Multi-Currency Processing in Tradebox One

Each sales channel in Tradebox handles orders in a single currency. If you sell in a variety of currencies, you can create multiple sales channels of the same type and using the same credentials. You won't get any order duplication, as each sales channel will check the currency of each order before downloading it; my pounds sterling channel can only download the GBP orders and my US dollar channel can only download the USD orders.

Each sales channel counts the same towards your Tradebox licence; a five-channel licence could reflect a GBP connection to 5 different marketplaces, or a single webstore selling in five different currencies.

Tradebox is designed solely for use in the UK market. As such it is hard locked to use a base currency of pounds sterling when either running standalone or when integrating with an accounts package. Tradebox does not support non-GBP base currencies.

Setting the Currency for the Sales Channel

Webstores and Third-Party Systems

Some webstores allow buyers to pay in different currencies as standard. Others may need an additional plugin or multi currency service to be added.

When you set up a sales channel in Tradebox to connect to your webstore, you'll specify the currency of the connection as part of the sales channel setup wizard. Once the channel is created, the currency is locked and cannot be amended without deleting and recreating the channel.

Currency processing works the same for webstores and third-party systems regardless of whether you're using an API or a CSV connection. If it's a CSV connection, it's fine to have orders of different currencies in the same file so long as there's a column to indicate the currency on every line; each channel will check this before deciding to import or reject each order.

Amazon and Amazon FBA

Amazon's currency is determined by the marketplace; a buyer using amazon.co.uk must pay in GBP and one using amazon.fr must pay in Euros. Each Amazon marketplace is a distinct platform and requires its own sales channel. For example, many of our users sell on each Amazon marketplace in Europe, which requires five sales channels: Amazon UK in GBP; and Amazon FR, ES, DE, and IT, all of which are EUR sales channels. When you set up an Amazon or Amazon FBA channel, the relevant currency will be automatically set once you choose the marketplace.

eBay

eBay is the exception to the one-channel-per-currency rule. When you set up an eBay sales channel you can set the channel to only download from a single ebay site, and this will determine the site currency (e.g. Site: UK, Currency: GBP or Site: Australia, Currency: AUD).

Alternatively, you can go with the default setting of All sites and the currency set to GBP. With this setting, Tradebox will automatically convert any foreign orders to GBP (using the exchange rate from Configuration > Currencies which by default automatically updates prior to download). So if you had one eBay order paid in GBP and another paid in US Dollars, an All sites eBay sales channel will download both orders in GBP. Most of our eBay users use an All sites channel.

Channels

Once you've created your sales channels, you'll see the currency of each channel in the Channels screen.

Orders

In the Orders screen, you can see a column displaying the currency of each order. You can also use the Filter drop down at the top to apply a filter to show only orders of a selected currency. At any time, go back into the filter drop down and choose Clear to go back to viewing all orders.

On opening any individual order, by default you will see the foreign currency values. You can toggle between foreign currency and GBP at any time by opening the Action menu within the order and choosing View in GBP.

Posting to Accounts

If you're using Tradebox for accounts integration, you'll have slightly different options for how to post foreign currency orders, depending on which accounts package you use.

Posting to Sage 50 with Foreign Trader Enabled

Sage 50 Professional comes with the Foreign Trader module included by default. The Foreign Trader module is also available to purchase as an add-on for Sage 50 and Sage Instant/Essentials. Whichever package you're using, if you do a significant amount of selling in other currencies you'll want to enable Foreign Trader. This allows you to raise transactions in multiple currencies; using non-GBP customers, suppliers and banks to natively account for foreign sales. Each transaction will also track its own exchange rate, allowing them to interact with your nominal ledger and reports like the P&L and VAT return which run in the base currency GBP.

The module isn't active by default and needs to be enabled in each Sage company; see Sage's guide to activating Foreign Trader. You can check whether yours is active via Help > About > Features Enabled.

