Debts in dollars and pounds: don’t add them into one number

In Syria most shops, exchange offices and people deal in dollars and Syrian pounds on the same day, and sometimes in euros, Turkish lira and dirhams. The trouble starts when all these debts are added into one number.

The problem: one number lies

Khaled owes 100 USD and 1,500,000 SYP. If you convert the pounds to dollars at today’s rate and write “owes 200 USD”, tomorrow the rate changes, the number is wrong, and the argument begins: “I took pounds from you, not dollars!”.

The rule: every debt in its own currency

A debt given in dollars stays in dollars, and one in pounds stays in pounds. Every person has a balance per currency. That way nobody loses from a rate change, and the account stays honest.

So what is the exchange rate for?

Estimates only. Want a rough idea of how much people owe you in one currency? Take an approximate total at today’s rate, but don’t record it instead of the balances. In haeifin, the base currency and the exchange rate only affect the approximate total, and no balance ever changes.

What if the customer pays in another currency?

Owes dollars and paid pounds? That’s two entries: a payment in pounds, and a conversion between the two currencies at the rate you agreed. The rate stays on record, and anyone reading the statement understands what happened.

For exchange offices: cash boxes

If you have a dollar box and a pound box, record the exchange between your boxes as an entry, and the “cash boxes and banks” report shows what came in and went out of each box in each currency.