Multicurrency - Support for new currencies & Bitcoin
To have the ability to add additional currencies that are not on the standard list.
Purpose: Business accept payments in Bitcoin and have no way to add that to the currency list. This would allow the ability to calculate tax, profit, and loss from the currency/cryptocurrency that the business is using.
Hello I am the product manager for the group within Xero which looks after the currency capability.
I follow the digital currency space closely, I find it incredibly interesting both sociologically as well as technically. However as a product manager my role is to ensure that my engineering group works on the things that create the most value, for the most people, and in alignment with the company's long term goals and aspirations.
Digital currencies continue to have an extremely passionate, but also extremely small group of users who want to see them handled in Xero. The cost remains very high for us to deliver this feature, and does not make a difference to enough peoples lives to justify that investment. There are a lot more touchpoints than many people appreciate to implement crypto properly. Huge decimal precision, UX, currency rate feeds, revaluation logic, reporting - all need changes to support this in the way that needs to be done to allow proper accounting.
Digital currencies aren’t prioritised in the next year, but our group is working on other initiatives which lay the groundwork so that in the future I truly believe we will be able to justify working on crypto, and that what we produce will be world class.
I continue to monitor this thread and I look forward to sharing news that is more in line with what you hope for in the future.
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Chris Selwa commented
I'd like to see Bitcoin.
Frankly its a bit of a joke that xero doesn't offer it, even in rudimentary form, and the plans are "kick the can down the road, because its a niche thing".
I'm hunting for a solution today and for some entities will take my business to the person that offers it.
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Lisa Wilson commented
Multi-currency options.
With the rise of business' utilising crypto-currency as payment in their day to day services, it would be great to have a 'custom currency' option so that the conversion rate of that transaction could be entered. This may not be a solution where a business has numerous transactions, however where it is is just the occasional transaction it would be extremely helpful to be able to enter a custom conversion rate.
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Valentina Delfino commented
Dear Xero Community,
I've closely followed the vibrant discussion around integrating cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, into Xero. The insights and needs shared here, from handling high-precision exchange rates to integrating crypto wallets, resonate deeply with us.
We understand the complexities of integrating digital currencies into Xero, as Mark Blundell and others highlighted. The challenges of currency rate feeds, revaluation logic, and reporting are not trivial. However, we believe that embracing these technologies is not just about keeping pace with market trends but also about unlocking new possibilities for businesses globally.
As a result of our pain integrating crypto transactions into Xero for the last two years, we embarked on developing ContaCrypto.io a solution to bridge this gap. Our tool seamlessly integrates crypto transactions into Xero, addressing key concerns such as:
High Decimal Precision: We've tackled the issue of decimal precision, allowing for accurate representation of cryptocurrencies in financial records.
User-Friendly Interface: Understanding the importance of a smooth user experience, our solution offers an intuitive interface, making it easy for businesses to adapt without a steep learning curve.
Efficient Reporting: Our solution streamlines the reporting process, ensuring that crypto transactions are reflected accurately in your financial statements.
Our goal is to make crypto integration a feasible, efficient, and valuable addition to your financial toolkit. This development could open doors to new business channels and opportunities, as suggested by Tom Algie and others.
We're keen to collaborate with Xero and the community to refine this tool further. Your feedback and insights would be invaluable in this journey.
I invite you to consider trying for free this solution. I'm looking forward to your thoughts and the opportunity to contribute to this exciting evolution in financial technology.
Valentina Delfino
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Duncan Greenwood commented
Since the current limit on decimal spaces appears to be 6, adding this feature might require a system-wide change of variable types to allow for more decimals. Probably long doubles or quadruple floats... This does sound like a lot of work.
XE.com does support most of the major cryptocurrencies. Although it's not particularly commonplace today, in the next few years, digital assets are likely to see a huge increase in usage, and will soon become a standard payment type for the average individual and business. It's especially useful for international transfers without incurring payment fees applied as percentages. It would be a good idea to get into that game early so that Xero can dominate the potentially massive growth in that marketspace.
