Thanks. I'll have to think about whether I want to jump into that
shark infested pool.

Cheers.

So, expense the rent with two components.

"Rent" for the component you want to think of as your rent experience going
forward.

"Job Expenses:Reimbursed" for the component you don't want to think of as
rent going forward.

Of course, your income--and/or your taxes--will be off as well. Then I'm
back were I was earlier. Once you start splitting the income and expenses
for objectives like this sooner or later you want to keep track of the taxes
as real Taxes and grossed-up taxes. This will get messy. Kinda like trying
to take the butter back off the buttered toast.

I think the secret here is that you 110% UNDERSTAND the reason for all of
these effects and you have a good idea what they are in dollar terms. Next
year when you are looking at year-on-year data, you can look at it in this
light. The secret is not to try to use Money to mask real differences. If
there are real differences and the reason is understood and the magnitude of
the effect is understood, Money has done all it can do well. Trying to get
it to hide the difference is always complicated.

"DSV" <sawyervillers[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1133109028.892680.268110[at]g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Thank you. What I'm trying to do is maintain some budget integrity.

You are correct that my company treats the COLA as income. Taxes are
going to have to handled separately because of various international
issues (like double taxation and tax equalization).

What will happen when I move back to the USA in a year is that my
budget will show a housing expense of ~$21000/year, when in reality my
expense is only about $11,000. Even though the COLA increases my
income by $10000, it makes for some weird tracking year-to-year
tracking.

You say two things that appear to conflict:

"net $900/month (gross ~$1200)"

"income is inflated by the difference"

Sounds like your company thinks it IS income if they are grossing it up.

At any rate, to answer your question, here's what I'd do: Pay the rent in
the Euro denominated German bank account. Split it into two portions, yours
("Rent" or whatever) and theirs ("Job Expense:Reimbursed" or whatever.) On
your USD Paycheck depositing into your US account, I'd account for the gross
reimbursement as something like "Other Income:Job Expense Reimbursement".
When I get to the question of segregating the tax gross-up, then I get back
where I was when I started this. Why split it? Why worry it? The
reimbursement is just income and the rent you are paying is what it's
costing *you*.

So, let's try this from a different angle. What were you hoping to
accomplish with the multi-currency Split of the rent? You paid it all in
Euros from the German bank account didn't you? Are you on the risk for the
currency fluctuation? (I.e., the rent is 1500EUR and the reimbursement is
$900 (net) and the difference between the two as a function of exchange is
your loss/gain.) If so, I'd think that this problem is decoupled form the
rent payment and is really a function of when you move the money from your
USD account to your EUR account.

Anyway. it's been a fun mental puzzle question for early in the morning.
Thanks.

"DSV" <sawyervillers[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1133098418.901089.200590[at]g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

I'd like advice tracking international job costs--MSMoney2006

I live in Germany (euros). I am paid in USD

My company reinburses me net $900/month (gross ~$1200) for COLA
housing. This reinbursement is merged with my salary, and
automatically deposited in the USA. MSMoney automatically downloads
this data from my USA bank.

I pay the difference between my rent (~1500EUR/month) and my company
reinbursement (floats at the exchange rate, but ~$800/month to
housing.) This money is taken from my German bank account.

What is the best way to track this cost and reinbursed income? I am a
novice user. Don't worry about taxes. I simply want to track my rent
expense (it shows as 18000eur instead of a more accurate ~10000EUR, and
my income is inflated by the difference). The problem I'm having is
that I can't split my housing bill because of the 2 different
currencies.


Thanks in advance--dsv