INR, since that is my base currency, and the :INR seems redundant even though this choice is an affront to consistency. On Saturday, 11 December, 2021 at 2:20:24 pm UTC+5:30 POliveira wrote: > Dear all, > > I wanted to know your opinion regarding how to emulate multi-currency or > multi-commodity accounts. > I understand this is ultimately subjective, but I hope someone can provide > me some guidance. > > Case #1 > > I have multiple bank accounts with my Bank, denominated in different > currencies. Each account has a distinct account number and I receive an > individual account statement for each one of them. > > Question: Should I (option 1) create/use a separate account in ledger > (Assets:My Bank:EUR and Assets:My Bank:USD) OR should I (option 2) have > only one account (Assets:By Bank) which then has holdings in both > currencies? > > I am currently using option 1. > > Case #2 > > I have an online wallet (imagine something like Paypal, Skrill, or > Revolut) where I hold multiple currencies and I can do instant currency > exchanges. For this type of services, I do not receive any statement, > although I could download one on-demand. Depending on the specific service, > I may or may not be able to download individual statements for each > currency. > > Question is the same as in Case #1. However, in this case I am using > option 2. > > Case #3 > > I have an online brokerage account which I use to buy commodities (let's > say, corporate stocks). In this platform, I will have a portfolio of > multiple stocks AND I may have a balance of multiple currencies as well. > > Question is the same again. In this case I am using option 2 too. > > So, at the end of the day, I would like to know how do you decide whether > to use multiple single-currency/commodity accounts or a single > multi-currency/commodity account? > > Also, what do you find to be the advantages and disadvantages of each > approach. > > Many thanks, POliveira > -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/7685e439-fbf6-4239-84ca-c219209cd9d8n%40googlegroups.com.
