Why Billing Systems/companies Don't get Multiple Currency support

[mrl14]

I'm kind of baffled to try and understand why businesses just don't get multiple currencies. I'm very happy that WHMCS has MC support, but it has it all wrong.

 

If you're outside of the USA, you HAVE to offer multiple currency support. You need to

 

1) attract customers in the USA in USD

2) attract local customers in your local currency

 

By forcing us to use one system and converting the price based on the current exchange rate, we lose customers. Take the Canadian dollar for example. In the last 2 years it's fluctuated between a 0-30% difference in price compared to the USD. Customers from Canada are going to go elsewhere if they see the listed price jump by 30% from USD to CAD. Furthermore, if they are paying by credit card, visa is going to charge a 2-3% exchange rate charge on TOP of their daily rate on top of the daily rate WHMCS used.

 

We need billing systems to focus on billing and not accounting. This is handled after the sale.

 

We need a way to assign a currency to a merchant account. So this way I can assign CAD to my CAD processor and USD to my USD processor and assign my own prices for each plan.

 

This should be a standard feature built into WHMCS please.

 

Comments?

[Matt]

WHMCS sounds like it has exactly what you're looking for. Unlike most other billing systems, you can set your prices in each currency and don't only have the option of using currency rate based conversions which often result in odd amounts.

 

Gateways can then be set to convert if not accepting the native currency or can be specified in the order form to only show specific gateways based on the selected currency.

 

Matt

[wise]

you either:

 

- charge locally at £xyz and create set prices in other currencies ie $

or

- set a standard price for your products and let whmcs adjust for other currencies depending on the exchange rate

 

Using the second option means that you dont have to manually adjust pricing for every product every time the currency changes.

[mrl14]

WHMCS sounds like it has exactly what you're looking for. Unlike most other billing systems, you can set your prices in each currency and don't only have the option of using currency rate based conversions which often result in odd amounts.

 

Gateways can then be set to convert if not accepting the native currency or can be specified in the order form to only show specific gateways based on the selected currency.

 

Matt

 

Matt this is exactly what I want but you mentioned that it would require some custom development for the gateway. Am I confusing something here?

 

I am using PSigate and have a separate account for USD and for CAD and only want the USD to show for USD prices and CAD for CAD prices.

[WHMCS John]

If you have two accounts with your payment gateway and want to continue using them, then yeah it would require a simple custom mod to the module so that WHMCS can auto pick which of your accounts to use based on the users currency. But the convert to currency for processing feature pretty much eliminates the need for two accounts.

 

For example if you set convert to for processing to CAD. Payments in CAD would stay in CAD, payments in USD would be converted by WHMCS and sent to your payment gateway in CAD.

[mrl14]

If you have two accounts with your payment gateway and want to continue using them, then yeah it would require a simple custom mod to the module so that WHMCS can auto pick which of your accounts to use based on the users currency. But the convert to currency for processing feature pretty much eliminates the need for two accounts.

 

For example if you set convert to for processing to CAD. Payments in CAD would stay in CAD, payments in USD would be converted by WHMCS and sent to your payment gateway in CAD.

 

John,

 

But if you convert USD to CAD via WHMCS, my clients will be billed in CAD and then their CC will convert it back to USD. The idea is that I don't convert my money until it's been deposited into my bank account. But given that my expenses for servers are in USD, I maintain a USD and CAD bank account.

[dexus]

...can be specified in the order form to only show specific gateways based on the selected currency.

 

Matt

 

Can you please explain, how can this be achieved?

 

Thanks.

[BillingDude]

I am using a supported payment processor but I ended up having to write a custom payment module anyway .

 

In the configuration it accepts the account details for both of the currencies we use. WHMCS is told not to convert currency. The payment module looks at the currency variable and uses the account details for the currency that the payment is in when it transmits the request to our payment processor. Is working quite well for us, but it was a real pain to get set up.

 

Ideally I would like to see whmcs set up so that for each of the currencies in use, and for each payment option you have set up, you can put in settings for that currency, or you can say to convert into another currency, or you can say that payment option isn't available for that currency.

[dexus]

Ideally I would like to see whmcs set up so that for each of the currencies in use, and for each payment option you have set up, you can put in settings for that currency, or you can say to convert into another currency, or you can say that payment option isn't available for that currency.

