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Work with foreign-currency invoices

You can invoice a customer in a currency other than your organisation's functional currency (the home currency your books are kept in). Sales Scribe captures the exchange rate on…

Work with foreign-currency invoices

You can invoice a customer in a currency other than your organisation's functional currency (the home currency your books are kept in). Sales Scribe captures the exchange rate on the invoice and shows the totals in your functional currency too, so your reports always add up.

Before you begin

  • Your organisation has one functional currency, set when it was created. Any invoice in a different currency is a foreign-currency invoice.
  • A customer's preferred currency drives the default — when you pick the customer, the Invoice Currency is set to match.

Steps

  1. Create the invoice as usual. Set the Invoice Currency (or let it default from the customer). You can change it until you add the first line.
  2. Add your lines in that currency.
  3. Sales Scribe attaches an exchange rate to the invoice automatically, using the daily rate for the invoice date.
  4. (Optional) To use your own rate, open the Currency & FX card, turn on Override FX rate and enter the rate in the 1 Invoice Currency = X Functional Currency field. Leave it blank to keep the system rate.
  5. Save and issue the invoice.

Check the rate before you issue. The rate Sales Scribe fills in is the previous night's indicative European Central Bank rate for the invoice date — a guide, not the rate your bank will actually use, and the market may have moved since it was published. If you already know the real rate (from your bank, or the payment you expect), turn on Override FX rate and enter it so your books match what actually happens. See View and use exchange rates.

The invoice's details page shows the Exchange Rate used and the Functional Amount — the total converted into your functional currency.

What happens next

  • The exchange rate is fixed on the invoice and does not change afterwards, so your figures never move on their own.
  • Your accounts and reports record the sale in your functional currency at that rate, while the customer sees the invoice in its own currency.
  • On invoice lists, multi-currency totals are normalised to your functional currency so they can be summed.

Realised exchange gains and losses

When a foreign-currency invoice is paid, the exchange rate on the payment day may differ from the rate on the invoice. That difference is a realised exchange gain or loss, and Sales Scribe posts it automatically when the payment is allocated. You do not calculate it yourself. See Foreign-currency payments and exchange gains or losses.

Note: Before you trade in a non-functional currency, your organisation needs Realised FX Gain and Realised FX Loss accounts set in Settings → Accounting. Sales Scribe fills these in automatically where it can.

Troubleshooting

  • "No exchange rate available …" — a rate for that currency pair and date could not be found. Enter one using Override FX rate, or check your exchange rates.
  • "Exchange rate must be greater than zero" — enter a positive rate when overriding.
  • The currency selector is locked — you can only change an invoice's currency before it has any lines. See Edit a draft invoice.
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