When you add a new currency to your currency list, BigTime will automatically pull the exchange rate between that currency and your base currency for the current date as a baseline. You’ll notice, however, that there is an option to add a START DATE and an END DATE for your exchange rates in your EDIT CURRENCY window.
The start and end date feature exists so that you can add multiple exchange rates for different time periods to your system. This can be helpful if you want BigTime to pull one exchange rate of your choice for multiple dates during a set time period, rather than pulling a new one every single day. When you click the CALENDAR icon below the END DATE field, a calendar will open where you can select the date after which your exchange rate will no longer apply.
To illustrate how this works, we’re going to set our first exchange rate end date for March 31st.
When we click on that date, BigTime will generate a new row for us to add a second exchange rate. The start date for the second exchange rate will automatically fill in as the day following the last exchange rate’s end date. For example, if the first exchange rate's end date is March 31st, then the second exchange rate's start date will be April 1st. This ensures there’s no time gap or overlap between the two exchange rates.
Our first exchange rate value was set at roughly 0.7, but we’ll set our second exchange rate at 0.9 by typing that value into the text box. BigTime will automatically use this exchange rate to calculate a new value under the VALUE IN (BASE CURRENCY) header. In this case, that value is roughly 1.11.
Once we’re done with updating our exchange rate dates, we’ll click the blue SAVE button to save our changes.
Now, whenever we create a multi-currency invoice or bill before March 31st, BigTime will use 0.7 as the exchange rate. After March 31st, that exchange rate will no longer be used, and BigTime will instead pull the second exchange rate of 0.9. We can continue to add as many exchange rate rows as our firm needs.