The Exchange Bot keeps with every transaction, the balance values of accounts in multiple currencies in sync. This avoids the need of manual replication or batch processes.
The Exchange Bot can calculate at any moment your unrealized FX gains and losses from the perspective of any currency in which you are operating, lowering risk and strengthening your FX decisions.
Multiple Currency Accounting
Create a Bkper book for each currency you operate in with a name and currency suffix (MyBusiness USD, MyBusiness EUR, MyBusiness JPY) and place all books together in a Collection with the name of the books without the suffix (MyBusiness).
Install on all the books in the collection the Exchange Bot and set the properties on these books required for the Exchange Bot to function properly.
Transactions mirroring
Once the Exchange Bot is installed and properties are set on the Books in a Collection, Transactions will be mirrored in the books of the other currency(ies) according to the Exchange Rate at the moment of the Transaction.
Apply Transaction properties to change the standard behavior of the Exchange Bot. This is relevant for account consolidation, for example when there are differences in the exchange rates applied by the Banks and what the Exchange Bot retrieved at the moment of the Transaction.
FX Gains and Losses
The Context menu (More) on books where the Bot is installed have an Exchange Bot menu option that runs the exchange update process to calculates and record the Foreign Exchange Gains or Losses on your assets according to real time rates.
Standard behavior for the Exchange bot is to record the Exchange rates to liability accounts with the same name as the permanent account with the EXC suffix. These accounts are automatically created by the Bot and don't need to be added manually.
The behavior in conjunction with the Stockbot is different for Accounts that have the stock_exc_code
set on their group. In the case of Assets that are traded by the stock bot the Unrealized and Realized FX gains and losses are recorded on Incoming type accounts because of their nature.
Overview
Exchange Bot Status
Gray: working properly
Red: error
No icon: not installed
Portfolio Bot Flow
1. Post a transaction in a Book of one Currency (USD).
e.g. 100 USD Bank account >> Accounts Payable
2. This Post Event Triggers the Exchange Bot.
3. The Exchange Bot figures out in what other currencies this transaction must be mirrored.
4. The Exchange Bot Fetches the current exchange rates for the other currencies.
5. The exchange bot Posts the same transaction in the other book(s) but in the currency of that book (EUR).
e.g. 98.50 USD Bank account >> Accounts Payable
Exchange Bot Installation
Books And Collection
Create the Currency Books (at least two currencies)
Add all the Currency Books to one Bkper Collection
Install the Exchange Bot on all the Currency Books in the Collection.
Note: If your books are already in a Collection for the Portfolio Bot, you do not need to create another Collection, you can use the same Collection.