Managing your business finances with multiple currencies in QuickBooks can be an incredibly useful feature for businesses that deal internationally. However, if your business no longer requires multi-currency support, or if you’re simplifying your accounting system, you may want to remove multi-currency from QuickBooks to streamline your accounting processes.
Disabling multi-currency in QuickBooks is a delicate process, as it involves ensuring that no transactions, accounts, or settings are inadvertently impacted. In this post, we’ll guide you through the steps to remove multi-currency from QuickBooks safely and explain the implications of doing so.
Why Remove Multi-Currency in QuickBooks?
There are several reasons why a business might want to disable multi-currency in QuickBooks:
Simplifying Financial Management
If your business has stopped dealing with foreign currencies or is moving to a single currency, removing multi-currency can simplify your financial management and reduce the risk of errors or confusion.
Avoiding Currency Conversion Issues
QuickBooks’ multi-currency feature tracks exchange rates and applies conversions to transactions. If you no longer need this feature, disabling it will prevent you from dealing with constant exchange rate updates and potential conversion mistakes.
Reducing Data Complexity
Multi-currency settings can complicate reports, invoices, and balance sheets. If you’re only working in one currency, removing multi-currency settings can simplify your reporting and bookkeeping processes.
Switching to a New Accounting System
Sometimes, businesses decide to switch to a different accounting system that doesn’t support multi-currency or no longer requires it. Disabling multi-currency helps you clean up your QuickBooks files before transitioning.
How to Remove Multi-Currency from QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop handle multi-currency settings slightly differently. Let’s walk through the steps for both platforms to help you remove multi-currency settings with ease.
QuickBooks Online
In QuickBooks Online, once you’ve enabled multi-currency, it cannot be completely disabled through the user interface. However, if you no longer wish to use multi-currency, you can follow these steps to remove the feature from your workflows:
1. Check for Open Multi-Currency Transactions
Before disabling multi-currency, you need to make sure there are no open or pending transactions that are using foreign currencies. These might include:
Invoices
Bills
Payments
Bank transactions
Review your records and ensure that all transactions in foreign currencies are either converted or removed.
2. Convert Foreign Currency Accounts
You’ll need to convert any foreign currency accounts (e.g., bank accounts, credit cards, or customer/vendor accounts) to your base currency. To do this:
Go to the Gear icon in the upper right corner and select Chart of Accounts.
Find the foreign currency account you want to modify.
Click on Edit next to the account.
Change the account’s currency to your base currency (usually USD or your home currency).
Save the changes.
3. Delete Foreign Currency Settings
Once you have no outstanding transactions or balances in foreign currencies, you can delete the multi-currency feature from QuickBooks Online.
Go to the Gear icon again and choose Account and Settings.
Click on the Advanced tab.
Scroll down to Currency and turn off the multi-currency option.
QuickBooks will prompt you with a warning that this action cannot be undone. Ensure you’ve taken care of all currency-related data first before confirming.
QuickBooks Desktop
In QuickBooks Desktop, disabling multi-currency is a bit more straightforward, but again, you need to take care of open transactions and balances before proceeding.
1. Review and Complete Foreign Currency Transactions
Like in QuickBooks Online, ensure that you have completed or removed any transactions involving foreign currencies. These may include:
Sales receipts or invoices in foreign currencies
Vendor bills or payments
Bank or credit card entries with foreign currencies
2. Convert or Close Foreign Currency Accounts
Next, you’ll need to convert or close any foreign currency accounts you have set up. Here’s how:
Go to the Lists menu and select Chart of Accounts.
Locate any accounts that are using foreign currencies, such as bank or credit card accounts.
Right-click on the account, select Edit Account and change the currency to your base currency (if you plan to continue using the account).
If you no longer need the account, you can close it by choosing Make Account Inactive.
3. Turn Off Multi-Currency in QuickBooks Desktop
Once all foreign currency transactions are cleared and accounts are converted or inactivated, you can proceed to turn off multi-currency:
Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences.
In the Preferences window, select Multiple Currencies from the list on the left.
Click on the Company Preferences tab.
Choose the option to No under "Use multiple currencies".
QuickBooks will prompt you with a warning that this action will remove multi-currency settings for your company file. Confirm the decision to disable multi-currency.
4. Reconcile and Review Your Financials
Once you’ve disabled multi-currency, it’s important to review your financial data, including your balance sheet and income statements, to ensure there are no discrepancies caused by the changes.
Things to Consider Before Removing Multi-Currency
Before you remove multi-currency, be sure to consider the following:
Outstanding Foreign Currency Balances: If you have unpaid invoices, bills, or credit card charges in foreign currencies, removing multi-currency could cause issues with those transactions. Be sure to either convert or resolve any open balances before proceeding.
Reports and Customizations: Multi-currency can affect the way your reports are generated in QuickBooks. Once it’s removed, certain reports or settings might need to be adjusted.
Historical Data: Although you can remove multi-currency settings, the historical data related to foreign currency transactions will remain in your QuickBooks file. You can continue to view these records but won’t be able to make new foreign currency transactions.
Final Thoughts
Disabling multi-currency in QuickBooks can be an important step if your business no longer deals with foreign currencies, or if you are transitioning to a simpler accounting system. Whether you're using QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, following the proper steps to remove multi-currency will ensure your data stays accurate and free of errors.
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