Foreign currency and revaluation

The rule that matters most

A converted figure never overwrites what was actually transacted. The original amount and its currency stay on the record permanently, and the cedi figure is derived from them.

This is what lets you answer, months later, what the counterparty actually paid rather than what the books had to say about it at a particular rate.

Rates

Rates are held per currency pair per date, with the source recorded — entered by hand, taken from the Bank of Ghana, or produced by a revaluation run. One rate per pair per day.

Revaluing

The ledger is kept in the base currency, so a foreign-currency bank balance carries its cedi amount at the rate it was recorded. Restating it at a new rate produces a gain or a loss, which posts as a new balanced journal entry.

Nothing existing is edited. Each revaluation is recorded with the rate used, the rate it superseded and the foreign-currency balance revalued, so the gain or loss can always be reproduced.

One run per currency per date

A revaluation is unique per organisation, currency and date. Running it again for the same day does not double the adjustment.