How to change currency in QuickBooks

Work out which currency you mean. The home currency is the one QuickBooks set for you when the company was created, normally based on where the business is located, and your income and expense accounts always use it. Separately, once Multicurrency is on, a customer, a supplier or an account such as a bank or credit card account can each be given a single currency of its own.

The order matters. You can change the home currency only while Multicurrency hasn't been turned on. After that, Multicurrency stays on for good and the home currency is locked, because currency conversion details have to be carried through the books from then on. If you're unsure whether to turn it on, Intuit's advice is to talk to your accountant first.

Multicurrency isn't available in QuickBooks Online Simple Start; Intuit's article covers Essentials, Plus and Advanced. It also won't work if QuickBooks Commerce is connected to your QuickBooks Online company.

1. Go to Settings and select Account and settings.
2. Select Advanced.
3. Select Edit in the Currency section.
4. Choose the currency you want from the Home Currency dropdown.
5. If you're also setting up Multicurrency, turn on the Multicurrency switch and confirm that you understand the choice can't be undone.
6. Select Save, then Done.
7. With Multicurrency on, add each currency you deal in: go to Settings, select Currencies, select Add currency, choose it from the Add Currency dropdown and select Add.

With Multicurrency turned on, a Manage Currencies link appears and opens the Currencies page, where you look after the currencies you use. Intuit notes that turning it on also switches off the cash flow planner. You can record transactions in other currencies and QuickBooks converts them to your home currency. It measures the exchange rate as how many units of home currency make one unit of the foreign currency, and it can update rates for you, or you can type in your own.

Your existing accounts stay in the home currency. Each foreign currency needs a new account: in Chart of accounts, select New account, set the account and detail types, name it, pick its Currency from the dropdown, add the starting date and opening balance, and save. An account's currency is fixed once a transaction is posted to it, and a currency can be deleted from the Currencies page only while no transaction uses it. One transaction can't be split across different currencies.

A customer you made inactive drops out of your lists and menus but isn't erased. Their past transactions stay in reports, shown with (deleted) after the name, and any sub-customers become inactive along with them. If you need the old one back, tick Include inactive under the settings icon above the customer list and select Make active in its Action column.

If the home currency won't change, check whether Multicurrency is already on: once it is, the home currency can't be changed. If a customer can't be made inactive, check for linked projects: Intuit says those have to be deleted before the customer can be made inactive. And if Currencies isn't in the Settings menu, Multicurrency hasn't been turned on yet, since that option only appears afterwards.