How do you manage multiple currencies in Ledger CLI?

Question

I've been using Ledger CLI for years. It works fine, but I'm sure I use only the tiniest fraction of its power. Every now and then, during the holidays, for example, I try to learn a little more about it. I was recently exploring the tools for displaying balances. I noticed a bit of weirdness and I tracked it down to a series of transactions from a few years ago like these:

02/13 Some Hotel in Prague
    Assets:Reimbursements:Employer            7560.00 CZK
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   $-332.18
02/13 Some Restaurant in Prague
    Assets:Reimbursements:Employer             632.00 CZK
    Liabilities:CreditCard                    $-27.71

These are business expenses from a trip to Prague. I've put in both the CZK and USD currency amounts so that the credit card will balance properly.

Now I get my expense reimbursement:

02/28 Employer
    Assets:Checking                          $2359.91
    Income:Salary                           $-2000.00
    Assets:Reimbursements:Employer           $-359.91

That's fine, as far as it goes, but when I look at the balances, there's a large outstanding CZK figure because that's not accounted for, I guess. Fiddling with trying to put the CZK amounts in the reimbursement lead to different errors about unbalanced remainders. (In the real case this is taken from, there are also transactions in GBP as it happens.)

Should I be doing something else in the ledger to make this balance properly across currencies? I suppose I could just put in the expenses in USD and mark the CZK amounts in a comment, but it seems cleaner to record the actual expense amount from the bill.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 31 '23 at 18:49

Here's the way to balance those, I believe:

02/13 Some Hotel in Prague
    Assets:Reimbursements:Employer            7560.00 CZK
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   $-332.18
    Equity:Conversion                        -7560.00 CZK
    Equity:Conversion                        $ 332.18

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How do you manage multiple currencies in Ledger CLI?

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