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This article provides an overview of the general ledger foreign currency revaluation process, including setup, running the process, calculation, and how to reverse the revaluation transactions if necessary.
As part of a period-end process, accounting conventions require revaluing general ledger account balances in foreign currencies by using different exchange rate types, such as current, historical, or average rates. For example, one accounting convention requires revaluing assets and liabilities at the current exchange rate, fixed assets at the historical exchange rate, and profit and loss accounts at the monthly average. Use the General ledger foreign currency revaluation to revalue the balance sheet and profit and loss accounts.
Note
Foreign currency revaluation is also available in Bank, Accounts receivable (AR), and Accounts payable (AP). If you're using those modules, the outstanding transactions should be revalued using the foreign currency revaluation in those modules. The Bank, AR, and AP foreign currency revaluation create an accounting entry in General ledger to reflect the unrealized gain or loss, ensuring that the subledgers and general ledger can be reconciled. Because the Bank, AR and AP foreign currency revaluation create accounting entries in General ledger, the bank, accounts receivable and accounts payable main accounts should be excluded from the General ledger foreign currency revaluation.
When you run the revaluation process, the balance in each main account posted in a foreign currency is revalued. The system generates the unrealized gain or loss transactions during the revaluation process. You might create two transactions: one for the accounting currency and a second for the reporting currency, if relevant. Each accounting entry posts to the unrealized gain or loss and the main account being revalued.
Prepare to run foreign currency revaluation
Before running the revaluation process, complete the following setup steps.
On the Main account page:
- If you want to revalue the main account in General ledger, select Foreign currency revaluation. If you don't want to revalue the main account (such as for AR and AP if revalued in the subledgers), clear this option.
- If you mark the main account for revaluation, enter the Exchange rate type. This exchange rate type is used for revaluing the main account. Financial reporting exchange rate type is available for financial reporting. The two fields aren't kept in sync, so you can use different exchange rate types for revaluation and financial reporting.
On the Ledger page:
- Specify the Exchange rate type. If you don't define the exchange rate type on the main account, use this exchange rate type during foreign currency revaluation.
- Specify the realized gain, realized loss, unrealized gain, and unrealized loss accounts for currency revaluation. Use realized gain and realized loss accounts when settling AR and AP transactions. Use unrealized gain and unrealized loss accounts for revaluing open transactions and general ledger main accounts.
On the Currency revaluation accounts page:
- Select different currency revaluation accounts for each currency and company. If you don't define accounts, the system uses the accounts from the Ledger page.
Process foreign currency revaluation
After the setup is complete, use the Foreign currency revaluation page to revalue the balances of the main accounts. You can run the process in real time or schedule it to run by using a batch.
The Foreign currency revaluation page displays the history of each revaluation process, including when the process ran, what criteria you defined, a link to the voucher created for the revaluation, and a record if a previous revaluation was reversed. To run the revaluation process, select Foreign currency revaluation.
The From date and To date values define the date interval for calculating the foreign currency balance that will be revalued. When you revalue profit and loss accounts, the sum of all transactions that occur within the date interval are revalued. When you revalue balance sheet accounts, the From date is ignored. Instead, the balance to be revalued is determined by going from the beginning of the fiscal year until the To date.
Use the Date of rate to define the date for which the exchange rate should default. For example, you can revalue the balances between the date range of January 1 to January 31, but use the exchange rate defined for February 1.
Select which main accounts to revalue: All, Balance sheet, or Profit and loss. Only main accounts marked for revaluation (on the Main account page) are revalued. If you want to further restrict the range of main accounts, use the Records to include tab to define a range of main accounts, or individual main accounts.
You can run the revaluation process for one or more legal entities. The lookup displays the legal entities to which you have access. Select the legal entities for which you want to run the revaluation process.
The revaluation can be run for one or more foreign currencies. The lookup includes all currencies that were posted within the date range relevant for the type of main account (Balance sheet or Profit and loss), for the legal entities selected to revalue. The accounting currency is included in the list, but nothing is revalued if the accounting currency is selected.
Set Preview before posting to Yes to review the result of the General ledger revaluation. The preview in General ledger is different from the simulation in the AR and AP foreign currency revaluation. The simulation in AR and AP is a report, but general ledger has a preview that can be posted, without having to run the revaluation process again. The results of the preview can be exported to Microsoft Excel to retain the history of how the amounts were calculated. You can't use batch processing if you want to preview the results of the revaluation. From the preview, the user has the option to post the results of all legal entities by clicking Post. If there's an issue with the results for a legal entity, the user has the option to post a subset of the legal entities using Select legal entities to post.
If you would like to exclude adjustments that were posted using the Reporting currency adjustments journal from the revaluation process, set Exclude reporting currency adjustments to Yes. By default, reporting currency adjustments are included in the revaluation.
After the foreign currency revaluation process is complete, a record will be created to track the history of each run. A separate record is created for each legal entity and posting layer.
Calculate unrealized gain or loss
The unrealized gain/loss transactions are created differently between General ledger revaluation and the AR and AP revaluation process. In AR and AP, the previous revaluation is reversed (assuming the transaction isn’t settled yet) and a new revaluation transaction is created for the unrealized gain/loss based on the new exchange rate. This is because we revalue each individual transaction in AR and AP. In General ledger, the previous revaluation isn't reversed. Instead, a transaction is created for the difference between the balance of the main account, including any previous revaluation amounts, and the new value based on the exchange rate for the Date of Rate.
Example The following balances exist for main account 110110.
| Date | Ledger account | Transaction amount | Accounting amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 20 | 110110 (Cash) | 500 EUR (Debit) | 1,000 USD (Debit) |
The main account is revalued on January 31. The unrealized gain or loss is calculated as follows.
| Current balance in transaction currency | Current balance in accounting currency | Exchange rate at revaluation | New accounting currency amount | Unrealized gain or loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 EUR | 1,000 USD | 166.6667 | 833.33 USD (500 x 1.666667) | 166.67 loss (833.33 – 1000) |
The following accounting entry is created:
| Date | Ledger account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 31 | 110110 (Cash) | 166.67 | |
| January 31 | 801400 (Unrealized loss) | 166.67 |
No new transactions are posted for the month of February. The main account is revalued on February 28.
| Current balance in transaction currency | Current balance in accounting currency | Exchange rate at revaluation | New accounting currency amount | Unrealized gain or loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 EUR | 833.33 USD (1000 - 166.67) | 250.0000 | 1,250 USD (500 x 2.5) | 416.67 gain (1250 – 833.33) |
The following accounting entry is created:
| Date | Ledger account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 28 | 110110 (Cash) | 416.67 | |
| February 28 | 801600 (Unrealized gain) | 416.67 |
Reverse foreign currency revaluation
If you need to reverse the revaluation transaction, select Reverse transaction on the Foreign currency revaluation page. The system creates a new foreign currency revaluation historical record to maintain the historical audit trail of when the revaluation occurred or was reversed.
You can reverse the results of the revaluation out of date order, but you might need to also reverse a more current revaluation to ensure the correct balances for each revalued main account. The reversals can occur out of date order because there's no way to control which main accounts are revalued and the frequency of when they're revalued. For example, an organization might choose to revalue their cash main accounts on a quarterly basis, but all other main accounts monthly.