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How to use currencies

Firefly III has support for multiple currencies.

See also:

Most currencies are disabled by default, meaning that you cannot use just any currency when creating asset accounts or transactions. You must enable them first.

Under Options > Preferences you will find the "Currencies" page. When you are an admin, you will see the button "Create a new currency". You should enter some details such as the name, the symbol of the currency and of course the currency code (preferably according to the ISO 4217 standard).

Currencies have decimal places. Most have 2, like the Euro. Notable exceptions are most cryptocurrencies (8 to 12) and the Mauritanian ouguiya (no decimals). Firefly III supports up to 8 decimals.

Please note that each currency needs:

  • A symbol, such as $ or € or something else.
  • A code, such as EUR or USD or something you make up.
  • A name, of course.

Currencies tend to have 2 decimal places. You should check out Wikipedia for more information about your preferred currency, if you are unsure. If you want to know what the values are for your currency, check out this list of currencies on GitHub. New currencies are enabled by default.

How-to add a currency

New currencies added through this form will be enabled for use.

This screen allows you to create a new currency. Pretty straight-forward.

Set the primary currency

Firefly III support multiple currencies, and each administration has a primary currency. When you install Firefly III this is the Euro. You can change this if you want to.

Go to Options > Financial administrations (or /administrations) and under Actions, click "Edit". Here you can set the primary currency for your current financial administration.

In this instance of Firefly III, the primary currency is the British Pound.

On the overview of your currencies at /currencies you can see ALL currencies (disabled en enabled):

In this instance of Firefly III, the primary currency is the British Pound.

Set currency for asset accounts

Asset accounts have one main currency. My personal bank accounts are in Euro. But I have a credit card in USD. You can set this when you create or edit an asset account. This is important when you create or import transactions.

Each account has its own currency.

Creating transactions

When you try to create a transaction in Euro's on an asset account that in US Dollars, you must set the amount in both USD and EUR.

When you withdraw an amount in a "foreign" currency, Firefly III needs to know the amount in the primary currency.

Creating transfers

When you create a transfer between an account in EUR and USD (or other currencies) you must also indicate the amount transferred in both currencies.

Likewise when you transfer money between two asset accounts, both currencies must have a monetary value.