Currencies: dollars, pesos and the Currencies button

Overview

Cargoflow works with several currencies at once, but never converts or adds them together. Each rate has its currency, each charge inherits its rate’s, and invoices, total cards and receivables are always split by currency. Each warehouse decides which currencies its forms offer; by default, US dollar (USD) and Mexican peso (MXN).

Before you start

• Permission Manage Pricing (Super Admin and Admin by default) to change the warehouse currencies.
• Module Billing enabled.
• Agree with accounting on which currency each client and each service is billed in.

The Currencies button

1. Go to Admin › Configuration › Services.
2. Click Currencies (next to Add Service). Enabled currencies opens.
3. Tick the currencies the warehouse uses. They can only be chosen from the international currency catalog (about thirty: USD, MXN, CAD, EUR, GBP, several from Latin America, Asia and Europe); no free text.
4. Save: “Enabled currencies updated.” At least one must remain.

Each warehouse has its own list.

Where a currency is chosen

Where each charge takes its currency from

1. The currency of the client’s rate for that service, if they have one.
2. Otherwise, the catalog service’s.
3. Failing that, the warehouse currency.

So one client can have handling in pesos and a customs fee in dollars. Each charge carries its currency in the Services to Invoice pool, and the cards at the top show pending amounts by currency.

One invoice, one currency

• When generating invoices, the currency is part of the grouping: USD and MXN charges from the same operation go out on separate invoices.
• A manual invoice is created with one currency and everything you add goes in that currency (the rate you type is taken in the invoice’s currency).
• Only invoices in the same currency can be consolidated.
• The Invoices cards, the Receivables totals and the QuickBooks files are split by currency.

The client’s billing currency

On the client record, Payment terms tab, there is the Billing currency field. Its name is misleading:

Currencies on quotes

• A quote works in a single currency: all its lines inherit it when it is created, and the client’s rates are seeded in it when you win.
• The catalog base price is copied without conversion: 15.00 USD in the catalog is 15.00 MXN on a quote in pesos.
• Changing the currency later, in Customer & terms, doesn’t change the lines’: rates would be seeded in the original currency. If you need another currency, create a new quote.

See Quote and win a client.

Example: a client in pesos with a service in dollars

The warehouse catalog is in USD. Sample Imports pays for operations in pesos and for customs paperwork in dollars.

1. On their rate card, under Advanced for receiving handling, shipping handling and storage, you choose MXN and enter the rates in pesos (280.00, 280.00, 14.00).
2. You leave the customs entry without a rate of its own: it is billed at the catalog base, in USD.
3. A shipment with handling and a customs entry produces two invoices: one in MXN and one in USD, each with its own number.

Best practices

• Enable only the currencies you actually use: forms stay shorter and less error-prone.
• Set the currency of each negotiated rate under Advanced; don’t rely on the client’s billing currency.
• Choose a quote’s currency when creating it and don’t change it.
• Enter a valid code in Billing currency.

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Does the system convert with an exchange rate?

No. It stores no exchange rates and never converts. Each amount stays in its currency.

What if I disable a currency already in use?

Services, rates, charges and invoices that already have it keep it; it just stops being offered on new forms.