What is a base currency?

Choose before recording

Your personal base currency is the reference for your ledger. Choose it during setup: once you have an account or transaction, it cannot be changed. A household has its own reporting currency.

An account can hold several currencies with a separate balance for each. Choosing USD as your base does not exchange a JPY balance into dollars.

Reference value is not acquisition cost

Kakeibo uses maintained reference rates to estimate current values. They are not live bank settlement prices. A stale or unavailable rate means the estimate needs care; do not treat missing conversion as zero.

Optional average cost describes what your holdings cost in the account’s base currency. It is separate from the current reference rate. You do not need to manage it for everyday bookkeeping.

Historical spending stays historical

Posting records the conversion into the personal or household reporting currency using the available rate history for the transaction date. Later reference-rate changes do not rewrite that spending. If the required historical rate is missing, the entry cannot be saved; contact support rather than changing the real transaction date.

Reports and currencies · Transactions and transfers