If you deal in multiple currencies, it’s important to track the effects of currency exchange fluctuations on your business. AccountEdge Plus provides detailed reports to help you manage both unrealised gains and losses (potential changes in the value of overseas transactions) and realised gains and losses (the actual changes in the value of your assets, liabilities and capital that occur when you exchange foreign currency for British pounds).

The multiple-currency feature is optional. If all your business is conducted with customers and suppliers in British pounds, there’s no need for you to use this feature. If you do want to use it, you need to set a preference.

You will also have to perform a number of setup tasks described in this section. For example, you will have to set up special accounts to track the transactions you make in each currency. If, for instance, you plan to make sales to customers in euros, you will need to create a separate debtors account for your sales in Europe. Every foreign-currency account you create requires a companion account, known as an exchange account, to track changes in the value of the transactions assigned to the account. Only balance sheet accounts—asset, liability and capital accounts—can be assigned a foreign currency. All other types of accounts are tracked using pounds.

Your local currency, the pound, is automatically set up for you. As this currency is used to determine the value of all other currencies, it cannot be deleted and its exchange value is fixed at 1. Before you begin entering transactions, you need to specify the appropriate currency for all your overseas customers and suppliers. Only one currency can be used for each customer or supplier (unless you choose to set up multiple cards for them). This ensures that your records remain accurate and it speeds up the task of entering transactions.