Currencies in CustomBooks™ | Multi-Currency and Exchange Rates

Overview

CustomBooks™ supports multi-currency transactions, allowing businesses that operate internationally to record transactions using currencies other than their default currency.

By default, USD (US Dollar) is the primary currency. If your business only conducts transactions in USD, no additional currency setup is required. If you work with customers, vendors, or transactions in other currencies, you can enable Multi-currency and add the currencies you need.

Important: Once Multi-currency is enabled and a new currency is added, the Multi-currency feature cannot be disabled.

Enabling Multi-currency

Before adding currencies other than your default currency, enable Multi-currency in the Admin Panel.

To enable Multi-currency:

Go to Admin Panel → General Settings.
In the Currency section, check the Multi-currency box.

The General Settings page also displays your company's Default Currency. The default currency is the primary currency used by the company.

Viewing Currencies

Once Multi-currency is enabled, you can view the currencies available in your company.

To view the currency list:

Go to Lists → Currencies.
The Currencies list displays the currencies configured in CustomBooks™.

The list can display information such as:

Description – The name of the currency.
Numeric Code – The ISO 4217 numeric currency code.
Alphabetic Code – The ISO 4217 three-letter currency code.
Country – The country or countries associated with the currency.
Default A/P Account – The default Accounts Payable account associated with the currency.
Default A/R Account – The default Accounts Receivable account associated with the currency.
Exchange Rate – The exchange rate currently associated with the currency.

Adding a New Currency

You can add a currency from the Currencies list when Multi-currency is enabled.

To add a currency:

Go to Lists → Currencies.
Click Create → New.
Enter the currency description:
- Start typing the currency name to display a list of possible matches, then select the appropriate currency from the dropdown menu.
- Once the currency is selected, the Symbol, Numeric code (ISO 4217 standard), Alphabetic Code and Country fields are automatically populated.
If desired, enable Auto-update exchange rates.
Assign the appropriate default accounts for:
- Accounts Receivable (A/R)
- Accounts Payable (A/P)
- Customer Prepayments
- Vendor Prepayments
Click Save or Save and Close.

Currency Codes

CustomBooks™ uses standard ISO 4217 currency codes. For example:

Currency	Numeric Code	Alphabetic Code
US Dollar	840	USD
Australian Dollar	036	AUD
Euro	978	EUR
Canadian Dollar	124	CAD
Won	410	KRW

The currency list may also include currencies that are not currently used in your transactions.

Default Accounts for Currencies

Currency records can include default accounts for foreign-currency transactions, including:

Default A/R Account – Used for Accounts Receivable transactions.
Default A/P Account – Used for Accounts Payable transactions.
Customer Prepayments
Vendor Prepayments

These defaults help determine which accounts are used when recording transactions involving the applicable currency.

Exchange Rates

Each currency can have an Exchange Rate associated with it. The exchange rate is used when processing transactions in a currency other than the company's default currency.

When adding a currency, you can choose to enable Auto-update exchange rates. CustomBooks™ also supports historical exchange rates so that applicable rates can be retrieved based on the document date.

Note: Exchange rates can affect the converted value of foreign-currency transactions in the company's default currency.

Finding an Exchange Rates

Navigate to Lists → Exchange Rates.
You'll see two tabs when you open the Exchange Rate:

Your exchange rates - this tab allows you to create and manage exchange rates that you want to manually maintain for the currency.
Official exchange rates - This tab displays the exchange rates that CustomBooks™ has automatically updated at the beginning of each day. It provides a historical view of the official exchange rates of all currencies.

Users can also view historical exchange rates for a specific currency.

To view exchange rates for a specific currency:

Go to Lists → Currencies.
From the Currencies view list, open the currency you want to review.
On the currency record, click Show → Exchange Rates.

Creating Exchange Rates

To manually create an exchange rate:

On the Your exchange rates tab, click Create.
Enter the Date, or edit the date if needed.
Select or enter the Currency.
Enter the desired Exchange Rate.
Click Save and Close.

Using Currencies on Transactions

After a currency has been added, it can be selected on supported transactions.

For example, on a Sales Invoice, the currency can be selected from the Currency tab. The currency may be pre-filled based on the applicable customer or transaction settings and can be changed when appropriate.

When using foreign currencies, CustomBooks™ uses the applicable exchange rate to calculate the transaction's equivalent value in the company's default currency.

Important Considerations

USD is the default currency unless another default currency is configured during company setup.
Multi-currency must be enabled before using additional currencies.
Once Multi-currency is enabled and a new currency is added, it cannot be disabled.
Use the appropriate ISO 4217 numeric and alphabetic codes when creating currencies.
Review the A/R and A/P default accounts assigned to each currency to ensure transactions are posted to the appropriate accounts.
Exchange rates may be updated automatically when Auto-update exchange rates is enabled.
Historical exchange rates are applied based on the applicable document date.

Watch the video below for a walkthrough of the Multi-Currency and Exchange Rates in CustomBooks™: