Creating Multi-Currency Bills Using Foreign Exchange (FX) Billing

In this article:

• How-To Video
• Creating Multi-Currency Bills
• Entering a Foreign Exchange Hedge

You can use the multi-currency/FX billing feature in Actionstep to generate multi-currency bills.

Multi-currency billing is the process of billing a client in a different currency. It works by applying a currency conversion to your base currency. To be clear, it is not designed for firms that bill in foreign currencies but receipt payments in the base currency. It is designed for firms that have bank accounts in more than one currency.

How-To Video

Creating Multi-Currency Bills

Before you begin:

• Configure your multi-currency billing

To create a multi-currency bill:

1. In Actionstep, view the matter you want to bill. (See Editing a Matter for help.)
2. Click the Billing menu icon. The Billing page appears.
3. Click Matter billing options from the list of options on the left. The Matter Billing Options page appears.
4. In the FX Billing section, toggle Enable to on. 
5. Choose the Currency and Conversion rate.
6. Click Save to save your changes. 

The value of any time entries or expenses you record against the matter will now be converted.

Entering a Foreign Exchange Hedge

You can enter foreign exchange hedges into Actionstep.

To do this, you can represent the hedge as a purchase of the foreign exchange (FX) cover from the bank as an FX purchase invoice at the agreed-upon hedge rate (which should be the rate the sale was recorded at). 

You can then simultaneously record a sale to the bank of the base currency amount of the hedge (which should be the base currency value of the sale invoice if fully covered by the hedge). This will "float" with the sale invoice and offset any gain/loss.

On the day the payment is received, you pay the sale invoice and both purchase invoices to the bank.

EXAMPLE: 
If you have a US sale for $1,000 (US) on 17 July when the rate is 2.00 it will result in a $2,000 (NZ) sale. Then you receive payment on 20 August when the exchange rate is 1.25, which results in a NZ$750 FX loss (if unhedged).