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BigTime ships with optional support for multi-currency expense entry and invoicing. This section of the Configuration chapter will outline how to activate multi-currency support and how that will change the way various parts of the system function.
BigTime supports multi-currency data entry and invoicing, but all of the reports and screens in the system convert the data you enter into your company's home currency. If your home currency, for example, is USD, then all the system reports and screens will show client data (invoiced amounts, budgets, billing rates, etc.) in USD, no matter what currency individual clients and projects are set to use.
While many of the international versions of QuickBooks are setup to support multi-currency, the US version is not. So, when you are setting up your multi-currency options, you should consider whether or not the data posted into QuickBooks should be posted in the "native" currency (e.g. - the currency the user entered, for example, at the time an expense report was created) or in your home currency. If you have different customers in QB setup to use different exchange rates, then you need to choose the latter.
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You can turn on the system's support for multi-currency in the Tools... System Settings... General page. There's a multi-currency pick list setting at the top of that page.
In order to enter expenses into the system in foreign currencies, you'll need to select an expense entry format that supports multi-currency entry. There are several formats available in BigTime, and most of them will create a "two column" split on all of your expense entry/review screens: one column with the foreign currency amount and one with that amount converted to your home currency.
Multi-currency conversion rates are based on the time the expense is entered. Changes to currency conversion rates will not effect expenses that have already been entered into the system.
You can edit the currencies your firm supports from the Tools... System Settings... Currencies window. If you are using an international version of QuickBooks, you should continue to update currency data there. BigTime will pull the list (as well as current conversion rates) directly from QuickBooks.
You'll need to designate one currency as your firm's "home currency," and the conversion rate on that item will be 1.00. All of BigTime's screens and reports will use that home currency when reporting project budgets and revenues.
Each of your clients can have a default currency, so invoices created for that customer will be created in the currency you've selected automatically. This can be done on the Project Dashboard (under the Client... General page).
Once you've selected a multi-currency expense entry format, your users will be able to select a specific currency for every expense they enter into BigTime.
Users enter the foreign amount in the expense "cost" field, and that amount is converted to your home currency once they click the SAVE button. That conversion is based on the "current" exchange rate in the system.
The expense entry form shows all of the expenses entered by your user, and it contains a column for the foreign amount as well as one for the converted amount. The home currency column is totalled, but the foreign column is not. Users can enter multiple currencies on the same expense report, and they're all submitted to QuickBooks using the appropriate conversion rate(s).
As long as you've told the system to post foreign amounts into QuickBooks, the expense report posting process for expense reports which contain foreign currency amounts is exactly the same as the process for posting standard expense reports.
If all of your expense entries use the same foreign currency, then BigTime posts the raw "foreign currency" amount into your QuickBooks bill as well as the exchange rate. If you have an expense report with a mix of foreign currencies, then QuickBooks can't support several exchange rates on one bill. So, BigTime converts all of those expenses and posts the "home currency" amount instead.
That same "converted amount" is used if you have decided not to post foreign amounts to QuickBooks (or if you are using a US version of QB that doesn't support multi-currency).