Currencies and FX rates
Employees are paid in one currency; a client may be billed in another. The FX rate that bridges them is set per month, deliberately — not taken live — so an invoice for a given period always uses the same rate however many times it is produced.
Where: Invoices › FX rates You need: the invoicing settings right
Three currencies to keep straight
| Currency | Is |
|---|---|
| Base currency | What the employees are paid in |
| Invoice currency | What the client is charged in |
| Reporting currency | What receivables roll up into for comparison |
Base and invoice currency are set together per period. The reporting currency is a company-level setting used by the overview, stats and aging views so clients billed in different currencies can be compared.
The rate is monthly, and that is the point
An FX record carries a year and month alongside the base and invoice currencies. The rate for a given invoice period is therefore a decision you make and record, not a market rate captured at the moment someone happened to press a button.
💡 This is what makes invoices reproducible. Reproduce a March invoice in June and it uses March's rate, so it matches the document the client already holds. If the rate were taken live, every reproduction would differ from the original — and the client would be right to ask why.
The consequence: an unset rate for a period blocks or misprices that period's invoices. Setting rates should be part of your month-end routine, not something done when an invoice fails.
How to set rates
- Open Invoices › FX rates.
- Choose the year and month.
- Set the rate between the base and invoice currency.
- Repeat for each currency pair you bill in.
- Set the company's reporting currency in invoice settings.
What Happens Next
- Invoices for that period convert using the rate you set.
- Reproducing an invoice uses the same rate, so figures stay stable.
- Receivables views convert into the reporting currency for comparison.
Tips
- Set next month's rates as part of month-end, before invoices are produced. It takes minutes and prevents a scramble.
- Record where the rate came from — your bank, a published reference, a contractual rate. When a client queries it, "our system" is not an answer.
- Check the contract. Some clients specify the rate source or a fixed rate; where they do, the contract wins over whatever you would otherwise use.
- Do not change a rate for a period already invoiced unless you intend to reissue. Changing it makes reproduced invoices disagree with issued ones.
- Watch the reporting currency when comparing clients — a movement in the reporting rate changes the comparison without anything changing commercially.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: An invoice has the wrong converted amount. Check the rate recorded for that year and month.
Q: We reproduced an invoice and the total differs from the one we sent. The rate for that period was changed after the original was issued.
Q: Receivables totals moved without any new invoices. Reporting-currency conversion. The underlying invoices are unchanged.
Q: Can a client be billed in their own currency while we pay employees in ours? Yes — that is exactly what base and invoice currency are for.
Q: Which rate should we use? Whatever your contract specifies; otherwise a consistent, documented source.