Multicurrency is for small business owners who have customers, vendors, vendors, or bank accounts that use foreign currencies—that is, currencies that differ from their home currency.
If you don't yet have foreign customers, vendors, vendors, or currencies in your bank accounts, don't turn on multicurrency. Wait until you have a true need for it.
If you are using QuickBooks Online Simple Start or Easy Start, you will need to upgrade to see this feature.
When you turn on multicurrency:
- You cannot hide or turn it off in QuickBooks.
- You can no longer change your home currency.
- Additional fields, labels, columns, and more are added throughout QuickBooks.
- QuickBooks creates a Currencies list, which you can see when you select Gear > Currencies (under Lists).
- You can choose currencies when you add a customer, vendor, or vendor.
- A Currency column appears in the Chart of Accounts. Note that once an account has had a transaction posted to it, you cannot change the currency.
- The currency appears in the Payment, Deposit, Tax, and Balance Due columns on bank and credit account histories.
- The currency appears in the Amount column on sales and purchase forms.
- QuickBooks reports convert all foreign currency to home currency amounts, and automatically reflect exchange rate changes.
Prior to turning on multicurrency:
- You can adjust your home currency as much as you would like.
- Adjusting your home currency automatically changes the currency symbol on your transactions.
- Adjusting your home currency will not change the amounts associated with a transaction.
If you meet the criteria for turning on multicurrency, it can be a powerful feature for your business. Once on, QuickBooks downloads exchange rates nightly from WSoD (Wall Street On Demand). You can also manually enter exchange rates and revalue them if needed.
If you are unsure whether you need multicurrency or whether you should turn it on, consult an accounting professional for advice.