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Understand the basics
What is a base currency?
Understand the reference currency for a personal or team ledger, and what it does not convert yet.
Updated: 9/25/2026
A reference for your ledger
Your base currency is the currency you choose as the reference for your personal bookkeeping. A household team chooses its own base currency. Each account can also have a base currency, while an account holding more than one currency keeps a separate balance for each currency.
Choosing USD as your personal base currency does not change a JPY balance into dollars or move money between accounts. A bank or card issuer remains the source of truth for its balance and exchange rate.
Why unlike amounts cannot simply be added
Imagine recording $50 in one account and ¥1,000 in another. Their sum is not “1,050 USD.” A conversion would need a real exchange rate and a date. The general transaction flow does not yet populate reliable conversions; cross-currency report totals should not be treated as converted base-currency totals.
For now, inspect balances and transactions by their original currency when precision matters. Treat reports as a way to reflect on your records, not as a bank statement.