We'd like to discuss what your actual multi-currency needs are. There are pretty divergent way we can solve the problem, so we'd like to get your actual needs.

Please keep in mind that this constitutes research and does not imply an imminent solution in Billings. We'd like to find a solution that works within our system and time constraints and solves the need for most of you (I realize that we will not be able to solve everyones needs).

As you answer this thread, please keep on topic as what you actually need on a day to day basis.

Some questions to get you thinking:
1) How many currencies do you deal in (2, 3, 4, 5 ...)?
2) Do you expect actual currency conversion or is it just a matter of changing the currency symbol?
3) If you expect currency conversion, how often do you set the rate (periodic - like once a month or whenever you send the invoice)?
4) Do you bill one client in one currency or it is possible that the you bill the same client in multiple currencies (one invoice in one currency, another invoice in another currency)?
5) Do your clients pay you in that different currency or do you always receive the money in your base currency?
6) Does the client need to know what was the applied exchange rate on an invoice?


Here is a possible solution that we'd like some feedback on:
7) Would it be acceptable to apply a conversion and currency symbol on a per-invoice basis? This means that Billings would always work in your base currency (i.e. balances), but the invoice would be in the client's currency with an exchange rate applied when the invoice is created. You would enter payments in your base currency and you would create all slips in your base currency (including expenses). Your templates would have to be made multi-currency aware.


Many Thanks!
AJ

Yes yes, finally a real discussion for this highly requested feature!!

My answers are:

1) I deal in all major currencies as well as my home currency (USD, GBP, EUR, ZAR)

2) I dont expect actual currency conversion however it could be nice. I recently tried out GrandTotal which does a fantastic job at handleing currencies!

3) If their was some sort of automatic currency conversion then I would expect to change the rate at time of invoice. Perhaps an option to either set conversion rates manually or automatically would be a good idea?

4) I always bill a client in their one currency. Although big international companies may have branches in several countries all with their respective currencies. For simplicity sake I think one currency per client would be great. This could be set in the client details section.

5) I receive the currency in my base currency. This is VERY important and glad you raised that!

6) Never really thought of that.. don't think any of my clients care about that.

7) I dont really like this option... Will I be able to send estimates and statements in the clients currency? Also, how will this affect reports... e.g. - I want to see how much I have charged in USD, e.t.c Also, I need to be able to create slips for a project in that clients currency! Ideally I would like to use the same invoice for any currency... to much of a hasle to create different templates and remember to correctly select those templates at invoice time... more room for error and could look very unproffesional to a client if you invoice them using the wrong invoice template.

Hope that helps!!
Let's all send some positive feedback and hopefully get this implemented!!! Yay

Second the above post by Jimmy.

Adding multi-currency support is a straight-forward thing for a billing app (more complex for an accounting app). You select a base currency and provide an option in the billing section to have the invoice/quote in another currency, which translates back into the home currency within Billings at a set exchange rate per invoice/quote. Simple. No need for updating automatically. All most of us need is a simple solution to bill/quote in another currency and then indicate how much that bill/quote translates into our home currency.

Great to see this being thought about. Here are my answers and thoughts:

1. Three at the moment. Sterling, Australian $ and Euros.

2. It depends on where in the process it is. I bill fixed amounts in foreign currencies, so I wouldn't want conversions going on when it came to invoicing. On the other hand, any expenses and reporting would be best for me in my home currency because that's where I have to file tax returns. So, I'd like to be able to plug in a specific number for the invoice amount and choose the currency, but only for it to be converted within Billings, as it were, not on the invoice.

3. When I send the invoice or perhaps, better, when it is marked as paid because that is when, for tax purposes, I would calculate how much I actually earned in the home currency.

4. Usually bill the client in one currency (theirs).

5. Usually in their own currency. It makes it less expensive in terms of bank fees.

6. No, for me they don't need to know. The exchange rate is much more about internal accounting for me. If I've quoted a client a fee in their currency then any shifts in exchange rate are my problem. If I've quoted in my home currency then it doesn't make any difference to Billings of course.

7. I think it's fine for Billings to internally work in one currency, but it really shouldn't be touching the invoice in terms of conversions (see points above). I want to be able to plug in an hourly or daily or fixed rate in whatever currency I choose and for that to appear on the invoice in that currency. In terms of balances and reporting, this could be shown in the home currency.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that the client-facing stuff should be untouched by any automatic conversion process. There has to be some figure fixed somewhere otherwise it would be crazily confusing. My feeling is that that's most likely to be the client side. Invoices, in that sense, should be 'dumb' and never convert outward-bound.

However, they should be aware of their value in the home currency so that the me-facing stuff is smart for reporting. So they would convert 'inward-bound' (i.e., when they're paid).

Unless someone has very complex tax affairs (in which case they might need to use something other than Billings and a decent tax accountant) most people are going to be paying tax in their home country where they are doing the work (which is how almost all tax treaties work - the place of work is the important thing). So it makes sense for all the reporting to convert back to a single currency.

(I think gryphonent just said all that in a much simpler and clearer way...)

