It doesn't matter what the exchange rate is when you get back. Maybe an
example will help.

When you get there, you exchange, say, $500 for 55,000 Yen with a 550 Yen
Miscellaneous:Fee at Tokyo Station. Keep the receipt. While there, you spend
7,000 Yen of Foodining Out and 24,000 Yen on Miscellaneous:Transit. You
charge 27,500 Yen on Business:Travel (Lodging). At Narita on the way home
you exchange your remaining 24,000 Yen for $190 with a 240 Yen
Miscellaneous:Fee.

When you get home, you enter:
A transfer from the dollar account to the Yen cash account of $500 for
55,000 Yen with a 550 Yen Miscellaneous:Fee added in a split. The Yen side
will add up to 55,550. Money will gladly figure the exchange rate you paid.
The rate upon your return when you sit down at the computer is irrelevant.

7,000 Yen of Foodining Out in the Yen cash account
24,000 Yen on Miscellaneous:Transit in the Yen cash account
Exchange rate now or then is irrelevant in these transaction.

A transfer from the Yen cash account to the dollar account of 24,000 Yen for
$190 with a 240 Yen Miscellaneous:Fee added in a split. The Yen side will
add up to 23,230. Money will gladly figure the exchange rate you paid. The
rate upon your return when you sit down at the computer is irrelevant.

When you get the credit card bill, you find it billed the 27,000 Yen as
$255, You enter:
27,500 Yen on Business:Travel (Lodging) in the Yen cash account with a split
transferring $255 from the dollar credit card account as 27,500 Yen. What
adds to the cash account is 0 Yen. Again, the rate upon your return when you
sit down at the computer is irrelevant. Money will figure the exchange rate
the credit card company gave you based on the Dollar and Yen value you tell
it in the transfer.

"Brett" <no[at]spam.net> wrote in message
news:ONmeKNBGFHA.3648[at]TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I don't bring my laptop with me when I travel. So when I get back in the
states and do the foreign currency cash account in Money, as you mentioned,
the exchange rate may have changed, which means I won't have an accurate
transfer.

I'm currently just doing an expense account called CashX. I just means
spending on anything - food, merchandise, etc but not categorizing it. I
just looks as though I made a withdrawal via my debit card for cash. The
difference is in the memo. I make of a not have how much this is in the
foreign currency. Guess that is good enough for now.

Thanks,
Brett

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:O5%23%23$X7FFHA.3648[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

This is hard because Money doesn't provide a great way to treat it.

In my case for short travel, and I don't use the Business edition, I create
a cash account for the foreign currency, set it up to use that currency, and
use a transfer in from one of my normal cash accounts. With the account set
to the foreign currency, it does the currency conversion on the transfer.
Then I spend out of that account until my return. The last transfer is the
exchange back for cash in my pocket. Since some spending is on my US credit
card, I do those transactions in the foreign currency account but split the
transactions and put a transfer in each transaction from the US credit card,
doing a currency exchange on that transfer too. The net amount that winds up
in the foreign cash account for these charge split transactions is 0.

I'll be curious to see how others do this. I don't like my way but don't
know a better one. My way probably doesn't work well if you are doing a lot
of this in a lot of different countries.

"Brett" <no[at]spam.net> wrote in message
news:%23t2wAL7FFHA.2156[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Which category should a currency exchange go under? This isn't the exchange
fee. It is the withdrawal from an American bank to purchase Euros for
example in Europe. It's the actual conversion. Not really an income or an
expense.

Using MS Money Small Business 2004.

Thanks,
Brett