For businesses that frequently engage with customers and suppliers who operate in different currencies, the multi-currency functionality enables you to create sales and purchase orders in various currencies while maintaining accurate financial records in your base currency.
This guide walks you through setting up currency rates in your account, managing exchange rate fluctuations, and implementing best practices to ensure smooth multi-currency operations. Whether you're expanding into international markets or working with existing foreign partners, understanding how to properly configure and maintain currency rates is essential for accurate financial reporting and seamless integration with your accounting software.
Key points to consider
Before setting up currency rates in your account, keep these important limitations in mind:
Manual management: Currency rates will not update automatically with global exchange rates. You'll need to manually update them regularly to align with your customer and supplier agreements.
No accounting synchronisation: Exchange rates used in your integrated accounting software will not sync with your account's currency rates. Always review each transaction's specific exchange rate before completing it to minimize variances between systems.
Base currency: Once you've created transactions in your account, the base currency selected in Settings > Company cannot be changed.
Default currency: Once a customer or supplier has been assigned a default currency and transactions have been created for them, their default currency cannot be changed. Plan your currency assignments carefully from the start.
Tutorial Video
Currency Rates
Manage Currency Rates
To create customers, suppliers, sales, and purchase orders in foreign currencies, you must first configure each currency in your system settings.
Add a currency
To add a new currency:
From the main menu, go to Settings > System > Currency Rates.
Use the Currency Selection drop-down menu to select the new currency.
Enter a Buy Rate for the selected currency.
Enter a Sell Rate for the selected currency.
Click Save.
If you're uncertain about current rates, make a reasonable estimation. The rates you set here serve as defaults that can be adjusted on individual transactions. Once configured, your new currency will appear as a selectable option when creating new suppliers and customers, to then be used when creating their orders.
Update a currency rate
Exchange rates fluctuate regularly, so you'll need to update your default currency rates periodically to help maintain accurate ordering processes:
From the main menu, go to Settings > System > Currency Rates.
Use the Currency Selection drop-down menu to select the existing currency.
Update the Buy Rate.
Update the Sell Rate.
Click Save.
Updated rates apply only to new sales or purchase orders created after the change. Existing orders retain their current exchange rates.
Using Currency Rates in transactions
When customers or suppliers operate in currencies different from your base currency, set their preferred currency as their default. This ensures all future transactions automatically use the correct currency.
The purchasing and sale prices set for products are agnostic, and as such will populate in orders as the entered numerical value that will subsequently be converted to your account's base currency.
🤓 Tip: Use Sell Price Tiers to manage popular foreign currency sale prices efficiently, and enter default supplier purchase prices for products in the supplier's currency to streamline your ordering.
Sales
For customers with foreign currency defaults, new sales orders will be created in the customer's currency, automatically populating the current buy rate from your Currency Rates settings in the "{base currency} to {customer currency} Rate" field. You can edit this rate at any time before completing an Invoice for the Sales Order to match the agreed pricing with your customer.
Purchase
For suppliers with foreign currency defaults, new purchase orders will be created in the supplier's currency, automatically populating the current buy rate from your Currency Rates settings in the "Exchange Rate" field. You can edit this rate at any time before the purchase order is updated to Receipted status to align with supplier agreements
Frequently asked questions
Do the currency rates automatically update?
Do the currency rates automatically update?
No, the currency rates are static and will only change when manually updated.
What currency is the default purchase price and default sell price for a product?
What currency is the default purchase price and default sell price for a product?
There is no currency conversion applied in a product's record; therefore, the value you enter has no base currency. The supplier or customer's currency will apply to the product's price. For instance, a unit purchase price of 10.00 auto-fills on a purchase order as 10.00, regardless of the supplier's currency.
When does currency conversion occur?
When does currency conversion occur?
Currency conversion occurs when calculating the sales margin of a line item on a Sales Order and when calculating the Sub Total, Tax, and Total of a transaction.
Transaction totals are displayed in both your base currency and your customer or supplier's currency. For reporting, converted results are displayed in your base currency; this provides you with a clear indication of what your profits and losses might be.
How do I combat fluctuating currency rates?
How do I combat fluctuating currency rates?
Review and update your currency rates regularly to stay as close as possible to the current rate. If you are unable to purchase the foreign currency in advance, but know the rate which you paid for the products on a purchase order, you can change the exchange rate on the purchase order accordingly. This helps to make sure that the record of the average landed costs for each product in Unleashed is as close as possible to the real rate at the time of the exchange.
What exchange rate is sent to my accounting software?
What exchange rate is sent to my accounting software?
We only send exchange rates for purchase orders and sales orders. The exchange rate that we send to the accounting provider is the exchange rate that is set in Unleashed, i.e. NZD, USD, AUD etc.