 

I totaly agree with this.

[ninak]

This may not be the right spot but,

One of the reasons that I use Paypal is because I can set up in it different accounts for different currencies. These are held there till I decide when to convert them to USD and transfer to my main account.

[basic]

Yes, agreed. FOR EXAMPLE, we use a real billing gateway for USD (authorize.net), but we have none for EURO or British Pounds, but have sales sites for both ... so we would like to use 2CheckOut for EURO and British Pounds (that is, we have two 2CheckOut accounts). But WHMCS does not allow to set up two instances of 2CheckOut. In any case, YES, there should be a way to assign billing gateways to currency -- that is the only *clean* solution. There are ways that work half-half around that, but only half-half.

 

Add-on question to 'ninak' -- regarding PayPal:

We also use PayPal as one payment option. I am just wondering -- isn't there something called "PayPal Website Payments Pro" -- so one can accept credit card payments through PayPal? Would that work for credit card payments in VARIOUS currencies? Anyone has an experience here. (We have not set up "Website Payments Pro".) --> https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview

And *if* so, can this be integrated to WHMCS?

 

Frank

Edited November 14, 2009 by basic

[marcg]

I'm kind of baffled to try and understand why businesses just don't get multiple currencies. I'm very happy that WHMCS has MC support, but it has it all wrong.

 

Agreed - here's how we like/want things to work:

 

- Customers select a home currency

- Product pricing is displayed according to the home currency

- Customers receive invoices AND statements in their home currency

- We receive payments in the invoice currency (via the appropriate Gateway)

- Money from payments is deposited into the appropriate currency account with our bank

 

*Nothing* should be converted by the billing system or the payment processor - that's our job to sort out using accounting software/processes...

 

*Yes* this does mean we have to create multiple bank accounts (one for each currency) and sign up for multiple payment gateways and possibly means more work pricing products. But it gives us full control over exchange rate fluctuations, gives a better experience for customers and is cheaper for them to purchase as they aren't having to pay currency conversion rates on credit card payments.

[Matt]

Agreed - here's how we like/want things to work:

 

- Customers select a home currency

- Product pricing is displayed according to the home currency

- Customers receive invoices AND statements in their home currency

- We receive payments in the invoice currency (via the appropriate Gateway)

- Money from payments is deposited into the appropriate currency account with our bank

 

*Nothing* should be converted by the billing system or the payment processor - that's our job to sort out using accounting software/processes...

 

This is exactly the way WHMCS works so you're in luck Currency conversion is only an option to enable for those who don't have the ability to have a payment gateway accepting each currency. It's not on by default and not forced.

 

Likewise pricing in secondary currencies auto updating based on exchange rates is optional. And if you turn it off, then you just set the prices you want in each currency.

 

Matt

[marcg]

This is exactly the way WHMCS works so you're in luck

 

That's fantastic news - we're just evaluating WHMCS right now (first day...)

[marcg]

Matt,

 

Having tested based on your comments i.e. with currency conversion turned off and GBP and USD pricing enabled for a single product, I have the following observations:

 

Changing a customer's currency manually as an admin:

 

- changes the currency type for existing invoices - IMO invoices already created should be immutable.

 

- updates the currency type for existing services (but not the amount) which means that the client will get charged the incorrect price at the next billing point - IMO existing services should remain set to the currency originally purchased and should continue to be invoiced in that currency until 'deliberately' updated by the hosting admin.

 

- updates the currency type for their credit balance, but doesn't change the value into the new currency - maybe a note required to alert the user to convert the credit balance?

 

I'm slightly concerned that it's possible to delete orders which then removes all trace of the original details AND the invoice... But I suppose if one is deleting an order, then there must be a good reason and that reason's only ever going to mean you don't require any further info, otherwise one would cancel the order instead...

 

It's evident that a great deal of thought and energy has gone into WHMCS and I hope the above feedback is useful in some small way.

[ninak]

Yes, agreed. FOR EXAMPLE, we use a real billing gateway for USD (authorize.net), but we have none for EURO or British Pounds, but have sales sites for both ... so we would like to use 2CheckOut for EURO and British Pounds (that is, we have two 2CheckOut accounts). But WHMCS does not allow to set up two instances of 2CheckOut. In any case, YES, there should be a way to assign billing gateways to currency -- that is the only *clean* solution. There are ways that work half-half around that, but only half-half.

