What this page is for
Currencies & rates lists every currency your business holds, starting with the currency your books are kept in, and the exchange rate in force for each foreign one today. A rate is what one unit of a currency is worth in your base currency.
Each currency is shown as a plate:
- Your base currency is marked and can never be retired.
- A foreign currency shows today's rate and where it came from — Manual, Central Bank of Kenya, Rate provider or Worked out from other rates — or No rate in force today if none has been recorded yet.
- A retired currency is struck through and marked Retired.
Below the plates, a table lists every exchange rate in force, with the dates it applies and who recorded it.
Everyone whose role can view settings sees this page. Adding a currency, retiring or reinstating one, and recording a rate need a role that can manage settings, and only where your plan includes more than one currency.
How to…
How to see only one currency's rates
Press a foreign currency's plate to filter the table below to its rates. Press it again to clear the filter. You can also filter the table by In force between a date range, or by Source.
How to add a foreign currency
- Press Add currency.
- Under Currency, type part of its three-letter code or its name, such as
USDordollar, and choose it from the list. If nothing fits, the list says No matches. - Press Add currency. Its name, symbol and decimal places are filled in automatically from the international currency standard.
How to record an exchange rate
- Press Record rate. This is only available once at least one foreign currency is held.
- Choose the Currency, type the rate — what one unit of it is worth in your base currency — and choose From and, if you know it, Until.
- Press Record rate. Leaving Until empty keeps the rate in force until the next one begins.
A rate you record this way wins over a rate copied in automatically for the days it covers.
How to retire or reinstate a currency
Press Retire on a currency's plate, then confirm. No new sale, price list or rate can use a retired currency; its past rates and documents stay as they are. Press Reinstate to bring it back. The base currency can never be retired.
Worked examples
Supermarket
Tumaini Supermarket starts taking payments in US dollars from a wholesale customer. The manager
presses Add currency, types USD, and the dollar appears as a new plate. She then presses
Record rate, chooses USD, types the Central Bank's published rate, and sets From to
today with no end date, so it stays in force until the next rate is recorded.
If something goes wrong
- More than one currency is not part of this business's plan, so currencies and rates can be read here but not added. — upgrade your plan on Billing to add a foreign currency.