Tourplan is capable of handling foreign currencies at different levels within a booking. In general, there should be no need to change what are standard settings as applied to the system, but it is important that there be an understanding of how multiple currencies in a booking are calculated.

NOTE: Any exchange rates used in this document are examples only and are included solely to show the calculation method.

At the lowest level, each Product in the Product Database has a Buy Currency and a Sell Currency. It is quite common for these to be the same currency, but they do not have to be. Inbound Operators will generally have the same Buy and Sell currencies; Outbound Wholesalers generally not. The Sell Currency attached to the product does not limit it being sold in other currencies.

How a product has been setup in the Product Database, what the Agent currencies are, what the Booking currency is and what the Invoice Currency is, all go toward determining what currency calculations are made, and how they will affect the booking.

If bookings are going to be created and sold in currencies that are different to the buy currency, it is not mandatory to have products set up with buy and sell currencies - the booking could be created in the user base currency (e.g. NZD) and then invoiced in USD (as Example 2 in the table below). This example does not require different buy and sell currencies at Product level.

NOTE: The most common circumstance is where a tour operator based in country A (e.g. NZ) is selling products in-country B (e.g. USA) and has those products published (brochure/web etc) in USD. In this case, having the Products in the Product Database in Buy = NZD and Sell = USD is the best alternative because the sell prices in USD can be rounded at database level and displayed in USD.

The table above shows the exchange rate calculations that the system does in the situations where Products and/or Bookings and/or Agencies have currencies different to the currency that the product is in.

NOTE: The Product database currency rates can be updated in bulk using Modify Rates.

Apply Different Buy/Sell Currencies

1. Make sure the currencies you need already exist in the system - see (Currencies).
2. Make sure at least one rate has already been added (see Add a Rate).
3. In the Product Setup screen, click the Date Range you want to work with (single click only - this opens the date range).
4. If not already displayed, click the Date Range tab.

   

5. Select either Buy Currency or Sell Currency from the drop-down fields, to choose the currencies you want to apply. This example shows Buy = NZD and Sell = USD.

   

6. Update the Exchange Rate and choose Multiply or Divide as required (the default is Multiply, as indicated above).
7. Click Save to keep the changes.

   

8. Click Exit to discard any changes.

   

Buy Currency

This field will initially display the default currency of the supplier. This can be changed by selecting the required Buy currency from the drop-down

Sell Currency

This field will also initially display the default currency of the supplier, but can be changed by selecting the required Sell currency from the drop-down.

Exchange Rate

This field can be used to calculate the amounts in Sell currency. This field defaults to a rate of 1.000000, meaning that the Sell prices will be the same as the Buy prices in the Rates tab.

Once a different rate is entered in this field, the Sell prices in the Rates Tab will be calculated at that rate.

Multiply/Divide

Select whether the exchange rate entered is a Multiplier (buy currency amount * exchange rate) or a Divisor (buy currency/exchange rate).

NOTE: When Buy and Sell currencies are different, the Columns under the Rates tab are headed up with the different currency codes.

If the example shown was in the Product Database of a user company in the USA and bookings were being output in USD, then Tourplan would use its exchange rate mechanism to calculate the buy price in USD. The sell price would not be touched, since it is already in USD.

If the same example was in the Product Database of a user company in NZ, then the Output Currency of the Quote/Booking would determine what exchange rate mechanisms were used. If the Output Currency of the quote/booking was in USD, then the totals would be in USD, but internally, Tourplan would be calculating the Sell price on all services in NZD (so accurate margins could be reported). If the Output Currency of the quote/booking is in NZD, then all services and totals would be converted to NZD.

Handling Rate Markup

There are different methods of handling the markup of rates where the Sell Currency is different to the Buy Currency:

• One is to apply the markup as a percentage; e.g. using Price Codes and applying the markup percentage by price code.
• Another method is to apply an exchange rate 'Factor'. The Factor is a combination of exchange rate and markup, calculated as per the following example:

  Cost NZD100.00 x .70 = USD70.00 +12.5% = 8.75= Total 78.75. The 'Factor' therefore is .7875. Taking the cost of NZD290.00 and multiplying by the factor of .7875 = USD 228.375. This Factor is correct when working out the rate in (e.g.) USD from the cost price of NZD.

  The difference between the factor (.7875) and 1 - e.g. 1 minus .7875 = -21.25% can also be used to calculated the sell amount - e.g., NZD290.00 - 21.25% (61.625) = USD228.375.