Description

Currencies

5Account is a multi-currency accounting system.

The basic premise is that all accounts, categories and transactions will be displayed in your home currency, but can be entered in a foreign currency.

By default, 5Account starts up assuming the home currency to be UK pounds Sterling and that is the only currency available to the system.

Currencies are maintained from the menu item - Currency. You can add or modify a currency from here.

A home currency is designated simply by setting the exchange rate for that currency to 1.00. Whenever you add a currency and set its exchange rate the rate is set according to your home currency, not published rates.

An example would help. My home currency is UKP (£). I have a USD currency in 5Account where I have set the exchange rate as 1.60 ($1.60 = £1.00). Any USD entry that I make will result in an entry within 5Account of the converted amount, that is the amount entered divided by 1.60. So, if I make a transaction for $16.00 5Account will convert this sum to my home currency (UK Pounds) by using the following formula:

EnteredAmount / EnteredCurrentRate = HomeAmount
Or
16.00 / 1.60 = 10.00

Conversely, if my home currency is USD ($) and I have a UK Pounds (£) currency then I would set the conversion rate of $ to 1.00 and the conversion rate of £ to 1 / 1.60, or 0.625. If I then make a £10.00 transaction 5Account would convert this to my home currency using the same formula as above like so:

EnteredAmount / EnteredCurrentRate = HomeAmount
Or
10.00 / 0.625 = 16.00

5Account gives you the ability to change this conversion rate at any time and the next transaction entered will use the latest conversion rate.