Managing overseas clients with inniAccounts

When it comes to working with customers based overseas, inniAccounts can provide you will all the support you need. With our software managing overseas clients, recording foreign expenses and Bookkeeping or Invoicing in non-sterling currencies is easier than ever. We’ll even take care of the exchange rates for you.

The explosion of the digital economy has introduced new opportunities for contractors and consultants. More and more of our clients are working on overseas projects; using technology to work with anyone, anywhere. It’s now possible to earn a living overseas without even leaving the UK.

However, working internationally is not without its difficulties. Billing outside of the UK can be troublesome. You need to track exchange rate fluctuations in your accounts, ensure you’re charging and reporting VAT correctly and potentially manage several different currencies when you record your expenses. If you’re repeatedly working with clients overseas, you may even have a non-sterling bank account that you need to manage alongside the rest of your company’s in and outgoings.

Fortunately, with inniAccounts, we’ll provide you with all the extra support you need. Our software supports overseas invoicing, taxes, bookkeeping and accounts; making the whole process as easy as handling your UK-based clients.

Bookkeeping

Non-sterling bank accounts can be a great way to support your overseas trading and multi-currency needs; allowing savings from bank and transfer fees. We’re pleased to announce that the Bookkeeping area now fully supports non-sterling bank accounts (such as euro or dollar accounts). This ensures that you can record the transactions from all your company’s accounts. This feature supports European and global currencies. Whether you walk into your local UK bank branch and open a euro account, or you head into a bank in Beijing and open a standard CNY account – inniAccounts will be able to support all of your company’s bank accounts.

Best of all, your Bookkeeping area will manage the exchange rate for you. Behind the scenes, when you record a transaction, the software will automatically lookup live exchange rates and take account of daily rate fluctuations. So, even when you’re dealing with separate currencies, your overall accounts, tax calculations and LiveCash values will always be accurate and up to date. The live lookup feature ensures that instead of dealing with HRMC’s quarterly values, you always get the most up to date exchange rate. It automatically works to make your overseas records easy to use, accessible and accurate.

If you’d like to use inniAccounts to support your non-sterling bank account, simply let your Account Manager know.

Invoicing

When working with customers overseas, some clients may insistent on dealing with a fixed currency rate only.  Using our software, you can invoice overseas clients in one of 164 currencies. It’s easy to create an invoice in a foreign currency. Once activated, you just need to select the currency and country of supply when creating an invoice.

When you raise an invoice in a currency other than sterling, the software will automatically look up the live exchange rate; so you also have a sterling value for the invoice. This value is used to update your LiveCash and the pending payments in your Bookkeeping area. You’ll be able to see all the details of the exchange rates when you view your invoices.

Once a client has paid your invoice, you just need to confirm the payment. This allows you to track your fully/part paid invoices and confirm the actual amount you received in sterling; ensuring your accounts are accurate after any exchange rate fluctuations.

The software will even account for any overseas invoices you have issued on your VAT return.

You can learn more about invoicing clients based overseas on our Knowledge Hub.
Overseas invoicing support is available upon request and subject to an additional fee. Contact your Account Manager for further details.

Expenses

Should you travel to meet your overseas clients, you will likely incur foreign expenses. You can enter all your overseas expenses in the inniAccounts software. You can track billable time, expenses and mileage for overseas clients in the same way you do for UK-based clients.

When entering expenses into the software you can record the amount in pounds. When you add the billable expenses to your invoice it will be converted into the client’s currency; using our live exchange rate lookup. Should you need to, you can easily edit the value of the expense to match the local currency amount shown on your expense receipts.

With the new additions to the Invoicing and Bookkeeping areas, our software provides full support for contractors and consultants with clients based overseas. To learn more about the possibilities and benefits of working internationally, take a look at our previous article: Contractors and consultants: working internationally.