Set up multiple currencies

In a multi-entity shared company, entities represent a separate tax identification or a separately secured, fully balancing set of books. Entities typically represent divisions, franchises, affiliates, associations, locations, chapters, self-balancing funds or subsidiaries, with a shared chart of accounts.

A multi-entity shared company includes one or more entities under the top level. The company has a set of data lists that's shared among all entities. These shared data lists include users, chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, and employees. Administrators define the shared data lists once at the top level and use them throughout the entities in the company. Administrators use the top level to manage entities and their data.

Alternatively, administrators can restrict to working at the entity level only users and master data list members such as suppliers, customers, and employees. Administrators can even restrict users to working only in particular entities.

An example of a multi-entity shared company is a property management company. One entity represents the company's corporate headquarters and each managed property is represented by its own separate entity.

Some multi-entity companies can benefit from more than one base currency. If your company has entities that operate in different currencies, you would enable multiple base currencies. Selecting this option in Multi-Entity Management enables each entity in your company to operate in a different base currency. For example, if your company needs to operate one entity in AUD and another entity in CAD, then you would need to enable multiple base currencies in your company.

Use Consolidation or Advanced Ownership Consolidation to consolidate the financial data and run financial reports in a single currency.

It can be helpful to first review the information in Private and restricted data in multi-entity companies and Private and restricted data.

The main steps for setting up multiple currencies are:

Enable multi-currency management

Enable the multi-currency subscription on the General Ledger setup page.

  1. Go to General LedgerSetup > Configuration.
  2. On the General Ledger setup page, scroll down to Multi-currency management.
  3. Select Enable multi-currency subscription.

When you select this checkbox, multi-currency options are turned on in other applications, and Company options for managing currencies and exchange rates are shown on the Company Setup menu.

The other applications that support multi-currency are:

  • Accounts Payable

  • Accounts Receivable

  • Cash Management

  • Order Entry

  • Purchasing

  • Expenses

  • Enabling multi-currency in a company is permanent. You can't turn it off later.
  • You can only use the Intacct daily rate to convert the currency of transactions from fewer than 20 years in the past.
  • For companies with more than one entity: If any entity uses a different base currency, you must also enable multiple base currencies in Multi-Entity Management.

Create a rounding General Ledger account

Create a rounding General Ledger account under the Multi-Currency Management section of the General Ledger setup page. The rounding account is used when importing journal entries, if converting to the base currency causes a rounding error.

  1. On the General Ledger setup page, scroll down to Multi-Currency Management.
  2. Find the Rounding account section.
  3. Configure a rounding GL account as described here:

Create or select an expense account to be used for recording rounding differences during journal entry import. This rounding account keeps debits and credits in balance, if the rounding of base currency amounts causes a minor difference between debits and credits (typically, a penny).

Here's how it works:

  1. During journal entry import, transaction amounts are converted to the base currency and rounded as required for that type of currency.
  2. If the rounding process causes debits and credits to be out of balance, Intacct tries to balance the debit and credit line items automatically.
  3. If there's a minor discrepancy (typically, a penny) that can't be distributed across line items, the discrepancy is added as a debit or credit to the Rounding account.

If a rounding entry was needed, it appears in the uploaded journal entry in the Automatic balancing entries section at the bottom of the page.

Set up transaction currencies

Transaction currencies are used for transactions in the multi-entity company. For each transaction currency you define, select the display format based on the ISO code for that currency.

  1. Go to CompanySetup > Multi-currency and select Transaction currencies.
  2. On the Transaction Currencies page, select Add.
  3. In the Currency section, select the Currency code dropdown and then select the currency that you want.

    The fields in the Format section show the format for the currency you selected. You can customize the format for the currency by selecting the Currency format dropdown and choosing Custom.

    For more information about supported currencies, see Supported currencies.

  4. Repeat these steps for each transaction currency that you need. Learn more about transaction currencies.

Assign a currency to each bank account

For every bank account defined in Sage Intacct, assign a default currency.