I don't mind having to upload CSV files, as opposed to connecting bank feeds to crypto wallets (although that would be amazing, and totally achievable with blockchain tracking). I would be happy if the possibility of recording high-precision exchange rates with the major cryptocurrencies becomes a standard feature.
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Chris Carnie commented
Great to hear Xero is considering this and monitoring. Can you please look at the Lightening Network (LN) and put that at the front of the queue.
Being able to generate and receive LN payments with Xero would be an amazing step forward. Would be happy to use a Xero hosted LN wallet and give up custody in exchange to native integration from Xero. Strike and Lightspark both offer APIs, would be worth talking to them.
Many thanks! :)
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Cj E commented
Adding few of the the largest currencies should be easy, and an important, first step for companies which already are using a web3 wallet. That will solve the main problem.
CBDC is also integrated at a record speed throughout the world so you have to act accordingly.
https://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap136.pdf -
Tom Algie commented
Would also appreciate BTC. My guess is that you only think it's a small percentage, but in reality it would open up a whole other business channel for Xero - and adoption is growing.
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Shannon Rands commented
Xero only allows .6 digits for the FX (example 1.234567) rate, and we require .12. Why is there such a small number allotted for the FX. When we trade money at the currency exchange between our accounts, we require in Xero to have the full amount of decimal points possible (in other accounting programs more than 12 are available) in order to do our conversions correctly. When will this be updated and resolved?
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Florent Duhazé commented
This comment is strange @Dannielle Graham.
99% of the companies supporting cryptos are working with USDT and/or USDC, none with BTC ! -
Dannielle Graham commented
Please just work on Bitcoin, wouldn't need to be any other coins.
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Dimitrios Siourthas commented
“The cost remains very high for us to deliver this feature”
I can help you bring down cost and bring this feature forward for us, your customers, using TomorrowX.com
Worth a call to explore…
Help me, to help you, to help us!
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Don McAllister commented
Bitcoin not Crypto. If you try to develop for the 20,000 alt coins you're going to get nowhere fast. Concentrate your efforts on supporting Bitcoin. The improvements in the layer 2 lightning network have seen a huge increase in adoption and these payment rails will rapidly become extremely important for vendors as more and more people transact using Lightning.
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Jonathan Adjei commented
As an earlier commenter said. If you could even tackle the simpler digital currencies first rather than full support, that would help. The stable coins would be a big help.
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Robert Clarkson commented
We're working on merchant adoption of Bitcoin in NZ and this development is critical for a lot of businesses looking to innovate in this way.
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Accounts Dep commented
Adding crypto currencies would be very important to us at the moment and will possibly become crucial in the futre.... definately something Xero need to think about
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Viola Nyári commented
Custom currency would be critical to us to be able to use Xero efficiently.
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John Walker commented
Bitcoin and/or Bitcoin lightning for invoicing would be a huge
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Dimitrios Siourthas commented
I can help with designing the approach and feature set to make this idea a reality. Get in touch…
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Mathew Merlehan commented
I would like to see the acceptance of payment for goods and services in crypto assets made easier through Xero.
This can currently be done through third party apps like Request Finance (https://app.request.finance) - when invoicing through this app, the end user can connect their wallet (e.g. MetaMask) to the app and it will calculate the AUD-equivalent amount to pay in the nominated crypto asset. Upon confirmation of payment, the invoice is automatically updated to be marked as paid.
The problem I find at the moment, however, is that we are caught between two worlds. We have our usual invoice that we send through Xero, the template of which is not easily replicated through Request. However, if a client advises us that they wish to pay in crypto, we then need to generate and send the same invoice in Request that has the added payment functionality. It is also not possible to simply add a custom payment URL to invoicing templates, as the payment URL will be different every time.
I propose that Xero either (1) works to integrate Request (or something similar) as an additional payment option; or (2) allows businesses to add unique payment URLs that hyperlink to the relevant invoice in the Request UI.
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Jayesh Dayal commented
This is an important feature lacking in Xero.