The currency conversion feature allows you to convert all monetary amounts on a purchase order (product prices, shipping charges, totals, etc.) into another currency.

To reach the Currency Conversion dialog box, select ORDER TOOLS and CURRENCY CONVERSION from the Menu Bar on top of the Main Purchase Order Screen.  The following dialog box appears:

The dialog box allows you to indicate which currencies you work with and their rates.  To help you get started, the program comes with several sample currencies.  When you are ready to enter your own, just delete or overwrite them with your own.

Up-to-date currency rates are available at many websites on the Internet.  If you are dealing in international currencies you probably already have a site where you obtain this information.  If not, it just a matter of doing a search for "Currency Exchange Rates" and you'll turn up plenty of organizations and businesses which make this information available at no cost.  You may or may not use the rates at their face value.  Depending on your company's policy, you may add a percentage to the rate to compensate for the extra expense involved in dealing with another currency.  Or you may use an average rate to minimize frequent updates of the AnyPO's Currency Rate Table.

Use the Currency Table in the middle of the dialog box to enter the monetary symbol, three-letter ISO abbreviation, full name of currency and exchange rate.  If you don't have the appropriate monetary symbol or are unsure, use the generic symbol: ¤

The ISO abbreviation is a standardized way to referring to the currencies of the world.  Some examples are:

AUD Australian Dollars

BRL Brazilian Real

CAD Canadian Dollars

CNY Chinese Renminbi

DKK Danish Kroner

EUR Euros

GBP British Pounds

HKD Hong Kong Dollars

INR Indian Rupees

JPY Japanese Yen

MXP Mexican Pesos

NOK Norway Kroner

RUR Russian Rubles

SGD Singapore Dollars

SEK Swedish Krona

CHF Swiss Francs

USD United States Dollars

These are just a few examples.  Every country has their own code, and it isn't hard to find a country's abbreviation.  Most exchange rate tables list the country's ISO abbreviation along with the latest rate.  The ISO abbreviation is very important in AnyPO.  When you convert a purchase order to another currency, all printed and electronic purchase orders will show the three letter abbreviation along with the full name of the currency.  This is done to make sure there is no mistake which currency is being used.

Exchange rate tables on the Internet may show two types of rates: "exchange rate" and "converted amount."  AnyPO works with the more common "exchange rate." Use the "exchange rate" when entering rates into AnyPO's Currency Table.

Once you've filled in the Currency Rate Table, you can convert a purchase order to the new currency.  First make sure the purchase order you want to convert is showing on the Main Purchase Order Screen.  Open the Currency Conversation dialog box.  Place your cursor in the row of the desired currency in the table and click the 'Convert PO' Button.  All amounts on the purchase order will be converted to the selected currency.

If you need to add a shipping amount, a vendor payment, make corrections to the purchase order--or if you need to change an exchange rate--use the following procedure:

1. Convert the purchase order back to your base currency (by clicking the 'Return to Base Currency' button).

2. Make the necessary corrections or additions while the purchase order is in your base currency.

3. Convert the purchase order back to the desired currency.

Once you print the purchase order (and/or record payments), it's highly recommended that you convert the purchase order back to your base currency by clicking "Return to Base Currency."  All purchase orders must be in the base currency for producing sales reports.

To aid you in converting back and forth, AnyPO will remember the exchange rate.  It saves the rate in the Notes area on the Main Purchase Order Screen.  It's placed in curly brackets and hyphens and looks like: {-{GBP1.5463}-}.  Be sure not to delete this notation or delete a bracket or hyphen.  AnyPO needs this information for the conversation process.

When AnyPO converts a purchase order back to the base rate, it uses one of two methods.  When an exchange rate is less than one (1.0), AnyPO simply reverses the conversion process to arrive at the base currency.  However, if the exchange rate is over one (1.0), AnyPO has to take a different approach.  The reason for this is that the program can't reverse the process without losing accuracy.  The higher the number is over 1.0, the more accuracy is lost.

To prevent loss of accuracy, AnyPO saves the base prices of the products, shipping expense, etc. in the Notes area along with the conversion rate.  It's contained within curly and square brackets and looks like: {[89.00/0.00/<>0.00/0.00/0.00/0.00/]}.  As with the exchange rate, be sure not to delete or alter the notation.

Exchange rates change, and the rates in AnyPO's Currency Table will need to be updated from time to time.  Even though the rates on the table will be changing, you can, if desired, return a purchase order to the original rate used when it was first created and sent to the vendor.  AnyPO saves the original rate in the Notes area.  If a purchase order is in the base rate, and you need to see the original conversion values, you can do so by clicking on the "Use Old Rate" button.