As a Canadian business I just set up a USD bank account, so how do I account for USD bank fees in USD. I don't see an option to create a Bank Fees account in USD in QBO.

Hi there, 

QuickBooks is a great program for managing accounts which have different currencies.With the powerful feature of Multi-currency, you can add your USD account with ease and I'll show you how.

To do this, follow the steps below: 

1. Select Accounting from the left navigation menu > Chart of Accounts.
2. Select New.
3. In the Account dialog, select the appropriate Account Type and Detail Type.
4. Enter a Name for the new account and an optional Description.
5. Select the currency to assign to the account from the Currency ▼ drop-down menu.
6. Select Save and Close.

In order to have the option to add a USD account, you have to activate the Multi-currency feature first. 

Note: Once you turn on multicurrency, you cannot turn it off or change your home currency. Only turn it off if you have bank accounts, customers, or suppliers that don't use your home currency.

1. Select Settings ⚙️.
2. Go to Company Settings. Then go to Advanced.
3. Select Edit ✎ to modify your currency settings.
4. Choose the Multicurrency checkbox.
5. Select Save and close.

Here's more about the home vs foreign currency:

Home currency

• Your current currency becomes your home currency. (The currency of the country your business is physically located.)
• Until you assign a foreign currency, the default value for all customers, suppliers, and accounts is your company's home currency.
• Income and expense accounts always use your home currency.

Foreign currency

• You can assign a foreign currency to customers, suppliers, banks and credit cards.
• You'll see foreign currencies on the activity screens for customers, suppliers, transactions,  accounts and companies.
• You can pay and receive payments in a supplier's or customer's currency.
• Foreign currency is automatically updated every four hours in QuickBooks from Wall Street On Demand.

If you've got multi-currency turned on already and you're still not seeing foreign currencies, I recommend clearing cache and cookies on your browser. Doing this will help fix most issues the site may be having. Here's an article which shows you how to do that: How to clear Cache and Cookies. Give this a try and if you're still having issues, I recommend contacting our support team using this link.

I already have Multi-currency turned on, but for some reason when I go to the chart of account to create 'New' --> 'Expenses' account, the option to choose a currency disappears. Why is that?

I see what you're saying. When you use the Multicurrency feature, you can assign currency to bank accounts and credit card accounts. Income and expense accounts always use your Home currency. Let me know if you have further questions. 

So how do you suggest I account for these USD bank fees?

Making sure your transactions are recorded properly is a good way to keep your books in order. I highly recommend reaching out to an accounting professional about this. If you don't have access to one, you can search for a professional in your area from our website using this link: Find an Accountant. Once you're on the site, enter your city or postal code and you should see a list of accounting professionals in your area.

This was not a very helpful response. I am having the same issue and the blanket 'reach out to a professional' because this wasn't accounted for when building multi-currencies option within the software is unproductive.

Here's your answer.  QB will apply the currency exchange to the transaction when you enter the bill for the usd vendor. Open a bill and enter all the information as you would if it was a Canadian bank charge.  Because you are selecting a usd vendor, there will be an exchange rate field on screen.  Input the exchange rate and when you open your Profit & Loss statement for that month, you will see that QB has applied that exchange rate because your reports are always in your Home Currency.