To streamline our processes and provide greater clarity, we're updating how foreign exchange (FX) fees are billed for transactions made in foreign currencies.
What's Changing
Previously, FX fees were charged as a markup and displayed on your Account Statement. Moving forward, FX fees will be billed separately as a Spendesk Invoice.
How It Works
Starting on the first day of each month, we will issue a separate invoice for each entity on SFS UK. This invoice will cover all FX fees for transactions made by that entity during the previous month. Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect:
Consistent FX Fee Rate: The FX fee rate will remain unchanged. Companies with a custom FX fee will continue to benefit from it, and entities with a zero FX fee rate will not receive an invoice.
VAT and Coupons: The FX fee invoice item is exempt from VAT, and any coupons applied to your account will not affect this fee.
The invoice will appear in the Bookkeep Tab, as already paid, and in the Settings > My Spendesk Plan > My Plan and Invoices. The supplier “Spendesk” might already be linked to an expense account and should be changed for those invoices as they must be bookkept as FX fee, which is a financial expense account and not a supplier expense account.
For example, here are some commonly used financial expense account codes: FR = 627X, DE = 6855, UK = FX Fee
Please keep in mind if you are on centralized billing, that the FX fee for any subsidiary should probably be bookkept differently as per your own chart of account (due to intercompany recharges).
Understanding Entity Billing Modes
We have three different billing modes for Spendesk invoices: centralized, decentralized, and orga-based. Here’s how they work for FX fee invoicing:
Orga-Based Branches: UK orga-based branches will receive an FX fee invoice, which will be collected from their wallet.
Decentralized Branches: UK decentralized branches will receive an FX fee invoice, collected from their wallet along with their branch subscription invoice.
Special Cases
Late Transactions: Transactions made late in the month (e.g., July) but settled in the following month (e.g., August) will be billed in September.
Zero FX: If there were no FX fees in the previous month, no invoice will be issued.
Late Settlement Discards: If a transaction is discarded after the invoice has been issued, the fee may still be billed.
Limitations
Invoice Details: The invoice will show the total sum of all fees for the period, not the fees per individual transaction.
Un-billed Edge Cases: FX fees for transactions occurring after a customer churns will not be billed.
We believe these changes will enhance transparency and make managing your finances simpler. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out to our support team.