Exchange rate view problem

Please, I have a problem with the way exchange rates are offered.
Screenshot shows the problem
I have two currencies, the U.S. dollar and the Lebanese lira.

For example, the first line (31/12/2021) expresses an exchange rate of $1 = 27,400 LBP
It is therefore difficult to read this figure and to know the exchange rate represented by each line

I have two suggestions.
The first (which is the favorite): is to have two column on the exchange rate page.
The first represents the exchange rate of the main currency against the foreign currency, and the second represents the exchange rate of the foreign currency against the main currency

The second is to add a custom field dedicated to the exchange rate page so that the user manually insert exchange rate.

The first proposal is definitely preferable because it saves time and is considered more accurate because it is automatic

The solution may be something like this. (Automatic)

Or the label might be better.

Anyway, it’s up to the developer @lubos
He’s really professional in choosing the easiest ways and techniques.

What you see is a representation of your functional currency in foreign/other currencies, and it is the correct thing to do. I support the idea of extending custom fields to Exchange Rates to allow users to disclose information such as the source of exchange rate information etc.

I have an exchange rate reading problem.
It looks to me like a long decimal number (as shown in the screenshot)
And that’s because my functional currency is much smaller than the foreign currency.

There must be a solution to this problem, please.

There is no solution when the values of the two currencies are so different. That is just arithmetic. The same problem could exist in your suggested new column if the value sizes were reversed.

Same to you @Tut Don’t you agree with me if you look at the exchange rate page attached to the screenshot, it’s going to seem incomprehensible.

The solution I’ve offered could be useless.
But please help suggest something that gives benefit in this regard.(Although I don’t know why you considered my first proposal to bring problems too!!)

This page does not give me a virtual result (it certainly performs its core accounting mission to the fullest)

I think when there are two column (one for the functional currency and the other for foreign currency) one will give an understanding of the exchange rate

If you have a functional currency, (a) , and a foreign currency (b)

The exchange rate is 1(A) = 10000 (B)
Result of Column 1 : 10000 (That’s a understandable number.
Result of column 2 : 0.0001

If it turns around, the exchange rate becomes as follows:

The exchange rate is 10000(A) = 1(B)
Result of Column 1 : 0.0001
Result of column 2 : 10000 (That’s a understandable number.

No, I do not agree. It looks like a factual list of exchange rates used by the program.

I do not know what you mean by this.

Your issue seems to be that you do not like highly precise decimal fractions. But the program is not going to show you a rounded or truncated number when it is using one that is more precise. In a case like that, you would not be able to verify or duplicate results.

I can say I’m frustrated by my inability to get the idea across.

I’ll explain my idea for another example.
If we take an example of A dozen and a piece.

If I told you the dozen had 28 pieces, that would be simple and understandable, wouldn’t it?

But if I tell you that the piece represents 0.0357 of the dozen, it’s unclear, and you’re going to need a calculator to figure out how much of the dozen is made up.

Could I explain the idea?
I hope so.

No this is even more confusing. A dozen means twelve (12) so your sentence now reads “If I If I told you the 12 had 28 pieces” If anything using your example “the piece represents 0.0357 of the 12” would make more sense as this would be a possibility, that is, a piece is a fraction of 12.

I think that the problem is that some currencies have huge numbers when translating to another - often because of very high inflation in that country

As in the example 27,400 LBP = $ 1

You could argue that is a problem of the LBP and could be solved by moving to a new LBP unit for example NLBP where 1 NLBP = 10,000 LBP so that the exchange rate is now $1 = 2.74 NLBP

Presumably at some stage this is what will happen but who knows when as it really requires a functioning government and banking system to carry out the conversion. Historically, all currencies with huge exchange rates versus the dollar have been revalued in one form or another.

I presume that most people use the number of LBP per $ rather than the number of $s per LBP when dicussing this as it is easier to talk about 27,400 or 29,000 or 25,000 than 0.000036 or 0.000034 or 0.00004 or whatever number of decimal places you need

I don’t think manager can really sort this out other than provide an indication of the reverse exchange rate in another column

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That’s what I really need.

It’s true that our country is going through such an economic crisis.

I agree with this. There should also be a way to enter exchange rate either way.

A lot easier to enter $1 = 27,400 LBP than 1 LBP = $0.0000042325.

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Thank you very much @lubos for your understanding of my problem

Waiting for your magical touches

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I suggest saving the number as arithmetic such as LBP = (1/27400) and evaluate the value as calculated field in calculation

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@Mohamad_Kabalan great idea.
It will work until Reverse rates will be implemented by @lubos.

I support this idea.

This is an example of what one of my ZWL (base currency) to USD exchange rates looks like:

image

Having the exchange rate displayed in ZWL per USD would help me in several ways:

  1. Our ZWL to USD exchange rate is set once per week by the Reserve Bank based on the results of a currency auction. The rates are provided on their website daily (where I retrieve them for input into Manager), but are represented as ZWL per USD (so the above would be 108.66600). When I am comparing our exchange rates to those listed by the Reserve Bank, I cannot tell easily if they match (and therefore if the rate has changed from the previous week and needs to be updated in Manager), so I waste time opening the old listings on the Reserve Bank’s site to compare those.
  2. In all our day-to-day conversations, we discuss the rate as a number of ZWL per USD. “The rate passed 100 today”, or, “the bank rate is 108 today but some traders are using 190.” It would be much easier to get quick insights from the exchange rates in Manager if we could display them in the opposite way.
  3. I often need to use historical exchange rates for calculating inventory costs in an external spreadsheet. Although the rate as represented in Manager has many decimal places, it is still a rounded number, and if I copy it for use in my calculations it will be less accurate than if I used the shorter but more accurate rate as provided by our Reserve bank. Using the above example, the rate as provided by the bank is 108.66600. Manager displays this as 0.009202510444849. If I divide 1 by this number for use in my calculations, I get 108.66600000000419081295600016162. Perhaps this will have no meaningful impact on the final numbers once they are rounded to the nearest cent, but it adds clutter to the workings and means I usually either refer to the Reserve Bank’s site for the rate or do the calculations manually first and then break the number where the string of zeroes is.

I haven’t previously thought these inconveniences justified me submitting a request, but since another user has made the request I would like to add my support and hopefully build a clearer argument for those who are unconvinced of the merits. I also acknowledge that it wouldn’t quite be as simple as adding another column – I have three foreign currencies listed, so what would the column header be? But I am confident @lubos will find a solution if he supports the idea.

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Entering the rate the other way isn’t hard. Since in-field calculations are supported, you can just enter “1/27400” and let Manager do the work. This is what I do. However, it’s clear from other forum discussions that not every user knows about this, and as per my post above I do support this idea, although more for the final display in my case.

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