The Register Speaks One Currency
An asset's purchase cost is stored with your workspace's own currency code, and that code is written by the system rather than chosen by the person registering the asset. It is stamped again on every edit. Here is what that buys you, and what it costs the moment you import something.
You bought a machine in euros. The register will hold the number you type and the currency your workspace was registered in, and it will not ask you about the difference.
Our take
A single-currency asset register is a deliberate simplification and a defensible one: it means every total across the register is a real total, every comparison between two assets is a real comparison, and nobody has to wonder which rate a five-year-old figure was translated at. The cost lands in exactly one place — an asset bought abroad, where the invoice is in one currency and the register is in another, and somebody has to do the translation before they type. That translation should be a recorded decision with a rate and a date attached to it, and today it happens in the buyer's head. Which of those two matters more to you depends entirely on how much you import.
Where the currency comes from
Your workspace has a base currency, set when the organisation registered and derived from the country you registered in. It is locked. Changing your country later does not change it, and that is intentional — a currency that moved would silently reinterpret every figure ever stored under the old one.
When an asset is registered, the register writes that base currency onto the asset. When the asset is edited, it writes it again. The field is not on any form, is not validated by any request, and is not accepted by the interface for creating an asset from stock either. It is derived, every time, from the workspace.
This is why the register can add itself up
A total is only a total when the things being added share a unit. Because every purchase cost in the register carries the same currency code by construction, the register can sum itself, chart itself and rank itself without a single conversion and without a disclosure about mixed units. That property is worth more than it sounds: the alternative — a per-asset currency with no stored rate — produces totals that are wrong in a way nothing on screen reveals.
The import case, honestly
Now the case where it costs you something. A generator arrives from a supplier who invoices in dollars. The invoice says 12,400. Your workspace is in shillings. Somebody registering that asset has three choices and only one of them is right.
They type 12,400
The wrong one, and the easy one
The register now says the generator cost twelve thousand four hundred shillings. It will sit in every total, every chart and every insurance schedule at roughly one per cent of what you paid. Nothing on screen looks unusual, because the figure is well formed.
They translate at today's rate and type the result
The right one, and the one to make routine
The register holds a shilling figure that reflects what the asset actually cost you. The rate used is a decision, so write it in the asset's notes with the date — that is the record that makes the number defensible a year later.
They translate at the rate on the day the goods cleared
Also right, and usually more so
For anything imported, the cost of the asset in your books is normally struck at a specific date, and it includes duty and freight. If your accountant has a policy on this, it beats today's rate — and the landed cost, not the invoice value, is usually the figure that belongs here.
The register is precise about the unit and silent about the translation.
What is separate from this, and often confused with it
There is an organisation-wide display preference that converts figures on dashboards and list views into a second currency for reading. It is indicative, it uses a live rate, and it is deliberately kept away from anything that gets printed or sent — invoices, statements, receipts and exports stay in the currency the money was actually in. If you have that preference on, the number you see on the asset list may not be the number stored on the asset, and that is by design.
Being able to read the register in a second currency and being able to record an asset in a second currency are different features. The first exists. The second is the one an importer is usually asking for.
A practical rule for mixed-currency purchasing
- Translate before you type, every time. The register will never prompt you, so the discipline has to live in whoever registers assets.
- Put the source figure in the notes — "USD 12,400 at 129.40 on 12 March" — so the number can be checked without hunting for the invoice.
- Use the landed cost, not the invoice value, where duty and freight are material. The purchasing side of the product already computes landed costs on a receipt; the figure it produces is the one an asset should carry.
- Pick one rate source and stay on it. A register translated at three different banks' rates over three years is harder to defend than one translated at a slightly stale official rate consistently.
Recording the currency you actually paid in
The register already knows its own currency and the product already holds live exchange rates for other purposes, so a per-asset original currency is an additive change rather than a redesign.
An original currency and rate per asset
The invoice currency, the amount, the rate used and the date it was struck, stored alongside the translated base-currency figure the totals already rely on.
Landed cost carried into the asset
When an asset comes from a receipt that carried duty, freight and clearing, the capitalised figure follows automatically rather than being retyped.
A rate history you can point at
The rate stored with the asset rather than looked up again later, so a figure agreed at registration stays the figure however the market moves.
We publish scope, not dates.
Scope multi-currency assetsFour questions for any asset register about currency
What currency is a purchase cost stored in?
A good answer sounds like
One named currency, or a currency per asset with a rate.
What ours actually is
The workspace's base currency, written by the system on create and on every edit. It is not a form field.
Can I record an asset in the currency I paid in?
A good answer sounds like
Yes, with the rate stored.
