A business unit’s base currency is permanent after you create it. If your association needs to invoice or accept payments in other currencies through that same business unit, turn on multi-currency and add the currencies it supports. Your Rhythm account can also keep today’s exchange rates between currencies in a reference table, but transactions do not use that table for conversion.
What It Controls
- Whether a business unit accepts currencies besides its base currency, and which ones.
- A rounding account for currency fluctuation differences when multi-currency is on.
- A per-currency exchange rate table, kept for your whole Rhythm account rather than by business unit, that records today’s rate from one currency to others.
If a multi-currency batch does not post as expected, check the business unit’s setup first. Multi-currency must be turned on, and the business unit must have a currency fluctuations/rounding G/L account configured for multi-currency batch posting to work correctly.
Where to Find It
Multi-currency is part of each business unit’s setup. Go to Finance & Billing › Setup › Business Units, then create or edit a business unit. If multi-currency is switched on for your Rhythm account, the form includes a Multi-Currency card. This account-level option is controlled by a permission profile setting called Enable MultiCurrencies. Without it, business units cannot configure multiple currencies, and Finance & Billing hides the currency dropdown and related setup instructions.
After the multi-currency feature is on for your account and at least one business unit has supported currencies configured, order processes elsewhere in Rhythm also show a currency dropdown. Staff and members can then choose the transaction currency.
The exchange rate table does not have its own menu item. Open it directly at /setup/exchangeRates, or use a bookmark or shared link from an administrator.
Prerequisites
You need the permission your administrator grants for business unit setup to turn on multi-currency or change a business unit’s supported currencies. To open the exchange rate table by address, you need the same general Finance & Billing setup access required for other Setup pages.
The Settings
| Setting | Where | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-Currency switch | Business unit form | On, off | Off | Shows the rest of this card. This switch appears only when your Rhythm account has the multi-currency feature |
| Currency Fluctuations/Rounding G/L Account: | Business unit form, Multi-Currency card | An account of this business unit, or none | None | Sets where currency rounding differences post. This option is available only after the business unit has been saved and has accounts of its own |
| Supported currencies rows | Business unit form, Multi-Currency card | One or more world currencies, each not the base currency and not repeated | One empty row when none are set | Sets the extra currencies this business unit can invoice or take payments in |
| Exchange rate record | Exchange rate table | One record per currency code, each holding a list of rates to other currencies, plus notes | None | Keeps a reference table of today’s rate from that currency to others |
Warning
Exchange rate records are not used to convert transactions between currencies. Rhythm converts real transactions with an external rate provider at the time of the transaction, not with the rates you enter here. The table also has no history because an exchange rate record has no effective date, so it can describe only “today’s” rate and cannot look up past rates.
If a converted amount looks unchanged for a very small price, the amount may simply be rounding to the smallest unit of the target currency. Try a larger amount if you are testing whether conversion is working. Payment processing that relies on the external conversion service can also fail if that service or its configuration has a problem. If currency conversion errors appear at payment time, that external dependency is the more likely cause, not your own currency setup.
Showing a Different Currency Without Changing What's Charged
The multi-currency setup on this page lets a business unit truly accept and charge other currencies. After you add a supported currency, an order, invoice, or payment made in that currency shows and charges that same currency, with no hidden conversion. Rhythm does not offer a way to show a shopper one currency while quietly converting and charging a different currency on the same transaction. The currency and amount shown on a real, accepted transaction are what it charges.
Rhythm also offers display-only currency as a separate capability. Order and checkout screens in the console and Portal can show amounts converted into a currency the shopper picked for reference, while the order, invoice, and payment still process in your business unit’s base currency, typically USD. This does not require a separate merchant account for each display currency because no merchant account charges in that display currency.
Warning
In display-only mode, the amount actually charged is always your business unit's base-currency amount, not the converted figure the shopper saw. Available account credit shown at checkout in this mode can also stay in its original currency rather than converting to the shopper's selected display currency, even though it appears and can be selected there.
Letting a Business Unit Accept Other Currencies
- Go to Finance & Billing › Setup › Business Units and open the business unit to edit, or create a new one.
- Turn on Multi-Currency.
- Choose a Currency Fluctuations/Rounding G/L Account: if you want rounding differences to post to a specific account. This option is available once the business unit exists.
- Add one row under Supported Currencies for each additional currency, and choose each currency from the world currency list.
- Save.
Result
Screens that ask for a currency on this business unit’s records, such as a G/L account, bank account, or merchant account, now offer the base currency plus every currency you added. Rhythm refuses records that hold money in a currency the business unit does not support.
Warning
The supported-currency list cannot repeat a currency or include the business unit’s base currency. If either issue is present, Rhythm refuses the save. Rhythm does not check whether transactions or accounts already use a currency you remove, so the save succeeds. This setting does not define what happens to those existing records afterward.
Keeping an Exchange Rate Table
Each exchange rate record is identified by its base currency code, such as USD, and includes rates to other currencies plus free-text notes. Your Rhythm account has one record per currency, so business units cannot keep different rates for the same pair of currencies.
- Go to the exchange rate table’s address.
- Choose Create Exchange Rate, or Edit an existing currency’s record.
- Choose the Base Currency:. After you save the record, this currency is fixed. On the record’s own edit form, the field still appears editable, but changing it does not create a second record for the old currency.
- Add one row for each currency you want a rate for, with its Currency: and Exchange Rate:.
- Save.
Warning
The form requires at least one rate row before it can submit successfully. If you remove every row and try to save, the save does not complete and does not show a clear error. Add at least one rate row before saving, or leave the page without saving and start again.
Because this table is not used to convert real transactions, its values may not be available in Query Center output either. If you are trying to reconstruct what a customer was actually charged for a partial refund on a foreign-currency payment, do not rely on a query to provide the exchange rate. You may need to check the transaction’s own recorded conversion instead.
For a foreign-currency order, the subledger entries behind its payment can show the base-currency amount even though the purchased items and order total display correctly in the transaction currency elsewhere. Keep this in mind if a subledger entry’s amount looks like it is in the wrong currency. It may be showing the base-currency equivalent rather than an error. Similarly, if a membership dues product includes an inline bundled split amount, the overall transaction total converts correctly to the transaction currency, but the bundled split amount written to subledger reporting can remain in the base currency. That can make GL and subledger split reporting for that line look inconsistent even though the payment total is correct.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A business unit’s supported currencies decide which currencies its own G/L accounts, bank accounts, and merchant accounts can hold money in.
- The working business unit and currency you selected decides which currency you see figures in while you work; it does not change the currencies stored on records.
- The exchange rate table is separate from every business unit’s setup. Nothing that posts, invoices, or takes a payment reads it.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Turning off Multi-Currency on a business unit hides the supported-currency rows on the form, but it does not change existing records that already hold values in another currency.
- Removing a supported currency that accounts or transactions already use is not blocked. You can add the currency again to put it back.
- A business unit's base currency and start of fiscal year cannot be changed once it is created, no matter what else you change in the business unit’s setup.
Permissions
You need the permission your administrator grants for business unit setup to change multi-currency settings on a business unit. You need the same general Setup access to open and change the exchange rate table.
Validation and Errors
Rhythm refuses to save a business unit when the supported-currency list repeats a currency or includes the base currency. Rhythm also refuses to save an exchange rate record when a currency code is invalid or a rate is below zero, and it flags the field. If you save with no rate rows at all, the save does not go through, so make sure at least one rate row is filled in first.