Koha Question of the Week: How do Currency Exchange Rates Work in Koha?

by Kelly McElligott on Nov 11, 2022

Each Friday, we will bring you a new Koha Question of the Week. We will select real questions that we receive and share the answers with you!

Question: How do Currency Exchange Rates Work in Koha?

Answer: If a library places orders from more than one country Koha will allow libraries to input currency exchange rates so that the acquisitions module will properly calculate totals.

In the Administration Module, there is a section for "Currencies and Exchange Rates".

A library can have more than one currency listed in this table, however, the library will need to indicate which one is the 'active' one.

In this example above, the library has indicated that the US dollar is active, but has listed that there is also a Canadian rate and included the exchange rate. This is important, so if a library orders an item with a Canadian price, Koha will convert the cost to US Dollars using the exchange rate in this table.

In addition, if the library includes the ISO code for the price. The ISO code that is here will be used when importing MARC files via the staging tools, the tool will attempt to find and use the price of the currently active currency.

When adding an item to a basket with the currency listed as Canadian, Koha will convert it to the active currency, which in this case is US Dollars.

Additional Resources

Here are some more Acquisitions Blog Posts:

Self Paced Learning in Koha: Acquisitions

Monday Minutes: Attaching Files to an Invoice in Acquisitions