What ours actually is
Translate before typing today; the original currency and rate are first on the list of what a multi-currency register adds.
If I change my organisation's country, what happens to old figures?
A good answer sounds like
Nothing.
What ours actually is
Nothing. The base currency is locked at registration and never re-derived, precisely so that historical figures keep their meaning.
Is the figure on the dashboard the figure on the record?
A good answer sounds like
Yes, unless a display conversion is on and says so.
What ours actually is
Yes by default. With the organisation-wide display currency enabled, list views show an indicative conversion, and documents and exports stay in the stored currency.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- A base currency per workspace, locked at registration and never re-derived from a later country change, so every stored figure keeps the meaning it had when it was written.
- An automatic currency stamp on every asset at creation and on every edit, which is what allows the register to total and chart itself without a conversion anywhere in the calculation.
- An organisation-wide display currency preference that converts dashboards and list views for reading, using a live rate, and is kept away from invoices, statements, receipts, PDFs and exports by design.
- Live exchange rates already maintained in the product for that display conversion and for the pricing pages.
- Landed cost calculation on the purchasing side, allocating duty, freight and clearing across a receipt, which is where a correct capitalised figure for an imported asset comes from.
- A notes field on every asset, which is where a translation and its rate should be written down until there is a field for them.
More we can add to your workspace
- An original purchase currency on the asset, holding the invoice currency and amount beside the translated figure, so an imported asset records what was actually paid.
- A stored translation rate and rate date per asset, fixing the figure at the moment it was agreed rather than leaving it to be re-derived later.
- A landed cost carried automatically from a receipt into the asset it becomes, so duty and freight reach the capitalised value without anyone retyping a total.
- A register total that discloses its own mix where assets are held in more than one currency, rather than presenting one figure.
- A revaluation of foreign-currency assets at period end, for organisations whose policy requires it.
Where we point you to a specialist
- We will not translate a historical purchase at today's rate on your behalf. A rate is part of the record, it belongs to the date the transaction happened, and quietly restating an old figure with a current rate is how a register stops agreeing with the accounts it is supposed to support.
- Which rate applies to an imported asset — invoice date, clearance date, payment date — is an accounting policy question that your accountant settles and signs. We will store whichever rate you tell us and show it beside the figure; choosing it for you would be advice we are not the right party to give.
- The base currency stays locked after registration. Where an organisation genuinely needs to change it, that is a migration with a decision about every stored figure behind it, and it belongs in a conversation with us rather than behind a settings toggle.
The original currency, rate and rate date on an asset are the contained piece here — three fields, a translation at the point of entry, and a total that keeps working because the base figure is still stored.
If you import, this is worth ten minutes
The question to settle is whether your assets arrive in one currency or several, and if several, who does the translation and against which rate. That answer decides whether a single-currency register is a simplification or a problem.
Talk through imported assetsFrequently asked questions
Can I set the currency on an asset through the API?
No. The field is not accepted on any of the routes that create or update an asset — it is not validated, because it is not an input. It is derived from your workspace on every write, including on the path that turns stock into a tracked asset. That is what makes the register's totals safe to add up.
What happens if someone types the foreign figure without translating?
The register stores it as a well-formed number in your own currency, and nothing flags it. A generator invoiced at 12,400 dollars becomes an asset worth 12,400 shillings, which will look plausible in a list and badly wrong in an insurance schedule. This is the single failure mode worth training for, and the fix is a habit rather than a feature: translate before you type, and write the rate in the notes.
Does the display currency preference change what is stored?
It changes nothing at all about storage. It converts figures for reading on dashboards and list views using a live rate, and it is deliberately excluded from invoices, statements, receipts and any exported document, because those have to carry the currency the money was actually in.
Why is the base currency locked?
Because every figure ever stored is implicitly labelled with it. If the base currency could move, a historical purchase cost would silently change meaning — the same numeral, now denominated in something else. Locking it at registration means an old figure keeps saying what it said when it was written, which is the property that makes historical reporting possible at all.
We operate in two countries. What do we do?
The usual arrangement is one workspace per legal entity, each with its own base currency, because that is also how the accounts, the tax obligations and the payroll separate. Where a single entity genuinely holds assets bought in several currencies, the original currency and rate fields are the piece to commission, and the conversation is worth having with the shape of your group in front of us.
Where does landed cost fit in?
For anything imported, the figure that belongs on the asset is usually the landed cost — invoice value plus duty, freight and clearing — rather than the invoice value alone. The purchasing side of the product already calculates and allocates those costs across a receipt. Carrying that figure through to an asset created from the same goods is a defined piece of work and is on the list above.
