Invoicing clients in another currency
Cross-border billing needs an agreed currency and a separate receipt reconciliation. This guide follows those decisions from proposal to bookkeeping without implying that a currency label converts money.
Product claims checked against the ABH truth sheet on 14 October 2026. Examples are fictional and illustrative. Operational guidance only, not legal, tax or accounting advice.
Short answer
Name the invoice currency in the agreement, document any exchange-rate policy and reconcile external receipts before recording payment. ABH supports ten invoice currency labels, with no exchange rates, conversion or multi-currency accounting.
Review current plans for the time and invoicing workflow. Client funds are received outside ABH and recorded manually.
Pick the currency in the proposal, not at invoice time
Agree the invoice currency before the client accepts the fee. A quote for “5,000” is incomplete when the parties use different currencies. Write the currency code beside the amount and identify whether the agreed obligation is a fixed amount in that currency or an amount derived from another currency. Send the same decision to delivery and finance so the final invoice does not reopen the negotiation.
Ask the client's billing contact whether their purchasing process can accept that currency and where the agency will receive funds externally. A contact's preferred display symbol may differ from the currency their accounts payable team can handle. The payment terms guide covers the wider agreement; a clear currency decision belongs alongside the due date and billing entity.
Fix the exchange rate policy in writing
If the commercial agreement uses conversion, specify the rate source, observation date, rounding method and who bears exchange movements after that date. These decisions belong in your agreement and accounting process. Do not substitute a rate found on invoice day simply because it improves the agency's result. A fixed invoice in EUR and a USD quote converted on issue are different arrangements.
Keep a dated calculation outside ABH when conversion is needed. A fictional example: an agreement converts USD 1,000 at an illustrative rate of EUR 0.90 per USD, giving EUR 900 before taxes and fees. This is arithmetic for explanation, not a current market rate. Ask an accountant how the invoice and later receipt should be recorded in your books.
State the currency clearly on the invoice
Use a currency code consistently in the total, payment instructions and correspondence. A dollar sign alone does not distinguish USD, CAD and AUD. Review the generated document before sending, including discounts, expenses and any prior deposit, to ensure amounts have not been copied from a quote in another currency without the agreed calculation. A free invoice template can help organize that review.
ABH invoices provide a currency label, due dates, statuses, a PDF and a public view without a client account. A label tells the reader what the amounts mean; changing it is not a currency conversion. Check the invoice before issue rather than changing its label later to match the currency in which a bank happened to report a receipt.
Bank and provider fees: say who bears them
State whether the client must arrange for the invoiced amount to arrive in full and how bank or provider charges will be handled. Keep the wording understandable to the billing contact. A transfer may involve more than one institution, so avoid promising that a particular option has no intermediary fees. Confirm actual charges from the agency's external statements and provider records.
If the client questions a deduction, separate the fee question from the exchange-rate question. You may have received the correct invoice-currency amount even though the bank account shows a different home-currency value. Conversely, the transfer may be short in the invoice currency. The pass-through cost guide helps distinguish agreed client costs from costs the agency absorbs.
Record what actually arrived
Reconcile the receipt using its date, original currency, amount and reference. Preserve the external evidence for any conversion or fee. Do not enter the raw number from a different currency as though it were an equal invoice-currency payment. Determine the amount attributable to the invoice with your bookkeeper, and investigate any remaining balance before declaring it settled.
For a fictional invoice of EUR 900 excluding taxes, a documented receipt of EUR 885 leaves EUR 15 to explain. Whether the agency absorbs a fee or asks for the balance depends on the agreement and bookkeeping treatment. ABH records payments manually in an append-only ledger with exact amounts. It does not receive the transfer, calculate exchange differences or collect funds from the client.
What ABH supports today: a currency label, no conversion
ABH accepts these ten invoice currency labels: USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, CHF, CNY, INR and BRL. Exchange-rate lookup, currency conversion and multi-currency accounting or reporting are not available today. Do not read a shared dashboard total as a converted home-currency balance. Keep cross-currency reconciliation in the accounting process you have agreed with your accountant.
Use the tax and financial administration article to frame the questions for that adviser, and review current plans for product access. This is operational guidance, not accounting or tax advice. For the related document-control problem, read invoice numbering, which keeps the invoice reference stable while you investigate a receipt.
Frequently asked questions
Can ABH convert a USD invoice to EUR?
No. A supported currency label identifies the invoice amounts. ABH does not look up rates or convert amounts.
What if the bank statement uses my home currency?
Keep the transfer evidence and ask your bookkeeper how to establish the amount attributable to the invoice. Do not treat unlike currency amounts as equal.
Does ABH accept foreign-currency client payments?
ABH does not collect client money in any currency. Agencies receive payments externally and record confirmed receipts manually.
Agree the currency before the fee.
Review current plans for the time and invoicing workflow. Client funds are received outside ABH and recorded manually.