Currencies

Currencies

Wherever FreeITSM records money - a contract's value, a software licence's cost, a domain's renewal fee, a lease schedule, a project budget - you choose the currency from one list: every currency in use in the world, taken from the international ISO 4217 standard. The Indonesian rupiah, the Kenyan shilling and the Swiss franc are all already there; there is nothing to add or switch on.

Added in issue #189. Before that, Contracts offered 19 currencies, Software Licences offered three, and Domains, Leases and Projects asked you to type a code.

There are two places to set things up, and they answer different questions.

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For everyone: System → Currencies

Go to System, then the Currencies card. You need to be an administrator.

Favourites and the default

A list of 150-odd currencies is long, so up to five favourites sit at the top of every currency dropdown in FreeITSM, with everything else underneath in code order. Out of the box the favourites are pounds, euros and US dollars.

One favourite is marked Default. A new contract, licence, domain, lease schedule or project starts in that currency - whoever creates it can still pick another.

• Changing the default never changes an existing record. A contract already in euros stays in euros.
• Projects has its own setting (Projects → Settings → Budget → Currency for new projects). When that is set it wins for projects; left unset, it follows this default.
• Tip: on a focused currency dropdown, typing the code - I, D, R - jumps straight to it.

How amounts are written

Three choices, each option showing its own example so you can see the result before you pick:

Choice	Options
Separators	1,234.56 (default), 1.234,56, 1 234,56, 1 234.56, 1'234.56, 1234.56, Indian grouping 12,34,567.89
Symbol	£1,234 (default), £ 1,234, 1,234 £, or the code instead: GBP 1,234, 1,234 GBP
Decimal places	As the currency (default) - none for the yen, two for the pound, three for the Kuwaiti dinar - or always none, or always two

"As the currency" is usually right. The rupiah is shown with no decimals by default, the way it is written in Indonesia: Rp 1.500.000.

Where several currencies share a symbol, the less common one carries a prefix so two amounts never look alike: $ is the US dollar, A$ the Australian, CA$ the Canadian. If your team deals in several dollars, choosing the code instead removes all doubt.

Exceptions for particular currencies

A different format for one currency, with everything else following the format above. A UK organisation with a Jakarta office might show pounds as £1,234.56 and rupiah as Rp 1.234.568.

Codes that are not recognised

Domains, Leases and Projects used to take a typed code, so an old record might hold a typo such as UKP. Any such code is listed at the bottom of the page, with the module and how many records hold it. The record still shows it, but will not save again until a real currency is chosen.

Retired currencies are different. The Bulgarian lev, the Croatian kuna and a handful of others are no longer issued, so they are not offered for new records - but a record that already holds one keeps it and saves normally.

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For yourself: Preferences → Money

Go to System → Preferences and find Money.

• Use the system default shows money however your administrator set it - the option says what that currently looks like.
• Choose my own lets you pick the separators, symbol position and decimals for every currency.
• Particular currencies gives one currency its own format - euros the German way, say.

It saves as soon as you change it, and it only changes how amounts look on your screen. The currency of a record and the amount itself are untouched, and nobody else sees your choice.

Which format wins

The first of these that is set:

1. Your own format for that currency
2. Your own format for every currency
3. The System → Currencies exception for that currency
4. The System → Currencies format

The favourites and the default currency are the same for everybody.

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What is stored

Every record stores its currency's three-letter code - GBP, EUR, IDR - exactly as before. Reports, exports and the REST API see the code, never a formatted amount. The API, imports and forms all refuse a code that is not a real currency, with the same message everywhere.

See also

• Currencies - Developer Guide - the registry, the formatter and how a module uses them
• Date and time formats - the same idea for dates
• Contracts · Software · Domains · Leases