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Understanding the different expense amounts
Understanding the different expense amounts

Learn what the stated expense amounts mean and what their context is.

Updated over a month ago

In Payhawk, you can view expense amounts in different sections, each showing specific details or context.

To provide a full overview of the amounts and the way they are indicated in the system, the example uses a paid card expense in a currency that is different from the base currency of the Payhawk account.

The sums in the Amount section

In the first columns under Amount:

  • Paid currency refers to the currency of the transaction; the local currency where the transaction was made.

  • TOTAL refers to the total amount in the transaction currency.

In the second column under Amount:

  • Your currency refers to the base currency of the Payhawk account.

  • TOTAL refers to the total amount in the base currency. This amount is calculated by multiplying the TOTAL amount from the first column by the official (accounting) FX rate on the date of the transaction between the transaction currency and the base currency of the Payhawk account.

Even when the card currency is the same as the account base currency, the TOTAL amount from the second column may differ because of the different FX rates used.

The sums in the Payment section

Under Payment:

  • Card currency refers to the amount paid in the currency of the card; the balance to which it was attached when the transaction was made.

  • Paid in refers to the amount paid in the transaction currency as reported by the provider, meaning the local currency where the transaction was made. The amount corresponds to the TOTAL amount from the first column unless the expense has been manually modified by an employee.

  • Exchange fees refers to the charged transaction fee as reported by the transaction in the Card currency.

  • POS fees refers to the POS fees in the Card currency.

Payment FX rate vs. accounting FX rate

The payment FX rate and the accounting FX rate are unrelated and may involve different currencies.

The payment FX rate:

  • Corresponds to the Exchange rate under Payment and refers to the FX rate as reported by the transaction (in this case 0.76617).

  • Is provided by the payment processor (VISA or Mastercard) in real-time and converts the transaction amount to the card (balance) currency on the settlement date.

  • Depends on the time of the day and will differ if you make several transactions on that day.

The accounting FX rate (official FX rate):

  • Corresponds to the exchange rate displayed between the Amount and Payment sections (in this case 0.8996).

  • Is provided by Payhawk based on the data from the European Central Bank, remains fixed throughout the entire day, and converts the transaction amount to the accounting (base) currency of the Payhawk account on the authorization date, ensuring it can be properly accounted for in the ERP system.

  • Is expected to be applied for the official accounting of expenses and any minor discrepancies in the final amounts due to this fixed rate are considered acceptable from an accounting perspective.

  • Even if the card and accounting (base) currencies are the same, there might be discrepancies because the two come from different sources and are for different dates.

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