Currency conversion question

[ideasguy]

I'm currently designing a multi-currency option in Bank Genie Pro.
The simple and most common transaction is when you are abroad and use an ATM machine.
e.g. You withdraw 100 Euro while on a holiday to Portugal.
The program will have a Convert button. Click the button and the program makes us of an on-line service to convert the Euro to the currency of the cash card used for the transaction, returning the actual amount withdrawn from your Bank in your own currency.

The following question is NOT to do with Transfers between multi currency banks. (I am dealing with them already)
My question is - is there a more complex case, where a multiple conversion transaction could occur e.g. over the counter in a Bank.
You go into a Bank and buy (say) 100 USD and 100 Euro, all in one transaction.
The emphasis here is on ONE transaction, and that transaction was performed on your Bank Account (not a cash transaction) and will show up on your Bank Account as ONE single transaction.
Is such a single (complex) transaction possible?

NOTE: EDITED and my question clarified after original posting
Please read again

[johnmanley]

Hi,

On the currency link you need to have an override as different banks give different rates.  When I use Credit Agricole (Britline) to change Sterling to euros I get near to the spot rate but when my mother was here in the summer Lloyds did the conversion after she used her debit card and not only gave her a bad rate but charged her 1 UKP each time for the priviledge! I was getting 1.17 and she was getting 1.15.

On the mulitple question there would be one debit (Sterling) but 2 cash credits (euros and dollars). To do the calculation the program will have to do one, hold it in memory then add it to the result of the second calculation and  this would then lead to problems if the bank is not using the same rate as the linked program.

John

P.S. The spell check link isn't working

[ideasguy]

Thanks for that John.

There is a button called "Convert"
Click to a) return a value for Exchange Rate and b) The converted amount.

The conversion tool will only return the exchange rate for the date used, not for retrospective dates.
It will only be "correct" (in quotes to acknowledge the vagary you have described) if you enter the transaction to Bank Genie on the same day as it occurred.

Both the fields a) and b) can be edited by the user, to take account of transactions made on a previous date.
e.g. When entering data from a bank Statement where the actual amounts are shown.

There is a memo field to enter notes about how much you were shortchanged
The Bank Fees are added in a separate transaction. I hope users are OK with that.

P.S. Spell checker
Sometimes it refuses on the first attempt  Ive noticed that with Mozilla Firefox
However if you click the button again it will work.

[ideasguy]

RE: John Manley

On the mulitple question there would be one debit (Sterling) but 2 cash credits (euros and dollars). To do the calculation the program will have to do one, hold it in memory then add it to the result of the second calculation and  this would then lead to problems if the bank is not using the same rate as the linked program.

Does that show up as one single transaction on ONE Bank Account John?
OR:
Is it a Transfer from one bank to 2 other Bank Accounts? (in which case there will be one transaction in each of 3 bank accounts)

[johnmanley]

When I transfer from my Sterling account to my euro account there is a debit of (say) 1,000 UKP on the Sterling account and an entry of (say) 1 170 euros on my current account. Although in theory debit and credit take place at the same time it can happen that the credit is 24 hours later.

I can't see anyone having accounts in three or more currencies.  Two yes as above but more than that unlikely unless you are a multinational.  It would normally be 1 bank account debit (unless the bank on a whim) puts through 2 sterling transactions to make life easier for themselves i.e. one for each cash transaction.

Bank charges normally are entered as a separate entry.  For instance when I transfer Sterling from my UK bank to Britline Sterling account my euro account get charged just over 24 euros but when I move money from Sterling into euros there are no more charges.  So for the first transaction i.e. moving Sterling from the UK to France 3 accounts are involved (2 for the transfer and one for the charges plus the debits and credits are all on different days!  The charge first, then the debit on my UK account then the credit on my French Sterling account).  If you use a UK bank to make the transfer there are charges by the UK bank and by the French bank and the rate is normally lower than the one I get from Britline.  Money transfer companies normally debit your UK account and credit your euro account, the transfer rate is set to include their "charge". Neither bank will in those circumstances make any charges.

John

P.S. I don't know if it affects the program but where the UK uses a comma between thousands and hundreds the French use a space and where the UK uses a point between pounds and pence the French use a comma between euros and centimes (officially cents but the French don't recognize change!)

[ideasguy]

Thanks for that John.

I think I can cope with the transfers you have described.
Bank Genie alllows 2 dates for each transaction - 1) Transaction date 2) Bank Date.
The Transaction date is the same for both debit (Bank A) and credit (Bank B)
The Bank Date for the debit (Bank A) is the same as the Transaction date
The Bank Date in Bank B is the date it finally arrives in that account.

My question was to do with a transaction where you walk away with cash.
Heres an example. You go into a Bank, buy 100 Euros for Traveler A and 100 Dollars for Traveler B.
Can a Bank do that in one single transaction directly from your Bank Account?
i.e. when you get your statement, one transaction appears, with two conversion details shown.
I'm pondering on whether to program Bank Genie to cope with such a case.

Bank Genie does not use any separator between thousands and hundreds.
Decimal point is used between Pounds and pence and will be the same if you set up a Bank Account with another currency.
I hope our non-sterling users can adjust


PS Took three attempts to arouse the spell checker