Invoicing customers in another currency

With the optional Multi-Currency Invoicing module you can bill some customers in their own currency while your books stay in yours. WolfAdmin applies the exchange rates and works out the currency gains or losses automatically.

Which currencies are supported?

Currently ZAR (Rand), USD (US Dollar), EUR (Euro) and GBP (British Pound).

Step 1: Enable the module

Multi-Currency Invoicing is an optional module. If you do not see a currency option on your customers, ask us to switch it on for your account.

Step 2: Set the currency on the customer

Open the customer (or create them) and choose their currency. That is the only setting there is - from that point on, everything for that customer happens in their currency.

• Each customer has one currency, so there is never any doubt about what a document is in
• Customers with no currency selected simply use your own (base) currency, exactly as before
• The currency locks once their first financial document exists, so history can never be re-interpreted at a different rate

Step 3: Invoice as normal

There is no special process - create invoices, credit notes, receipts and refunds the way you always do. For a foreign customer WolfAdmin automatically:

• Prices and totals the document in their currency, with their currency symbol
• Fetches the exchange rate for the document's date (rates are updated daily, and a backdated document uses the rate that applied on that date)
• Records the equivalent value in your own currency behind the scenes, so your reports and financial accounts stay in one currency
• Produces their statement in their currency too

Supplier documents work the same way, so bills you receive in a foreign currency are handled with the same logic.

Currency gains and losses - handled automatically

When you invoice in a foreign currency, the value in your own currency moves as exchange rates move. WolfAdmin tracks this for you in two accounts you will see in your financial reports:

• Unrealized Currency Gains - the "on paper" difference on invoices that are still outstanding. It is what you would gain or lose if every open foreign document were settled at today's rate. It moves every time rates move, and needs nothing from you.
• Realized Currency Gains - the actual gain or loss, worked out the moment a payment (or credit note) is matched to an invoice: the difference between the rate on the invoice date and the rate on the payment date. Once an invoice is settled, its amount moves out of unrealized and into realized.

An example: you invoice a customer $1,000 when the rate is R18.00, so the invoice is worth R18,000 to you. They pay a month later when the rate is R18.50, and you receive R18,500. That extra R500 is booked as a realized currency gain - your sales figure stays at R18,000, and the R500 shows separately as a currency gain rather than distorting your sales.

Good to know

• Your bank accounts stay in your own currency - a foreign payment is valued at the rate on the day you received it
• Reports, VAT and your income statement remain in your own currency, so nothing else about your bookkeeping changes
• Rounding is handled to the cent, so your balance sheet always balances