The Procountor foreign currency payment service allows you to pay purchase invoices denominated in foreign currencies directly in Procountor. Before you confirm a payment, the service displays the payment price, exchange rate, and service fee, making the payment costs predictable. Currency payment costs are also itemised by transaction, simplifying their accounting treatment.
The service is intended for Procountor customers who make payments in currencies other than the euro. It works regardless of the customer’s bank and can be activated through Procountor in environments where international payments are enabled.
The service is provided by the Swedish company Open Payments (Open Payments Europe).
Benefits of the service
The service is significantly more affordable than currency payments made through traditional banks.
The exchange rate and transaction fee are shown before the user confirms the payment.
The service removes the need for manual investigation related to exchange-rate differences and the allocation of transaction fees.
Payments are made through Procountor’s familiar purchase invoice processing and payment workflow.
The service is available to customers of all banks.
Activating the service
The Currency Payment Service is activated through Procountor under the company’s usage settings. Activation requires acceptance of the service terms and completion of the company’s basic information in accordance with Open Payments’ requirements.
1.Log in to Procountor.
In the renewed user interface, go to Management > Company information > Usage settings > Additional features > Currency Payment Service, and select Activate.
In the traditional user interface, go to Management > Company information > Usage settings > Currency Payment Service, and select Activate.
2. Complete the required company information for using the service.
A person authorised to sign on behalf of the company must complete strong authentication before the service can be activated. If you are not an authorised signatory, you can complete all required information and send an approval link to an authorised signatory.
3. The service status changes to Active in the Procountor settings.
Activation includes a customer due diligence check, known as the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.
Making a currency payment
Once the service has been activated, Procountor identifies purchase invoices denominated in currencies other than the euro. Before confirming the payment, the user can review the payment details and see the exchange rate, transaction fee, and final amount in euros offered by the service.
Open the foreign-currency purchase invoice to be paid in Procountor.
Review the invoice details as usual.
The default payment method is Currency Payment Service. You can change the payment method if you do not want to use the service for that payment.
Go to the Payment view. For the Currency Payment Service, the payment date is always the current date and is automatically shown in the Payment date field. The date cannot be changed. After the payment is confirmed, it is sent to the bank in the next payment run. Before confirming the payment, review the displayed exchange rate, transaction fee, and the converted amount payable in euros.
Confirm the payment. The payment is forwarded to the service provider, which then pays the recipient.
Not all currency payments have to be routed through the Currency Payment Service. For each payment, the user can choose whether it should instead be paid through the company’s own bank in the usual way.
How the service works
When a payment request is created in Procountor, the payment is sent to the customer’s own bank as a standard euro-denominated SEPA payment. The payment is made to Open Payments. At the same time, Procountor sends the invoice-based payment details to Open Payments. Once the SEPA payment made through the customer’s bank is visible in Open Payments’ bank account, Open Payments pays the final recipient in the destination country as a local payment.
If Open Payments cannot complete the payment to the final recipient, it will contact the payer to obtain any additional information required to process the payment. If the payment still cannot be completed, Open Payments will refund the customer’s payment in full.
Important: Payments made through the Currency Payment Service are sent from Procountor in the next payment batch, not on the invoice due date as with standard SEPA payments.
Open Payments (Open Payments Europe) is a Swedish financial technology and open banking company with an official payment institution licence granted by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).
Accounting and reporting
The Currency Payment Service is treated slightly differently from a standard international payment for accounting purposes because the payment includes the service provider’s fee and may also include an exchange-rate difference.
Accounting entries on the invoice
When a purchase invoice is paid using the Currency Payment Service and the payment is confirmed, Procountor automatically records three payment rows on the invoice:
Bank transfer – the euro amount debited from the bank account
Service fee – the service fee charged by Open Payments
Exchange-rate difference – the difference between the invoice exchange rate and the actual exchange rate
The combined total of the rows always equals the invoice’s outstanding balance calculated using the invoice exchange rate.
Accounting entries on the bank statement
When the bank statement is imported into Procountor, Procountor automatically creates an accounting entry. The entry shows the following separately:
The total amount debited from the bank account.
The service fee, posted to the bank charges account.
The exchange-rate difference, posted either to an exchange loss or exchange gain account depending on whether the actual rate was less or more favourable than the rate used on the invoice.
The accounting accounts used are determined by Procountor’s default posting settings. These can be changed under Management > Accounting information > Default postings.
How the payment appears on the bank statement
The bank statement shows the service provider’s bank account, Open Payments, as the recipient account rather than the supplier’s account. However, the original supplier’s name is displayed as the recipient name, making the payment easy to identify.
Procountor automatically matches the bank statement transaction to the correct purchase invoice, and the invoice is marked as paid in the usual way.
Pricing
The service has no separate setup fee or fixed monthly fee. The user sees the price of each payment before confirming it. The price consists of a transaction fee and an exchange-rate commission included in the exchange rate.
The aim is to keep the service more affordable than currency payments made using a bank’s standard pricing. Prices start from €0.20 per payment plus a 1% exchange-rate commission, compared with the European Central Bank exchange rate. The price may vary depending on factors such as the payment currency and the time of the payment. Finago reserves the right to change the prices at any time.
Service settings and administration
The service is administered in Procountor under the company’s usage settings. In the settings, the service can be activated and its activation status can be checked.
Discontinuing use of the service
Use of the Currency Payment Service can be discontinued by routing payments through another payment channel selected by the customer. No separate termination notice is required.