1) 2-3 (home, EUR, USD)
2) would be great to have both options
3) rate which is on estimate
4) one client one currency
5) base currency
6) yes

Excellent, tops.
1) At present I deal in two currencies Colombian Pesos and USD.
2) Currency Conversion would be excellent (there are newspapers where we can get this, however, the more data we can get from DL itself, so much the better).
3) Conversion at time of the invoice.
4) I always bill my distributors, say, Colombian pesos and receive COL pesos; Also I bill in USD and receive USD. This is one of the reasons why I've asked for a long time if Billings could invoice in the name of several different companies. I bill several products by quantity (one company) but also bill by the M2 (rental warehouse space).
6) My distributors don't need to know the applied rate of exchange.
7) I don't need this option: my companies are so different that this is irrelevant to me. Another reason for Item 4).
Many thanks, supreme stuff.
Rodrigo
+++

My needs are fairly simple. I have clients in Canada and the US. I bill in either currency completely (a whole invoice in USD or CDN). I never bill a client in more than one currency.

Where it gets more complex is that I travel all over the world, and have reimbursable expenses in many currencies. I want to bill those expenses in either Canadian or US dollars, but I want the invoice to show the amount in the original currency.

I can do the currency conversion myself (using figures from my bank) but I want to be able to track the currency of expenses.

AJ, thank you so much for soliciting input on multiple currencies. It is a capability I hope and expect to see in a 3.x release of Billings ! Having created the original multiple currency thread back in April, here are my thoughts and responses to your inquiries:

1) I deal in three currencies, USD, Euro, and GBP.

2) I would expect actual currency conversion, while a nifty feature, to be too complex and troublesome to be practical. Really, I just need to be able to keep track of balances and print invoices in the CLIENT's currency. I don't use Billings as a bookkeeping program. I use it to track time, expenses, and to send invoices, so conversion to my own currency for the books isn't necessary.


3) Question three addresses the exact issue which I fear would introduce too many complexities to currency conversion. The exchange rate could a number of times between the points at which I invoice a client, when that client pays, and when their check is deposited, leading to more discrepancies on the books than I would like to account for. Please, please, do introduce support for multiple currencies, but please please also do not let it get unwieldy and overly complex by dealing with conversions. Billings is great billing program, and I love it for that. Stretching it into the realm of bookkeeping in addition to just billing is spreading it too thin, I think. Multiple currencies are important to allow me to bill my foreign clients, but conversion is not necessary for the fundamental task of billing.

4) Typically I would only bill a client in one currency per client, but I could reasonably forsee a scenario in which a client would have multiple projects billed in separate currencies. So yes, while not fundamental to billing, the flexibility of having currency as a project level variable would be nice. However, I don't see how this could be accomplished cleanly and still maintain a unified client balance without conversion, and I really think conversion would be too much complexity for this program.

5) Clients pay in their own currency.

6) The client would not need to know the exchange rate.

7) I'm really not a fan of option seven. When tracking expenses and fees, I almost always NEED to create slips in the client's base currency. If I traveling abroad for a meeting and I bill a number of meals/transportation expenses, it would be a big headache to have to convert all those pesky little expenses to my own currency just for the sake of getting them into billings. I guarantee you I would abandon Billings for overseas clients if this were the case.
Really, I think the best and easiest solution would be to assign currency on a per-client basis with no conversion.

Thanks again for your interest in our interests!

I would like to add that while client does not need to know the exchange rate on an invoice it would be usefull to log it in any case and if a user so chooses he can add it to an invoice if a client does in actual fact want to see exchange rate... I do agree that currency conversions could get overly complicated...Hopefully you guys can figure out the simplist solution

My take on that special case would be that it can go into a note on the invoice rather than complicating stuff more!

Yes. The simpler we keep it, the more realistic it becomes for 3.x.

Hi,

I use three currencies (CAD, USD, EUR). And I usually receive foreign checks in the clients repsective native currency. The invoices use their own currency symbol via custom templates.

What I would like to be able to do is readjust a slip's amount after it has been invoiced since what really matters to me is what I got paid in my currency! So when I get a foreign currency payment, the amount paid, after conversion is off compared to the amount invoiced, even though in theory the invoice has been fully paid.

This sets off the red client icon (a grat graceful solution btw) sometimes on a fictional overdue amount as small as $5.

If I could just readjust the slip after payment, or turn the red icon off manually - that would keep my records straight and easily solve my problems.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Yarek W.,

When adding payment for a project I add it in my base currency.... so if client pays $100 I need to add it as R850.00. This is essential for book keeping records...

I personally just need to be able to change currency symbols for different clients... as well as create slips or blueprints in different currencies... as previously mentioned it would be ideal if currency was set per client. Each time I create a slip for a client it automatically adds a slip in that clients currency. Also, it would be nice if I could set blueprints per client... this way when adding a slip from blueprint it would only show blueprints for that client.

This could be set in the Create Blueprint window by adding an extra drop down named "client". Also, the rate input field in this window should be set to the clients currency..

Hope that makes sense.

Here are some screenshots of how I see you being able to add currencies...

Let me know what you think?

This is how I see the client card... notice the extra "Currency" drop down which reads the values from the currencies section in the proposed billings preferences...

Reason I think you curency should be set per client is so it does not messup the client detail totals panel in the bottom left hand corner of the Billings app. Very much doubt anyone will bill a client in more than 1 currency!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jimmy Caravotas,