If you've got non-GBP sales channels in Tradebox and use Foreign Trader, when you set the Accounts Link up you'll want to set the posting currency to match the channel (e.g. a Euro channel posting to Sage in EUR). This means that any orders downloaded via the channel will pass right from their origin on the marketplace, through Tradebox, to Sage without ever needing to be converted to another currency. As you set up the sales channel, you'll need to choose a default customer account that's been set up in Sage with the currency that matches your sales channel (defaults tab of the customer record). If you're setting Tradebox to automatically raise sales receipts against your orders and/or to post marketplace fees you'll also need to choose bank accounts for these that match the channel currency.

Note - once you've completed the accounts link setup wizard the posting currency will be locked and can't be amended without deleting and recreating the accounts link

Both Sage and Tradebox will hold an exchange rate against the order and the associated transactions and this will be used to show the GBP equivalent value for reporting. The exchange rate carried with the order is the one used at the point of download and by default this is updated with a daily rate provided by the European Central Bank online. If you're downloading historic orders that were placed prior to today, they'll still use the rate as it stands today. If you prefer, you can disable the automatic update and set your own exchange rates prior to download, see our guide to Tradebox's Configuration screen for details.

If you have Tradebox set to not post receipts against your orders and instead raise them as outstanding in Sage to be paid off later, you'll also need to factor in the exchange rate that Sage uses. In this instance, the exchange rate of the invoice transaction will come from Tradebox and the exchange rate of the sales receipt you raise will come from Sage. You can view your Sage exchange rates in Settings > Currencies. Where there's a difference between the GBP value of the invoice and the GBP value of the receipt, Sage will automatically journal that to an exchange rate variance nominal code; this is a normal part of the accounting process for businesses that account in a single currency but still invoice in foreign currencies and receive payment at a later date.

Posting to Sage 50 without Foreign Trader

If you don't do a lot of foreign currency trading or you prefer to run your accounts entirely in your base currency of pounds sterling, you can still use non-GBP sales channels in Tradebox to post your orders to Sage. When you set the Accounts Link up you'll want to set the Sage posting currency to GBP. For all orders, receipts and fees through that channel, Tradebox will apply an exchange rate to convert the values to GBP before passing to Sage. The default customer account, as well as any banks used for raising sales receipts or marketplace fees must be in GBP; in general we expect foreign-to-GBP channels only to be used where a user doesn't have access to multi-currency Sage.

This exchange rate is controlled in Configuration > Currencies. The exchange rate carried with the order is the one used at the point of download and by default this is updated with a daily rate provided by the European Central Bank online. If you're downloading historic orders that were placed prior to today, they'll still use the rate as it stands today. If you prefer, you can disable the automatic update and set your own exchange rates prior to download, see our guide to Tradebox's Configuration screen for details.

Using Tradebox to create Summary Entries

Tradebox can summarise a set of orders within a given date range. To find out more about how to create summaries and what they're used for, click here.

Depending on whether you're linking Tradebox to an accounts package or not, foreign currency summaries can behave in one of two different ways.

If you are not linking Tradebox to any accounts package, you can choose whether the summary is created in the native currency of the channel or converted to GBP.
If you are linking Tradebox with an accounts package, the currency of the summary will be created depending on what you chose when setting up your Sage 50 or Xero accounts link.

Posting to Xero

If you have non-GBP channels in Tradebox and don't want Tradebox to convert to GBP, when you set the accounts link up you'll want to set the posting currency to match the channel (e.g. a Euro channel posting to Xero in EUR). This means that any orders downloaded via the channel will pass right from their origin on the marketplace, through Tradebox, to Xero without ever needing to be converted to another currency. The currency on Contact records in Xero is only set once an invoice has been posted to it. We recommend either using a default contact that has only transactions in the currency this channel will be posting, or a new contact that has no invoices linked to it yet. If you're setting Tradebox to automatically raise payments against your orders and/or to post marketplace fees you'll also need to choose bank accounts for these that match the channel currency.

If you don't do a lot of foreign currency trading or you prefer to run your accounts entirely in your base currency of pounds sterling, you can still use non-GBP sales channels in Tradebox to post your orders to Xero. When you set the accounts link up you'll want to set the Xero posting currency to GBP. For all orders, receipts and fees through that channel, Tradebox will apply an exchange rate to convert the values to GBP before passing to Xero. The contact record, as well as any banks used for raising payments or marketplace fees must be in GBP.

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