Defining Currency Types

The foreign currency functionality in Aptify requires that each transaction is associated with a currency type. The Currency Types service defines the currencies that the organization supports. For each organization, one currency is specified as its functional currency; this is the main currency in which the organization operates. The system converts funds in other currencies to an organization's functional currency as needed.

Also, Persons and Companies in Aptify can be assigned a preferred currency, which may or may not different from a particular organization's functional currency.

This topic contains the following sub-topics:

• Creating a Currency Types Record
• Defining a Functional Currency Type
• Editing Exchange Rate Account Numbers
• About Preferred Currency

Creating a Currency Types Record

The Currency Types service defines those currency types that users encounter in business transactions. A currency type is required by several areas such as Orders, Payments, Products, Scheduled Transactions, and general ledger (GL) accounts.

Aptify ships with a standard set of 164 currency types. Aptify recommends only listing those currency types that are used for an organization's business transactions. This practice facilitates selection of the currency type for orders, payments, and currency spot rates.

Follow these steps to add a new currency type to Aptify.

1. Open a new record in the Currency Types service.
   • The Currency Types service is in the Accounting application. 
2. Enter the currency's name in the Name field.
3. Specify a country associated with the currency in the Country field. This field links to the Countries service.
4. Specify the currency's symbol in the Currency Symbol field.
   • This is the symbol that Aptify will use to display funds in this currency within orders and payments. For example, funds in US dollar use the dollar sign ($), and funds in Euros use the Euro symbol (€). 
5. Enter the currency's trading symbol in the Trading Symbol field.
6. Enter the number of decimal digits that this currency supports in the Num Digits After Decimal field.
   • For example, US Dollar supports two decimal places. 
7. Specify a Format String for the currency, if necessary. Typically, the default format should be suitable (in which case, leave this field blank).
   • Aptify uses the specified format to display currency amounts in Aptify fields that support multiple currencies.
   • The format follows the conventions used by the Style parameter of the Format function in Visual Basic.NET, as described below:
     • The Format String supports one, two, or three sections separated by semicolons.
     • If one section is provided, the Format String applies to all values.
     • If two sections are provided, the first section applies to positive values and the second section applies to negative values.
     • If three sections are provided, the first section applies to positive values, the second section applies to negative values, and the third section applies to zeros. 
   • If no value is provided for the Format String, Aptify automatically generate a two-section string based on the Currency Symbol and Num Digits After Decimal values.
     • For example, for the standard US Dollars currency type (uses dollar sign ($) and two digits after the decimal), Aptify generates the following Format String: $#,###,##0.00;($#,###,#0.00)
        
8. If applicable, specify the currency's General Ledger settings, described below. Discuss these settings with your accounting department as necessary.
   • General Ledger Segment: This field may be used in a client-specific configuration of the general ledger export process to specifically identify currencies that are part of the batch.
   • General Ledger Delimiter: This field is used to track the GL Delimiter that should be appended between a GL Account and the General Ledger Segment field. This field may be used in a client-specific configuration of the batch export process. 
9. If this currency is your organization's functional currency, select the Functional Currency option.
   • The system can support only one functional currency.
   • See Defining a Functional Currency Type for more information. 
10. Select an Exchange Rate Gain Account and an Exchange Rate Loss Account to use to track any gains or losses recognized due to exchange rate fluctuations involving this currency.
    • See Editing Exchange Rate Account Numbers for more information.
       
11. Save and close the record.

Defining a Functional Currency Type

Functional Currency is the currency type in which an organization performs its day-to-day business. Aptify allows the definition of one functional currency per Organizations record. Transactions created by employees linked to a particular organization use that organization's Functional Currency. This includes Orders, Payments, and Scheduled Transactions.

Each Organization has its own Functional Currency, defined on the Organizations record's Accounting tab.

Note that if your system will use only one functional currency (or the majority of the transactions and organizations will use the same functional currency), your administrator can set the default value for the Organizations entity's FunctionalCurrencyTypeID attribute to equal the ID of that currency type. For example, in the standard Aptify installation, the FunctionalCurrencyTypeID has a default value of 2 (which corresponds to US Dollars). If US Dollars is not your system's primary functional currency, you administrator can modify the default value as needed. This will automatically assign the default to new Organizations records (existing records will need to be modified manually).

Follow these steps to specify a functional currency for an organization:

1. Open the appropriate record in the Organizations service.
2. Click the Accounting tab.
3. Specify the organization's functional currency in the Functional Currency field.
   • This field links to the Currency Types service. 
4. Select an Exchange Rate Gain Account and an Exchange Rate Loss Account that the organization will use to track any gains or losses recognized due to exchange rate fluctuations involving this currency.
   • These accounts can also be specified on a system-wide basis on a Currency Types record (see Creating a Currency Types Record for details).
   • Note that the accounts specified on an Organizations record take precedence over the accounts specified on the Currency Types record for transactions conducted by that organization. However, if you leave these fields blank on an Organizations record, then the organization's foreign currency transactions will use the accounts specified on the Currency Types record. 
5. If the organization is willing to accept payment in a currency that is different from the currency specified on an order, select a Conversion Adjustment Account.
   • When paying for an order in a currency that is different from the order's, the system automatically calculates the corresponding payment amount in the other currency based on the latest spot rates. However, if an organization chooses to accept another payment amount as full payment for the specified item, any discrepancy between the calculated payment amount and the actual payment amount generates a general ledger (GL) entry for this Conversion Adjustment Account.
   • See Recording a Payment in a Different Currency than the Order for more information.
     
6. Save and close the Organizations record.

Editing Exchange Rate Account Numbers

Exchange Rate Gain/Loss accounts contain the change in transaction values on foreign currency transactions. The amounts posted to these accounts are converted into the organization's functional currency using currency spot rates. If an organization tracks gains and losses regardless of the currency type, the same exchange rate account number can be defined for all currency types. If an organization wishes to track gains and losses for each currency type separately, different exchange rate account numbers can be configured for each currency type.

These accounts can also be specified on a per-organization basis for an organization's Functional Currency (see Defining a Functional Currency Type for details).

Note that the accounts specified on an Organizations record take precedence over the accounts specified here for transactions conducted by that organization. If an organization does not have these accounts specified, then its transactions use the accounts specified on the Currency Types record.

About Preferred Currency

A preferred currency can be selected at the Companies and the Persons level. A preferred currency is the currency type in which a company or person conducts their business and may be different from a particular organization's functional currency.

The Preferred Currency fields, if defined, are used during the order entry and payment processes to determine the currency type of the transaction.

See Updating the Preferred Currency for a Company for information on selecting the preferred currency for a company. See Updating the Preferred Currency for a Person for information on selecting the preferred currency for a person.