There are four concepts in foreign currency transactions. They are:
1. Conversion.
Conversion takes place at the time of the transaction entry and is normally done at the Spot Rate (or at the morning rate if the rates are updated every morning). For example, if an Indian company has an import payable liability of 100 USD and the exchange rate is 40 INR / 1 USD, the foreign currency payable is converted to the INR value of 4000. ERP automatically does this conversion.
2. Revaluation
This happens at the end of the period. The foreign currency account balances are revalued based on the period end exchange rate. Normally the impact goes into 'unrealized gains / losses' account. For example, if the exchange rate is 45 at the end of the period, the foreign currency payable of 100 USD is revalued to 4500 INR and the 'Unrealized Loss' in this case is Rs. 500. The accounting entry in the above case is:
Unrealized Loss Dr. 500
Liability Cr. 500
The above entry is either reversed at the beginning of the next period or carried forward. The actual realized gain / loss is booked at the time of closing the above transaction, by payment against the invoice in the above example.
3. Translation
Translation is used when the organization reports in a foreign currency which is different from its base currency. This happens when a Foreign Subsidiary sends the monthly statements to its HQ. The financial statements have to be translated to the reporting currency. This process happens at the period end. In this case, the base currency trial balance is translated to the foreign currency trial balance. You can use different exchange rates to translate different account types. For example, you could use historical rates to translate owner’s equity and fixed assets, the period end rates to translate current assets and liabilities and period average rates to translate income statement accounts.
4. Remeasurement
This happens in situations where the base currency is an inflationary currency. In this case the parent will want to keep a close track of the transactions by remeasuring every transaction in the currency of parent company. For example if your base currency is Argentine Peso and the parent currency is USD, every transaction in Argentine Peso will be remeasured in USD in the day's exchange rate. This ensures a tight control by parent on the subsidiary's operations and provides the parent with a real time report of the subsidiary's financial performance. This helps effective intervention by the parent in case subsidiary's performance deteriorates due to domestic inflation.
Conversion takes place at the time of the transaction entry and is normally done at the Spot Rate (or at the morning rate if the rates are updated every morning). For example, if an Indian company has an import payable liability of 100 USD and the exchange rate is 40 INR / 1 USD, the foreign currency payable is converted to the INR value of 4000. ERP automatically does this conversion.
2. Revaluation
This happens at the end of the period. The foreign currency account balances are revalued based on the period end exchange rate. Normally the impact goes into 'unrealized gains / losses' account. For example, if the exchange rate is 45 at the end of the period, the foreign currency payable of 100 USD is revalued to 4500 INR and the 'Unrealized Loss' in this case is Rs. 500. The accounting entry in the above case is:
Unrealized Loss Dr. 500
Liability Cr. 500
The above entry is either reversed at the beginning of the next period or carried forward. The actual realized gain / loss is booked at the time of closing the above transaction, by payment against the invoice in the above example.
3. Translation
Translation is used when the organization reports in a foreign currency which is different from its base currency. This happens when a Foreign Subsidiary sends the monthly statements to its HQ. The financial statements have to be translated to the reporting currency. This process happens at the period end. In this case, the base currency trial balance is translated to the foreign currency trial balance. You can use different exchange rates to translate different account types. For example, you could use historical rates to translate owner’s equity and fixed assets, the period end rates to translate current assets and liabilities and period average rates to translate income statement accounts.
4. Remeasurement
This happens in situations where the base currency is an inflationary currency. In this case the parent will want to keep a close track of the transactions by remeasuring every transaction in the currency of parent company. For example if your base currency is Argentine Peso and the parent currency is USD, every transaction in Argentine Peso will be remeasured in USD in the day's exchange rate. This ensures a tight control by parent on the subsidiary's operations and provides the parent with a real time report of the subsidiary's financial performance. This helps effective intervention by the parent in case subsidiary's performance deteriorates due to domestic inflation.
9 comments:
Thanks Rama. Your article was really nice, also the argentine Peso example was fantastic to understand as am in Argentina these days ;)...keep posting Q!!
Rama. Thanks for the posting. Very interesting indeed. I have a question regarding realized gains/losses for monetary accounts outside of AR/AP (non-trade account). We're currently using JDE EnterpriseOne, and running the valuation account report at the end of the month. What would you say are best practices for realizing gains/losses for non-trade accounts (created in GL)? Thanks
Luiz
Dear Luiz
The normal practice is to book the realized gains and losses against the Profit and Loss Account.
I have always found it a good practice to have a dummy supplier in AP and a Dummy Customer in AR to handle non-trade accounts. Normally I do not like direct GL Entries
Rama
Thanks Rama.
Rama,
Regarding your suggestion- using "dummy" customer/supplier for non-trade accounts - could you please elaborate on that? Let's say I have multi-currency transactions that are uploaded into JDE EnterpriseOne GL. How would the "dummy" cust/sup handle the processing of those transactions? Thanks
Luiz
Luis
In your case, probably 'Dummy' customer / supplier will not work. The idea is to create each transactions as a invoice / Payment combination against the dummy supplier / customer in the respective sub modules. If JDE works like Oracle Apps, then based on the different exchange rates entered against the invocies / payments, the system will create Realized Gains / Losses in the Subledger which can then be transferred to GL.
Hello Ramaswamy,
Thank you for post Foreign Currency Transaction Concepts. Nice explanation.
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