Books base currency

Books keeps all its accounts in one base currency: the ledger, the reports, the balances and the cash and bank accounts. Choose it before you start recording.

Which currency Books starts with

• The currency you chose at sign-up, when it differs from your country's currency.
• Otherwise your country's currency: EGP in Egypt, AED in the Emirates, USD on the International pack.

Before you start

• You need to be the owner.
• Books must have no journal entry, no sales document and no bill yet. A draft counts.

Steps

In the Books setup

1. Open Books → Set up Books. The first step, Business settings, shows the Base currency.
2. Pick the currency in Base currency.
3. Select Set the base currency.

Or in the organisation's settings

1. Open Settings → Organisation.
2. Below Currency, pick the currency in Books base currency.
3. Select Save.

Good to know

• Once only. After the first journal entry, sales document or bill, the field is read-only and explains: Books already has entries, documents or bills, so its base currency stays … with the currency. Trying anyway gives the error bks_base_currency_locked.
• Other currencies still work. Invoices, credit notes and bills can be in another currency, at the exchange rate of the day: see Foreign currency.
• Cash and bank accounts that were in the old base currency follow the change.
• Changing the organisation's country later never re-bases work already posted.
• The rest of the setup: Set up Books.