About Automatic Update of Currency Rates
As part of Business process automation, IFS Cloud supports automatic update of currency rates. Using this functionality users can update currency rates of a company or multiple companies. IFS workflow solution is used in the functionality to facilitate the automatic fetching of currency rates from a given external service provider. Further, the solution supports centralized management of currency rates in a group company scenario.
Basic Data Setup
Before using the functionality, it is required to set up the IFS workflow solution.
This needs to be done in the Solution Manager/Workflow Manager/ Workflow.
- A reporting period definition should be entered.
Note: For testing purposes, we have used https://currencyapi.com. However, based on the customer requirements and service agreements, it is recommended to select a suitable service provider.
- Set up the API Key.
- You need to clone the latest version of the existing workflow diagram to perform the above changes.
- Save and deploy the modified version of workflow diagram.
- Set the "Action
Enabled" in the "Projection Action Information" for below workflows.
- finCurrencyTypeUpdate
- finUpdateCurrencyRatesForCurrencyTask
- finCentralCurrencyHandling
More supporting documents related to IFS workflow configuration is available on, Technical Documentation for Workflows.
How to Update Single Currency Rate Type
This functionality supports updating the currency rates defined in a particular currency rate type automatically using an external service provider. Users can use the command Update Currency Rates in Currency Rate Types or Currency Rates pages. When the rates are updated, it will be notified to the user with the updated time stamp. The below flow diagram demonstrates the basic interactions in the process.
Update Multi Company Currency Rate Types using Task for Currency Updates
It is possible to update the multiple currency rate types using a single action. To facilitate that we are using the Task for Currency Update page to set up the currency rate types. To differentiate the set-up from existing external file handling functionality it is required to enable the option Task for Workflow in Task for Currency Update page during the definition. Use the command Update Currency Rates to execute the automatic update of currency rates.
Centralized Currency Rate Handling
This is to support centralized currency management function within a group company scenario. Users can define the source -target company relationship in the Centralized Currency Rate Handling page. The source company rates are updated using IFS workflow, and the currency rates of the target companies are updated using triangulation - based on the updated currency rates of the source company. Use the command Update Currency Rates to execute the automatic update of currency rates.
During the triangulation process below factors are considered.
- Inverted Quotation set up for the currency code in source and target companies.
- Conversion factor of the currency codes used in the triangulation.
- Decimals places defined per each currency code in relevant companies.
- Date of Update (only new lines will be added for target company currency rates and no changes will be made if there is an existing rate for the given date).
Manual Update of Source Company Currency Rates
If source company currency rates are manually updated, we have facilitated a process to sync the change to target companies. To support this, a new dialog Update Target Company Currency Rates is triggered when a currency rate is adjusted or added in the Currency Rates page in the source company.
To initiate the process below criteria should be met,
- Change/modification should be done in the source company.
- An active definition should be in place under the Centralized Currency Rate Handling page.
Execution Options
The update currency rate function using IFS workflow can be performed as an online job or can be scheduled as a background job.