If a bank account where transactions have already taken place has no currency assigned to it, the transactions at that bank account will not appear. An error will happen when setting the currency.

For details on setting up cheque accounts in Sage Intacct, see Create a cheque account.

  1. To view a list of your cheque accounts, go to Cash Management > All/Setup > Accounts, and click Cheque or Savings.
  2. From the list, click Edit next to the bank account to which you want to assign a currency.
  3. On the information page, find the Currency dropdown list.
  4. From the Currency dropdown list, select the currency you want to assign to this bank account.
  5. Save your changes, and repeat these steps for any other bank accounts.

Select the foreign currency option per application

You can define foreign currency transaction options per application. For example, you can enable foreign currency transactions in Accounts Payable, and not in Accounts Receivable. Use the Subscriptions page to configure foreign currency transactions for each application you plan to use with your multi-currency, multi-entity company.

Select the following:

  • Foreign currency option for all relevant applications
  • Exchange rate type

The following fields appear in transactions after you enable foreign currency:

  • Transaction currency
  • Exchange rate date
  • Exchange rate type (usually the Intacct daily rate)
  • Exchange rate (automatically generated)
  • Transaction amount
  • Base currency, Base currency for entity
  1. Go to Company > Admin > Subscriptions. Click the application name, then click Configure.
  2. For each application for which you want to enable the use of foreign currency, select the relevant option.
Application Foreign currency option
Accounts Payable Enable functionality > Enable creating, editing, and deleting foreign currency AP purchase invoices
Accounts Receivable Enable functionality > Enable creating foreign currency advances, and enable creating, editing, and deleting foreign currency AR sales invoices, and adjustments
General Ledger Accounting settings > Enable multi-currency subscription
Order Entry General configuration > Enable functionality > Foreign currency
Purchasing General configuration > Enable functionality > Foreign currency
Expenses Multi-currency > Enable foreign currency expense reports

Set up multiple base currencies

When enabling multiple base currencies, you can set a value approval currency for purchase transactions and expense reports. A value approval currency enables Sage Intacct to translate the transaction currency into a common currency. This common currency is used to evaluate transaction approval thresholds and determine whether a transaction requires approval.

To set a value approval currency, select a currency from the dropdown menu. Only the currencies you enable in Sage Intacct are available for selection.

  1. Go to Company > Admin > Subscriptions.

  2. On the Subscriptions page, select Multi-Entity Management, then select Configure.
  3. In the Entity preferences section, select Enable multiple base currencies.
  4. In the Value approval currency section, select a Value approval currency from the dropdown list.

Set the base currency for each entity

Set the base currency for each entity, as described in the following procedure. Learn more about the fields in the Currency and format setup page.

You can only set the base currency for a newly created entity in Sage Intacct.
  1. Go to Company > All > Setup > Configuration > Entities.
  2. Select Add to create a new entity.

    Alternatively, select Edit to edit an entity that has recently been created and has no transactions.

  3. In the Accounting section, select the Base currency dropdown list, and select the currency you want to use as the base.

    If your currency is not defined, see Add, edit, and view transaction currencies for details on defining a currency in Sage Intacct.

  4. Select Save.

Create another entity and continue setup

Continue setting up your multiple base currency entities by creating more entities and repeating the procedures outlined here.

For each entity you create, repeat the following steps:

  1. Create a rounding General Ledger account.
  2. Set up transaction currencies.
  3. Assign a currency to each bank account.
  4. Select the Foreign Currency option.
  5. Set the base currency for each entity.

Create another entity

Create more entities as described in Add an entity to your company.

Switch to another entity

You can switch among entities from the top level without having to log in or out again.

You can switch to another entity as follows:

  • From the Top level list: Select the Top level dropdown list, and choose the entity you want to switch to.
  • From the Entities list: Find the row containing the entity that you want to access, and select Switch to Entity on that row.
  • From left navigation menu: Select Company > Setup > Entities and then choose the entity you want to access.

The entity opens in a new browser window. The entity name is shown at the top of the page, immediately before the top level.