Standards & Libraries> Currencies: This is where a Unifier Administrator can manually add new company currencies to suit the company business needs, in addition to the predefined list of currencies. You need to have appropriate permission to access the Currencies sub-node.
You can see the Currencies node in the Permission tab of the User properties: Company Workspace > Access Control > Administration Mode Access > Currencies.
A Unifier Administrator can setup both users and Groups permissions to the Currencies sub-node. There are three types of permissions allowed: Create, Modify, and View.
- A user that has the "Create" permission, can add, modify, and view currencies.
- A user that has the "Modify" permission, can modify and view currencies.
- A user that has the "View" permission, can view currencies.
The log for Currencies sub-node has the following elements:
Toolbar options
- New: to add new currencies
- Open: to view and modify existing currencies in the log
- Delete: to delete the currencies in the log
- Find: to search for a specific currency
Menu bar options
- File > New, Open
- Edit > Delete
- View > All, Find, Audit Log
- Help > Unifier Help, Unifier Library, About Unifier
Log columns
- Currency Name: Displays the Currency Name
- Currency Code: Displays the Currency code for the country
- Currency Symbol: Displays the Currency symbol for the currency
- Description: Description for Currency
The Currencies log has a list of predefined currencies. When you click Currencies, a predefined list of currencies displays in alphabetical order. In addition:
- Currency code is displayed for all the existing currencies.
- If currency symbols exist, the currency symbols are populated under the Currency symbol column.
- Users who have permissions can modify the predefined currencies.
- Description lists all the countries that use that currency.
To add new currencies:
- Click New to open the Currency Details Window
- Enter the Currency Name, Currency Code, Currency Symbol, and Description
- Currency Name is a required field. Currency Name is a text field (maximum of 250 characters)
- Currency Code is a required field. Currency Code is a text field (maximum of 8 characters)
- Currency Symbol is an optional text field (maximum of 8 characters)
- Single characters such as . , () - are not allowed
- Characters such as | ' " \ are not allowed
- Patterns such as $$ $& $` $' are not allowed
Note: You cannot type just a comma as a currency symbol. Also, the Pipe character (|) and back slash (\) are not allowed in the Currency Name, Code and Symbol fields.
- Description is an optional text field (maximum of 500 characters)
- Click OK to save
- Validate the new currency by ensuring that the:
- Currency Name is unique and does not exist in the predefined list.
- Currency Code is unique and does not exist in the predefined list.
- Number of characters entered in the text field does not exceed the limit.
To view the details of an existing currency, click the currency and select open from the Menu bar.
You can modify the Currency Name, Currency Symbol, and Description after you have created a currency and defined the currency Exchange Rates. You cannot modify the Currency Code, once a currency is created.
To delete a currency, select the currency and click Delete.
Notes:
- You cannot delete a currency that has been used to define exchange rates.
- Currency selected as Base Currency, at the time of creating the company, cannot be deleted.
To search in Currencies, use Find in the Currencies log view. The search parameters are Currency Code and Currency Name. The logical operators for both parameters are the following:
- contains
- does not contain
- equals
- does not equal
The Audits log displays the additions and modifications applied to currencies. Audits log allows you to select a record to see the audit information. The top part of the Audit log window displays the currency name, for example, Audit Log for: Australian Dollar (AUD).
The Currency List window, which you can see when you are defining the exchange rates, displays a list of currencies that you have defined in the Currencies sub-node. Fields in the Currency List window are Currency Name, Currency Code, Currency Symbol, and Description. The Description field includes the country name and if there are multiple countries that share the same Currency Name, the country names are listed and separated by a comma, for example, for Currency Name, Euro (EUR), the Description field lists: Andorra, Belgium, France, and so forth, in alphabetic order.
Note: If the currency name is modified, then existing exchange rate CSV template fails. You must export the exchange rate template again for the new currency name. The existing Web Services calls for record creations and updates fails if the currency names are modified.
Similar to other custom string translations the currency names can be translated for internationalization.
Base currency
The currency the company creator selected as the default currency during company creation. Upon creation, the base currency is fixed and cannot be changed. The base currency becomes the default currency for projects and shells; however, the default currency can be changed during project or shell creation. Company-level cost data roll-ups can draw from multiple projects and shells. Each of these projects or shells can have a different project currency.
Project currency
A Project Currency is the currency that was selected as the project or shell-level default currency during project or shell creation. This can be different from the Base Currency, and you must take the following steps before you save the new project or shell.
- First: Before creating the new project or shell, verify that the non-base currency exists in the Exchange Rate Set.
- If it does not, you can add it.
- If the exchange rate effective date is in the future you cannot add it to the project or shell currency set.
- Second: During project/shell creation, add the non-base currency to the project or shell.
- Third: During project/shell creation, select the non-base currency as the project or shell default currency.
Unifier calculates and stores costs in the project currency. Business process records created in a non-project currency, such as a transaction currency, use the exchange rate that was active at the time of record creation for currency conversion to project currency.
Project/shell currency options
When adding a currency to a project or a shell, you have the options to float, hedge, or peg the currency rate. These options establish how to handle fluctuations in that currency’s market rate.
- Float - A currency's value fluctuates according to the foreign exchange market. Unifier updates currency exchange rates according to the effective date of the Exchange Rate set.
- Hedge - Intended to reduce future risk of currency fluctuations.
- Peg - The currency exchange rate is fixed. Pegging impedes project currency conversion in a project or a shell.
Role rates changes due to currency exchange rate changes only consider Float and disregard Hedged or Pegged rates.
Transaction currency
This is a currency that was added to the project or shell Currencies, and picked at run time using a currency picker on the commitment business process. Upon record creation, Unifier uses the current active currency exchange rate in the Exchange Rate table to convert a transaction currency to the project currency.
Cash flow curves display data in the transaction currency, if different from the project currency. At run time, users can switch between currency views, but they can only modify values in the transaction currency view.
Currency picker
Currency pickers are available only for the upper form of a cost-type commitment business processes such a contract or a change order. This means all line items will be in the record, or transaction, currency.