Investigate a Xero exchange-rate or multicurrency difference

Identify the failure before applying a fix

A foreign-currency transaction, report, payment, or integration uses a rate that differs from the bank or another system.

Record the complete message, affected organisation or company, user, date range, and last successful action. A precise symptom is more useful than trying several broad repairs at once.

Checks before changing data

• Compare the exact transaction date, time zone, source currency, base currency, and rate direction.
• Check whether a user manually edited the rate.
• Determine whether you are comparing a transaction rate, report-date rate, or settlement rate.

Resolution path

1. Identify the rate Xero actually used. Open the transaction and relevant report, then note the stored rate and any exchange-rate disclosure.
   • Xero rates update during the day and the official daily rate is finalised later.
   • Rates are rounded to a documented number of significant figures.
2. Compare like with like. Compare the Xero rate with the bank or contract rate for the same date and direction.
   • Invert the comparison rate if the quotation direction differs.
   • Include bank spreads and fees separately.
3. Correct only when policy requires it. If the transaction should use a contracted or actual rate, update it with approval and retain the source evidence.
   • Do not overwrite an organisation-wide rate to fix one transaction.
   • Understand the effect on realised and unrealised gains or losses.
4. Review reports after correction. Re-run the transaction and currency reports for the same date range.
   • Confirm the base-currency amount.
   • Document rounding that remains immaterial and expected.

Verify the result

A disappearing error is not enough. Confirm the accounting and workflow outcome:

• The rate source, date, direction, and rounding are documented.
• The base-currency value follows the approved policy.
• Any remaining difference is explained by fees, timing, or rounding.

What to avoid

• Editing rates until two reports happen to match.
• Comparing a live market rate with a historical transaction rate.
• Ignoring bank spread or settlement fees.

When to involve product support, IT, or your accountant

Stop making changes and escalate when any of these conditions applies:

• The transaction is in a filed period.
• A material realised gain or loss changes.
• The organisation’s accounting policy for exchange rates is unclear.

Bring the exact error, screenshots, affected record IDs, timestamps, product version or region, and a description of every change already attempted. That evidence shortens the support path and reduces repeated or conflicting fixes.