Adding Bank Entries to non-home bank register

Hello Newbie2021,

Welcome to the Community.  I'll be happy to provide the support you deserve as a loyal customer.  QuickBooks is a powerful program that offers a flexible multi-currency feature. With our multi-currency feature, you can easily manage transactions that are created using a different currency compared to your home currency.

To learn more about multi-currency, check out this helpful article here. To make sure I'm on the same page with you, what type of entry are you making in QuickBooks. If you're referring to a journal entry, you can use the USD bank account as an account on your line items. What happens when you try to use a USD bank account? 

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@Newbie2021 wrote:

in speaking to technical support, they do not "seem" to know how; instead, tries to get me to sign up to annual support plan (which presumably would help me).  

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@Newbie2021 

Which QB Desktop year version do you have? An outdated one?

Hello @Newbie2021 ,

I do not use multi-currency nor bank feeds as I find the trouble it causes and the edits required are not worth the time; it is simply faster for me to make all the entries manually.

Regarding your US account, I handle it this way.

1.  Create US Bank account - yes, this account is still technically in CAD$ but the amounts entered into this account are the US$ amounts only.

2.  Create another bank account for the exchange transactions.  Mine is called CAD$ Exchange on US$.

3.  It is assumed you also have your regular CAD$ bank account.

Let's say you are transferring money from your Canadian Account to your US Account.  The amount of US$ that you want to transfer is $10,000.00.  Assuming a 1.3 exchange rate, that is going to cost you $13,000.00 $CAD.

Your entry will be something like this:

1.  Write a cheque from your regular CAD$ bank account in the amount of $13,000.00

2.  In the expenses section of the cheque, make entries on two lines.

3.  The first line will be distributed to your US$ bank account in the amount of $10,000.00.

4.  The second line will be distributed to your CAD$ Exchange on US$ bank account for $3,000.00.

This keeps the proper US$ amount in the US$ bank account so when you write cheques in US$, you can reconcile that account as though it were US$.

However, when entering bills to pay in US$, you will enter the bill twice.  This is the procedure I follow:

1. At the same exchange rate as what you transferred the money from your CAD$ account (in this case, 1.3), write all the equivalent CAD$ amounts beside the US$ amounts on your vendor invoice.  (I use pencil so I can easily correct any mistakes).
2. Enter the bill initially, using only the US$ amounts on the invoice.  This is the bill that you will pay from your US$ chequing account.
3. With that bill still open, create a copy of the bill.  I add a small "e" at the end of the invoice number, indicating that this is the "exchange" invoice.
4. Zero out the amount of the invoice.
5. Move to the expense section of the bill, and using the same account distributions from the original bill, enter the difference between the converted CAD$ amount and the original US$ amounts.
6. Click on Recalculate to get a new total for the exchange invoice.  Save the bill.

When you go to pay the bill to a US$ vendor, select only the bills that are in the original US$ currency, leaving the "e" exchange bills for a later step.  Ensure when you pay the bill it is the US$ bank account that you have selected.

Now go to pay bills again, and choose all the corresponding "e" invoices you created.  Ensure you have your CAD$ exchange on US$ account selected to pay the bill from.

The balances in the two bank accounts should always represent the true amount of CAD$ that your US$ have cost you.

When I have to add more to the US$ account, I keep a spreadsheet with a running tally because once you purchase US$ for the second and subsequent purchases, the exchange rates will need to be blended to get a current rate to process current US$ vendor invoices.

The exception to this would be if you only ever transfer to your US$ account the exact amount of US$ needed for your US$ vendor invoices.  In this case, then you would just use that exchange rate on those invoices and there would be no need for blending rates.

I hope this helps.  Good luck!