 

Add-on question to 'ninak' -- regarding PayPal:

We also use PayPal as one payment option. I am just wondering -- isn't there something called "PayPal Website Payments Pro" -- so one can accept credit card payments through PayPal? Would that work for credit card payments in VARIOUS currencies? Anyone has an experience here. (We have not set up "Website Payments Pro".) --> https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview

And *if* so, can this be integrated to WHMCS?

 

Frank

In PayPal you can set up which currencies you will accept. You can even set it up so that it converts the payments to USD Dollars.

We have our normal set up and have added 6 countries so that we can collect in the funds of those countries. When we need them we will transfer to USD funds to our main account.

[WHMCS John]

We do not recommend changing a client's currency once they have placed an order. The currency is then locked in.

[D9Hosting]

Yes, agreed. FOR EXAMPLE, we use a real billing gateway for USD (authorize.net), but we have none for EURO or British Pounds, but have sales sites for both ... so we would like to use 2CheckOut for EURO and British Pounds (that is, we have two 2CheckOut accounts). But WHMCS does not allow to set up two instances of 2CheckOut.

 

If you contact WHMCS they can create a module for you that works in the way you describe, we've got it running and our installation and it works perfectly.

[marcg]

We do not recommend changing a client's currency once they have placed an order. The currency is then locked in.

 

I can understand that you do not recommend it, however it is possible to change it which will result in the issues I raised - it should be locked down if orders are active, or [preferably from my pov] the issues fixed.

[Matt]

I can understand that you do not recommend it, however it is possible to change it which will result in the issues I raised - it should be locked down if orders are active, or [preferably from my pov] the issues fixed.

The so called "issues" do not really have a solution. Currency is a per user setting, the accounting relies on it, so converting passed invoices based on today's exchange rate to reflect the new currency wouldn't be correct. The option to change is there predominantly to be used only on new accounts where an initial payment has been made only and the client then wants to change to another currency, but most of the time you would create a second account for the user if they wanted to change to another currency and already have account history.

 

Matt

[BillingDude]

This is exactly the way WHMCS works so you're in luck Currency conversion is only an option to enable for those who don't have the ability to have a payment gateway accepting each currency. It's not on by default and not forced.

 

Matt - I'd like to have multi-currency support work properly out of the box. The gateway I use is supposedly supported but in practice for me it wasn't. Why? Multi-currency.

 

I had to write a custom module which looked at the currency field to choose the account username/password to use with my gateway provider. And my module had to have twice as many username/account/password settings - one for each of the currencies we use.

 

As I wrote earlier ""Ideally I would like to see whmcs set up so that for each of the currencies in use, and for each payment option you have set up, you can put in [account] settings for that currency, or you can say to convert into another currency, or you can say that payment option isn't available for that currency.""

 

Please seriously consider doing this. WHMCS is *so* close to working "right" out of the box.

[marcg]

The so called "issues" do not really have a solution. Currency is a per user setting, the accounting relies on it, so converting passed invoices based on today's exchange rate to reflect the new currency wouldn't be correct. The option to change is there predominantly to be used only on new accounts where an initial payment has been made only and the client then wants to change to another currency, but most of the time you would create a second account for the user if they wanted to change to another currency and already have account history.

 

Hi Matt,

 

I was referring to the three observations made and noted in my comment #15 - not sure we're discussing the same thing as, wrt my first point, allowing material changes to already posted invoices is surely a bad thing which ever why you look at it. Anyway, no offence intended - looking forward to us getting WHMCS up and running.

 

Cheers,

 

Marc

[ninak]

You do not need to use PayPal Pro to allow for payments to be made in the currency of the user. You can use Paypal Business. In your account with Paypal there is a section for allowing this. They have a list of countries that they accept currency from, and you pick and choose which countries you would like to set up the account for.

The money stays (not converted) in these individual accounts till you decide to move it to either your bank account or main Paypal account. So far we have accepted payment in British Pounds, Polich zloty and the EURO.

Have had no problem with it.