Currency converter uses a single rate all year. How does that work for monthly entries yearend?

Erwin2

How do you account for currency rate fluctuations? I have the same foreign pension income every month, pay the same amount of foreign taxes monthly and pay the same monthly bank charges. My yearend foreign statements do not reflect Quicken balances. I use the currency converter for all entries euros to dollars.

Erwin2

Here's the problem:
"Note
Downloaded currency exchange rates is a feature available in Quicken Premier, Home & Business, and Rental Property only."
Thanks all for trying.

Sherlock

I suggest you maintain the foreign accounts in the foreign currency.  The currency exchange rate does vary.  If you haven't already, you may want to review the product documentation on the subject:  press F1

Chris_QPW

Unfortunately this is a limitation of the currency support in Quicken Windows.  There is no way for reports like net worth overtime to be correct since it's always using the current currency conversion.

The Canadian version does maintain a currency conversion history so it does have the possibility of doing this right.  But even there I think when I was doing a beta test on it they weren't even using the history for the net worth overtime report.

Chris_QPW

I might add how the conversion like for instance a transfer from one account in one currency to another account works.

The conversion at that time insures that you have the right number in any given account.

But since currencies constantly change in relationship to each other whenever you're going to report about one currency in another currency you always have to do the conversion that applies to that time frame whether that's the current currency exchange rate or the exchange rate on the day that that transaction happened.

Without a currency exchange history that's impossible.

Interesting enough Quicken Mac which has even less support for currencies handles is a different way.  It doesn't combine any of the currencies they're all reported separately.

Erwin2

Thanks for trying to address this question. I did read the help to download currency rates. It reads that it is possible maually through the currency list tool or automatically with OneStep update. Can't find an option to update in the Currency list tool or how to add this to OneStep update. Just today the Euro exchange rate is listed online as .82 and Quicken still lists as .92.

Chris_QPW

OK I thought you had some of this setup, and guess not,  so @Sherlock 's answer is closer to what you need.

First off you have to have multiple currency support on.
Edit -> Preferences -> Calendar and currency -> Multiple currency support.

Second as @Sherlock said you will need another account for maintaining your foreign securities/currencies.  In Quicken you can only have one currency per account which you choose when you create the account.  The same goes for creating a security, the currency has to be picked when you create the security.

Once multiple currency is turned on you should see the option to update them in the One Step Update settings.  To get to those type Ctrl+1 -> put in password -> select Settings...


As for the list Ctrl+Q or Tools -> Currency List

Erwin2

I do have multiple currency support on. Still don't see anything in OneStep Update settings that
would allow for currency rate updates. There are two sections under settings "Download transactions
and balances" and "Online Services". I would expect that an option for currency updates would
show up under Online Services but the only choices there are for which securities you want updated and bills. The option shown in your screen capture doesn't show up.

Erwin2

Tried adding a test account in Euros to see if this would trigger the option in
OneStep Update but it didn't.

Sherlock

Erwin2 said:

I do have multiple currency support on. Still don't see anything in OneStep Update settings that
would allow for currency rate updates. There are two sections under settings "Download transactions
and balances" and "Online Services". I would expect that an option for currency updates would
show up under Online Services but the only choices there are for which securities you want updated and bills. The option shown in your screen capture doesn't show up.

Please provide the version of Quicken being used: select Help > About Quicken

Checking the Multicurrency support preference should be all that is necessary to have the Get currency exchange rates option appear in the One Step Update Settings window

Erwin2

I'm using Quicken Delux 2020 R31.12

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Erwin2

Thank you for the response and the additional details. May I ask that you navigate to Tools > Currency List. That will bring up the screen below.



Do you see an option to "Update" in the bottom right-hand corner? I want to see if connecting this way will bring up the prompt in the One Step Update window.

Please let us know what you find!

-Quicken Tyka

Erwin2

Doon't know if my attempt to do apartial screen capture worked but if it did you can see I don't have that "update"option in the currency converter windo. Starting to look like I have some kind of lemon version of Quicken.

Erwin2

Here's the problem:
"Note
Downloaded currency exchange rates is a feature available in Quicken Premier, Home & Business, and Rental Property only."
Thanks all for trying.

Erwin2

We're not all created equal. :(

Chris_QPW

Erwin2 said:

Here's the problem:
"Note
Downloaded currency exchange rates is a feature available in Quicken Premier, Home & Business, and Rental Property only."
Thanks all for trying.

Wow, that is something I never knew.

Steerpike

I have multi-currency support (Edit/Preferences/Calendar and currency, 'multicurrency support' is checked). But I don't see the options to download exchange rate updates. I see that I have Quicken Deluxe, so that may explain why I don't get the automatic update option.

My question is - if I manually update the exchange rate, will it affect existing transactions/reports?

Example: I am primarily US$ based, and have my main currency as US$ but have one UK Pound (GBP) account. When I travel in UK, I use that GBP account in combination with several US$ credit cards to pay for things. I have a report that tells me the cost of a UK trip, and that report contains both the US$ and GBP entries, with the GBP entries converted to $ by Q for the report. So - eg - I had a snack at the airport and paid using my GBP card. Cost - 17.65 GBP. The exchange rate I entered, manually, in Q is $1.23 per P, and this represents the exchange rate at the time I made the transaction. The report shows the snack as costing $21.71, which is 17.65 * 1.23. But today (over a month later) the exchange rate is now $1.28 per P, so I presume if I were to manually update the exchange rate in Q, the report on 'how much did the UK trip cost me' would now show that snack as costing $22.59 instead of $21.71.

Obviously since exchange rates vary over time, the only way to correctly handle this is to maintain a historic record of conversion rates, and when pulling a report, look up the 'exchange rate at the time of that transaction'; I presume this feature is not in any Q version?

Chris_QPW

@Steerpike Quicken Windows US only keeps the most current exchange rate. Basically, making it useless for any report over time. Quicken Windows Canadian does support storing of the daily exchange rates.

UKR

I have multi-currency support (Edit/Preferences/Calendar and currency, 'multicurrency support' is checked). But I don't see the options to download exchange rate updates. I see that I have Quicken Deluxe, so that may explain why I don't get the automatic update option.

Recommend you upgrade your subscription to Premier to get the full currency support available in Quicken Windows US. See https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-manage-my-quicken-subscription

Chris_QPW

Note that updating to Premier will not change the fact that Quicken Windows US only stores one/latest exchange rate. In fact, the only thing it adds is downloading the current rates.