October 2, 2026
Multi-currency QuickBooks file? Settle revaluation and open foreign balances before you migrate
The short answer: before you export, revalue the file to the cutover date, list every open foreign-currency invoice and bill with its original amount and rate, and decide your home currency for the new company. QuickBooks locks multicurrency on and locks the home currency in place, so the new file is the only place either can change. Settle those three things first and the migration is an import. Skip them and the first month-end in the new software starts with an unexplained exchange gain or loss.
What Intuit locks in, and what that means for a move
| Rule | What Intuit says | Why it matters at cutover |
|---|---|---|
| Switching off | Once multicurrency is on, you can’t turn it off (QuickBooks Online and Desktop help, updated 5 Aug 2026) | A file that tried multicurrency once stays multicurrency; a clean single-currency file means a new company |
| Home currency | In QuickBooks Online it cannot be changed once multicurrency is enabled | The base currency is a decision you can only revisit by migrating |
| Accounts | QuickBooks Online needs a separate account for each currency used in transactions | Count your foreign bank, A/R and A/P accounts; each one maps separately |
| Customers and vendors | To change a customer’s or vendor’s currency in QuickBooks Online you make the original inactive and create a new one | Duplicate-looking customers are often a currency fix, not a mistake; map them deliberately |
| Payments | In QuickBooks Desktop, a payment’s currency must match the invoice or bill it pays | A payment in the wrong currency was probably handled outside the invoice; check it |
Three balances to settle before you export
1. Open foreign invoices and bills. Run A/R and A/P aging as of the cutover date in each foreign currency, not only in home currency. For every open item keep three numbers: the amount in the foreign currency, the exchange rate on the transaction date, and the home-currency value booked. Intuit notes that exchange rates are part of each transaction and that reports always show the home currency, so the foreign amount is easy to lose if you only export reports.
2. Foreign-currency bank and card accounts. Reconcile each to its statement in the statement’s own currency. A foreign account that reconciles in home currency but not in its own currency has an exchange-rate problem that will follow you into the new file.
3. The revaluation entries. Intuit’s Canadian help describes a home currency adjustment that revalues balances and posts unrealized gains and losses on open A/R and A/P, and it advises running the adjustment immediately before reports so unrealized figures are current. Those unrealized amounts are only realized when the invoice is collected or the bill paid, and prior unrealized amounts reverse in the next period. Run it as of the cutover date, save the report, and treat the result as the closing position the new file has to reproduce.
A worked example (illustrative rates)
A US-based company invoices a customer 10,000 EUR when the rate is 1.10, so A/R is booked at $11,000. At the cutover date the rate is 1.06: revaluation restates the open invoice at $10,600 and posts a $400 unrealized loss. If the customer later pays at 1.08, the receipt is $10,800. The unrealized $400 reverses and the realized loss is $200 against the original $11,000 booking. In the new file the item should arrive as 10,000 EUR at its original 1.10 rate, so the same $200 realized loss appears when it is paid. If it arrives as a flat $10,600 with no foreign amount, the customer’s 10,000 EUR payment will not match the invoice and the exchange difference lands in the wrong account.
Choosing the home currency for the new company
Most businesses keep their home currency. A few change it, for example when the parent’s reporting currency moved or a subsidiary now trades mainly in another currency. A base-currency change restates history, so it needs your accountant’s approval of the method before anything is built. If foreign amounts were never recorded as foreign amounts, a migration cannot invent them; they come across as memo data. Our multi-currency migration page sets out how we handle each case.
A five-step pre-cutover check
1. Pick the cutover date and revalue the file to it. 2. Save aging reports for A/R and A/P in each foreign currency. 3. Reconcile every foreign bank and card account in its own currency. 4. List customers and vendors that exist twice because of a currency change. 5. Write down the home-currency decision and who approved it. Related cleanups worth doing in the same pass: Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn multicurrency off in QuickBooks?
No. Intuit’s help articles for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop (both updated 5 August 2026) say that once multicurrency is on it cannot be turned off. The practical fix for a business that no longer needs it is to migrate into a new single-currency company file.
Can I change my home currency when I migrate?
In QuickBooks Online the home currency cannot be changed once multicurrency is enabled. A migration builds a new company, so it is the one moment a different home currency can be chosen. It should be a deliberate decision signed off by your accountant, because every historical foreign amount has to be restated.
What happens to unrealized exchange gains and losses in a migration?
They are paper revaluations of open foreign invoices and bills, and Intuit describes them as realized only when the money is collected or paid. We bring open items across at their original transaction amounts and rates, then revalue in the new file at the cutover date, so the new file starts from the same position as the old one.
Related service: Multi-currency accounting migrations