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Foreign-currency ecommerce payouts

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Most stores are paid out in their own currency, and those payouts post straight to your books. If a processor pays you in a supported foreign currency (for example a USD Shopify or Stripe payout in a Canadian-dollar book), TALISK_HQ records it in two steps so your books stay in one currency and the exchange-rate movement is captured honestly.

How a foreign payout is recorded

  1. Recognized at the payout date. The payout keeps its native figures (sales, fees, tax, net) and TALISK_HQ also stores the home-currency value of the net, converted at the payout date's rate. That home-currency net goes into an Ecommerce Clearing account instead of your bank, and no exchange gain or loss is recorded yet, because only one rate has been used.
  2. Settled when the deposit lands. When the matching bank deposit arrives, the clearing balance is relieved against it. The difference between the payout-date value and the actual deposit is the realized exchange-rate gain or loss, and it is recorded automatically.

You can see both the native amount and its home-currency value on Ecommerce › Payouts. Each foreign payout shows, for example, US$970.00 with the home value beneath it.

Settling a foreign payout

  • Paid into a foreign account. If the payout was deposited into a bank account held in the same currency (for example a USD payout into a USD account), TALISK_HQ matches and settles it automatically once the deposit imports, because the amounts match exactly.
  • Paid into your home-currency account. If the processor converts the money and a home-currency amount lands in your regular account, the amounts no longer match to the cent because the rate moved. TALISK_HQ does not guess. On Ecommerce › Payouts, an open foreign payout shows a Settle button: click it, pick the bank deposit that paid it, and TALISK_HQ records the settlement and the exchange gain or loss.

Unsupported currencies

If a payout is in a currency TALISK_HQ cannot yet convert, it is left off your books rather than posted at a wrong value, and it is flagged on your books-health checks. Support widens over time as new markets are added.

Undoing a settlement

If a payout was settled against the wrong deposit, open it on Ecommerce › Payouts and choose Unmatch. For a foreign payout this also reverses the exchange gain or loss and re-opens the clearing balance, so you can settle it against the right deposit.

Good to know: A payout in a supported foreign currency is recorded in that currency and restated to your book's home currency at the payout date. Its net cash is held in an Ecommerce Clearing account until the real bank deposit lands, at which point the payout is settled and the difference between the payout-date value and the deposit is recorded as a realized exchange-rate gain or loss. A payout in a currency Talisk does not yet support is left off your books and flagged, not guessed. Your book's own currency never changes, and Talisk never revalues an open clearing balance in your ledger; that rate drift is shown on the year-end FX revaluation worksheet instead.

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