Entering Historical Rates
Enter historical rates or amounts for translating actual and budget account balances. You may enter rates for any foreign currency you have enabled.
You can assign historical rates to accounts, either individually or by range. Generally, you enter rates only for specific balance sheet accounts. For example, under SFAS #52 (U.S.), you use historical rates to translate your owners' equity account balances.
If you have average balance processing enabled for your set of books, you enter separate historical rates for standard and average balances for specific balance sheet accounts.
Note: If you change a historical rate after you've already run translation, you must retranslate your account balances for the period whose rate has changed.
Prerequisites
Define and enable your currencies.
Define your set of books.
To enter a historical rate for a specific account:
1. Navigate to the Historical Rates window.
2. Enter the Target Currency for which you want to enter rates. You can enter any foreign currency as the Target Currency.
3. Enter the Period to which the historical rate applies.
4. Enter the Account to which the rate applies.
5. Enter either a Rate or Amount.
See: Translating Balances for a discussion of how General Ledger determines the translated balance from the rate or amount you enter on the Historical Rates window.
6. If you have average balance processing enabled, choose a Usage type to apply the rate to Standard or Average balances.
Additional Information: You can use the Assign by Ranges window to define the same rate for both standard and average balances.
Note: If average balance processing is not enabled in your set of books, the usage field will not appear in the Historical Rates window.
7. Select Historical as the Rate Type. General Ledger overrides the period-end rate, if one exists, with rates associated with this type.
Note: If you have average balance processing enabled, General Ledger will automatically enter Historical as the Rate Type.
9. Produce a Historical Rates Listing to see your historical rates, amounts and weighted-average rates.
To enter a historical rate for a range of accounts:
1. Navigate to the Historical Rates window.
2. Enter the Target Currency for which you want to enter rates. You can enter any foreign currency as the Target Currency.
3. Choose the Assign by Ranges button.
4. Enter the Period, Rate or Amount, and Rate Type just as you would for individual accounts.
Note: If you have average balance processing enabled, the Rate Type field will not appear.
5. (Optional) If average balance processing is enabled, select a Usage type to apply the rate to Standard, Average, or Standard & Average balances.
6. Enter an account Low and High for the range you want to assign the defined rate. You can assign the same rate to multiple account ranges.
7. Choose OK when you have entered all the ranges for the period, rate, and rate type.
8. Save your work. General Ledger runs a concurrent process to assign historical rates to the accounts in the designated ranges.
9. Produce a Historical Rates Listing to see your historical rates, amounts and weighted-average rates.
Automatically Assigned Rate Types
If you translate an owners' equity account for which you have not entered a historical rate for the period and to-currency, or an asset or liability account for which you have entered a previous historical rate, General Ledger automatically creates a historical rate and assigns it one of the rate types listed below. The information below also describes how General Ledger derives the historical rate it uses for the period and to-currency:
Prior: General Ledger uses the most recently entered historical rate or amount for your balance sheet accounts, and assigns it the rate type Prior. If you have average balance processing enabled, General Ledger rolls this historical rate or amount forward using the rate type Prior.
Period: If you have never defined a historical rate or amount for an owners' equity account, General Ledger uses:
- The period-average rate if the profile option GL: Owners Equity Translation Rule is set to PTD.
- The period-end rate if the profile option GL: Owners Equity Translation Rule is set to YTD.
In both cases, General Ledger assigns the rate type Period.
Calculated: This rate type is only used when the profile option GL: Owners Equity Translation Rule is set to YTD. It is only applicable to the first period of your fiscal year. If you have never defined a historical rate or amount for your retained earnings account, General Ledger calculates a rate and assigns it the rate type Calculated.
See Also
Defining Sets of Books
Historical Rates Listing
Overview of Multi-Currency Accounting
Overview of Average Balance Processing
