Enter USD opening balances

Hi, @casagrande 

I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. 

The multicurrency feature gives you the ability to record transactions in foreign currencies. If you have customers, suppliers, or bank accounts that use a currency other than your local currency, you can turn on the multicurrency feature to properly track these transactions, as well as exchange rate gains and losses. Once you turn the multicurrency feature on you cannot turn it off again, so be absolutely sure you want to turn it on.

The multicurrency feature and foreign currencies are available in QuickBooks Online Essentials and Plus.

Turn on multicurrency

1. Select Settings ⚙️.
2. Select Account and Settings.
3. Select Advanced.
4. Select Edit ✎ in the Currency section and choose your Home Currency.
5. Select the Multicurrency checkbox and confirm that you understand that you can't undo this option.
6. Select Save and close.

The Manage Currencies link that appears takes you to the Currencies page, where you can manage the currencies you use.

Add currencies

Here's how you can add to the currencies you use.

1. Select Settings ⚙️.
2. Select Currencies.
   Note: This option is available after you turn on multicurrency.
3. Select Add currency.
4. Select the new currency from the Add Currency ▼ drop-down menu.
5. Select Add.

The currency you selected is added to your list of currencies.

Delete currencies

You can delete currencies that you do not use from your list of currencies, but you can only delete a currency if there are no transactions attached to it.

1. Select Settings ⚙️.
2. Select Currencies.
3. Select the small arrow ▼ icon in the Action column and then select Delete.
4. Select Yes to confirm the deletion.

The currency is removed from your list of currencies.

Add an account that uses a foreign currency

The Currency column in the Chart of Accounts shows the currency assigned to the account, and account balances are shown in the account's assigned currency. By default, existing accounts will be in your home currency.

To create an account that uses foreign currency:

1. Select Settings ⚙️.
2. Select Chart of Accounts.
3. Select New.
4. In the Account dialog, select the appropriate Account Type and Detail Type.
5. Enter a Name for the new account and an optional Description as well as any other required fields.
6. Select the foreign currency to assign to the account from the Currency ▼ drop-down menu.
7. Select Save and Close.

The account is created, and the assigned currency is listed in the Currency column on the Chart of Accounts.

If you require any further assistance, reach back out.

Hi casagrande,

Thanks for reaching out with your question. Carolineambrozio has given you a good start by sharing the steps to set up your multicurrency. I'd be happy to provide you with a little more information.

In the article: Multi-currency FAQ, you'll find the answers to many questions that may come up while using multi-currency. Included are the instructions for creating your foreign currency vendors and customers. This is where you'll include your opening balances in the supplier's/customer's details.

If you need a helping hand when you go through the process, reach out. I'll be here to help. Have a fantastic evening!

@casagrande 

The multicurrency feature is not available on QBO Easy Start and the discounted rate is not applicable when upgrading your Plan to Essentials/Plus. You may open a new blank QBO account to get the discounted rate with the same email address.

https://quickbooks.grsm.io/Canada

https://quickbooks.grsm.io/CFIB

then utilize the trial version of Copy feature available in a backup restore app to clone the data.

https://rewindio.grsm.io/quickbooks

Another option, explore these apps to deal with multicurrency transactions.

https://veem.grsm.io/veems

https://wise.prf.hn/l/64dl92k

Hope it helps.

Hello casagrande,

I want to make sure you have the information you're looking for to set up your opening balances for your USD suppliers. I see that other responses on this thread have shared about how to turn on and work with multicurrency, but I want to make sure that this part of your question is also addressed. The FAQ article almost gets you there, but I want to make sure you have the steps to do so.

Typically, vendor or supplier opening balances are set up right on the supplier profile when using QuickBooks Online. You may have noticed, however, that when you chose a different currency for your supplier that the opening balance field disappeared. At this time, it's not possible to enter an opening balance in this way for your suppliers with USD or other currencies. Don't worry, I've got a suggestion for you.

What you can do to enter an opening balance for your foreign currency suppliers is simply create a bill transaction. The bill transaction can then act as a balance and you can make partial payments against it as needed. If you'd like to indicate for your records that it's an opening balance transaction, you can use something like the Memo field to do so. Here's an article that goes over creating a bill and recording payments in QuickBooks Online Canada: Enter bills and record bill payments in QuickBooks Online

In fact, what I've just described is exactly what the opening balance field on home currency suppliers does anyway. When you enter an amount in the Opening balance field, all the program does is create a bill transaction with a note in the memo indicating that it's for an opening balance. For foreign currency suppliers, you simply have to take the extra steps yourself to create the opening balance transaction.

I can definitely appreciate how having the option to have the program do this on your behalf would be handy, however, so I encourage you to submit feedback about this. That can be done by following these steps: How do I submit feedback? This gives you the chance to share your thoughts with our product development team so they can consider them as they continue to grow the program. To stay in the know with new features, check out this page: QuickBooks Online Feature and Product Updates

I hope this has helped! Take care and don't hesitate if you have more questions.

Laura, You are the first to actually answer the question I was asking.  I appreciate receiving your answer and it does address what I needed to know.  My question now is, if I enter opening balances as bills, I would then be charging the expenses for a second time and therefore it would throw off my opening Trial Balance figures.  

I will make a suggestion to the Team to add the USD Opening Balance option to future updates.

Thank you.

It's my pleasure, casagrande. I'm glad what I've outlined will help, and I can absolutely go over your concern about duplicating the numbers! That's something we'll definitely want to avoid as well.

With what you're saying, considering the differences between bills and expenses and how they relate to opening balances is key. Opening balances refer to unpaid amounts owed by or to someone. In this case, it's an unpaid amount to your vendors, which is why it'd be set up as a bill that you can pay against.

If you mean you'd also like to enter expenses or paid bills that you've previously so that they're a part of your books, you wouldn't want to enter these as an opening balance but rather regular transactions. While there are some you could import, a part of the process would end up being manual for entering the expenses and bill payments. Here are some articles that can help.

• What's an opening balance?

• What is the difference between bills, cheques, and expenses?

• Common questions about importing data to QuickBooks Online

• Enter and manage expenses in QuickBooks Online

There may also be third-party apps that can help with importing certain transactions. You can use the Apps tab in QuickBooks Online to research the available options. Each listing includes details about the app, contact information for its support team, and even customer reviews in some cases.

If you'd like some further direction on how to best deal with these transactions in your books, I recommend speaking with an accountant. Accountants have the know-how for dealing with these kinds of situations and will be able to get you back on track. The My Accountant tab is useful for this purpose as it gives you the chance to invite an accountant you're already working with as a user to your books or you can use the Find a pro to help button to research QuickBooks-certified professionals near you.

I hope this has helped shed further light on the situation!