Managing Currency

Creating and Maintaining Currency Records

When you add a new Vendor to your system, the “Default Currency” field will auto-fill with “USD”. If this is not correct, select from the value list the monetary unit in which the Vendor will be paid. This value list compiles based on the currency records that exist in Settings > Business Settings > System Modules > Currency. This is where you will add new currency records, as needed. Create a new record by clicking on the “+ New” button and identify the currency with the universally accepted three-character code. Note there is a field where you can load the URL of your favorite currency exchange website, which can be accessed by clicking on the “Open” button.

Complete the record by filling in the first field, highlighted in this example at the top, in yellow. This amount represents what one US Dollar will purchase in the foreign currency. Once that field is loaded, the corresponding yellow-highlighted field below will auto-fill with the “inverse” value of the currency, or, what one currency unit will cost in US Dollars. Take that number — rounded if you wish — and load it in the field highlighted here in blue at the top of the screen. That is the exchange rate that will be in effect were you to make a payment from Ops. The inverse of that amount will auto-load to the blue highlighted field below.

The last — and most important — field to complete is the one highlighted in red, labeled “Costing.” As you build a Package using services from the Vendor in question, this amount is what will be used to convert/calculate the cost. Since many tours are costed a year or more in advance of their actual operation, you will probably want to allow some “wiggle room” to allow for fluctuation in the exchange rate. In this scenario, the exchange rate could change by more than five cents in the Vendor’s favor before the costing of the trip would be negatively affected. Conversely, if the exchange rate improves by the time we have to pay the Vendor, the profit margin on the Package increases.

When all of your input is complete, use the “Post Update Note” field to load some reference of who last updated the rate — perhaps their initials — and on what date.

More specifics on currency exchanges as they relate to costing tours and making payments are covered in the Package and Ops chapters.

*The importance of properly identifying the currency in which the supplier will be paid cannot be overstated. If it is mis-identified and the currency mis-valued, there will be cascading effects that could negatively impact your pricing and profitability.

If an incorrect currency is associated with a Vendor record at this level and goes undetected to the point that Operations records have been created, there is no “fix” other than to strip the incorrect Contracted Service record from each affected Package, and then delete the Contracted Service record from the Vendor record. Only then can you reassign the currency associated with the Vendor and start building your Contracted Service records, Packages, etc., all over again (all of this will be explained further as we move along).*