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Multi-Currency and Exchange Rates

Convert amounts between eighteen currencies, apply a markup to the rate, and maintain rate history.

AccountantFinance ManagerSuper AdminLast reviewed 28 Oct 2026

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The multi-currency screen at Accounting > Financial > Multi-Currency holds your exchange rates and converts amounts into and out of rand. It has four tabs: Converter, Rates, History and Settings.

Supported Currencies

The rand is the base currency. Eighteen currencies are available in total, including the US dollar, euro, pound, Australian and Canadian dollars, Swiss franc, yen, yuan, UAE dirham, Singapore dollar, Thai baht, Mauritian rupee, Botswana pula, Namibian dollar, Mozambican metical, Kenyan shilling and Tanzanian shilling — the currencies most South African travel bookings involve.

The Converter

Pick the from and to currencies, enter an amount, and optionally a markup percentage. The markup is applied to the rate itself — the effective rate is the stored rate multiplied by one plus the markup — so you can quote a customer at a rate that already carries your margin. A swap button reverses the pair. Conversion needs a stored rate for the pair, either directly or through the rand.

Maintaining Rates

On the Rates tab, add a rate by choosing the currency pair, entering the rate and recording its source: manual, api or sarb. Rates are stamped with the date and the user who added them, and the History tab shows previous rates for a pair. Refresh Rates reloads the stored rates — it does not fetch live rates from an external service, so keeping the rates current is a manual task.

The rates are shared by the whole platform, so only a Super Admin or the agency’s own finance users add them. A client organisation’s finance users use the same rates but see “Exchange rates are kept by the travel agency.” instead of the Add Rate button.

Rates are a shared reference, not a posting. Converting an amount here does not create any accounting entry. Foreign-currency transactions still have to be captured in rand on the transaction form, and any exchange difference posted as a journal entry. The seeded chart of accounts has no forex gain or loss account, so create the accounts you need before you post the first difference.
Tip: Record the rate you actually transacted at, with the source set to sarb or api and the correct date. When you later explain a gain or loss to an auditor, the rate history is the evidence.