This is an issue that affects everyone who travels abroad and uses a credit card for transactions in a foreign currency. It also affects all those who regularly operate in multiple currencies. Moneydance does not store the foreign currency amount of these transactions once it has converted them to the base currency. The bank statement shows both the foreign currency and the base currency amount of the transctions, but
(i) typically the base currency amount does not match the amount in Moneydance, because the bank has used its own rate of exchange (which may include a service fee) and
(ii) Moneydance does not store the foreign currency amount even though it is needed for positive identification of the charge.
This complicates the reconciliation. The amounts that need to match are not the same.
Work-arounds, such as recording the foreign currency amount of the transaction in the check number field, exist but are neither complete nor ideal. (And for checking accounts this one doesn't work.) For one thing, the user has to enter the transaction amount twice, once for the purpose of recording the transaction and once for later reference in the reconciliation process. In addition, the check number field does not support currency formating.
A proper solution to this issues could be achieved merely by displaying information available in Moneydance in any case. In particular, all transactions have an exchange rate field. This field, which for base currency accounts has the value 1 and is locked (and displayed only in the split transactions window), ought to be displayed and editable for all accounts not just those in foreign currency. Unless the exchange rate field is edited, it should default to the current rate of echange, which for base currency accounts is of course 1. This is exactly what now happens in foreign currency accounts. Thus, for foreign currency transactions to base currency accounts all we need is to be able to record the original foreign currency amount and the prevailing rate of exchange. This would conserve the foreign currency amount of the transaction for reconciliation purposes. At any given time, the base currency value of the transaction can be determined by the rate of exchange recorded. When reconciling an account, one would only need to bring the exchange rate in line with that used in the bank statement. In this way the record for the transaction in Moneydance and at the bank would match.
In effect, this is a simplification. Instead of treating base currency accounts as a special case, all accounts would be the same. Instead of converting foreign currency transactions to an account on the side and recording only the result of the conversion, Moneydance would record the actual amount of each transaction and the rate of exchange, just as it now does with foreign currency accounts.
The only other requirement is an additional column in the reconcile window showing the foreign currency amount of the transaction.
