Multi-currency accounting: handling CAD, USD and CRC in one set of books

September 5, 2026 · 6 min read

If your business operates across Canada, the US, and Costa Rica, you deal with three currencies: Canadian dollars (CAD), US dollars (USD), and Costa Rican colones (CRC). Managing these in a single set of books requires multi-currency accounting — the ability to record transactions in their original currency and convert them to a reporting currency for financial statements.

What is multi-currency accounting?

Multi-currency accounting means your accounting system can record transactions in multiple currencies while maintaining a single reporting currency for financial statements. Each transaction stores the original currency amount and the exchange rate used, so you can always see what was actually paid or received.

Why it matters for cross-border businesses

Without multi-currency support, you would need to manually convert every transaction to your reporting currency before entering it. This is time-consuming, error-prone, and loses the original currency information. Worse, exchange rates change daily, so the conversion you did at transaction time may differ from the rate at settlement time — creating FX gain or loss that needs to be tracked.

FX gain and loss

When you invoice a customer in USD but your reporting currency is CAD, the exchange rate at invoice time may differ from the rate at payment time. If the CAD strengthens against the USD between invoice and payment, you receive fewer CAD than you invoiced — that is an FX loss. If the CAD weakens, you receive more — an FX gain.

These gains and losses are taxable (or deductible) and must be reported on your income statement. Hengo calculates them automatically on every settled transaction and also calculates unrealized FX gain/loss on open balances at period end.

How Hengo handles multi-currency

Hengo stores the original currency, original amount, and exchange rate on every transaction. When generating reports, it converts all amounts to your workspace's reporting currency using the stored exchange rate. For open balances (unpaid invoices, unpaid bills), it recalculates at the current period-end rate to show unrealized FX gain/loss.

This means you can invoice a Canadian client in CAD, pay a Costa Rican supplier in CRC, and receive a US payment in USD — all in the same workspace — and your financial statements will show everything in your reporting currency with accurate FX gain/loss.

Best practices

  • Set your reporting currency to the currency of your primary tax jurisdiction
  • Record transactions in their original currency — do not pre-convert
  • Review FX gain/loss at each period end before closing
  • Keep exchange rate sources consistent (use the same feed for all transactions)
  • Reconcile multi-currency bank accounts separately for each currency

Ready to simplify your multi-currency accounting? Try Hengo free for 14 days.

← Back to blog