FX Rates

When you consolidate budgets kept in different currencies, Actual Bench converts transaction amounts during sync. The FX Rates page manages the exchange rates it uses. Open it from FX Rates under the Tools sidebar section (/fx-rates).

When currency conversion is used

A transaction flow can convert amounts when you enable its Convert currency option and set a source and target currency. Only transaction flows convert — payee and category flows never do.

How rates are sourced

Rates come from a database-backed registry, filled automatically from the free Frankfurter provider:

No API key is required.
Rates are date-specific.
For a date with no published rate (weekends and holidays), Actual Bench falls back to the latest prior rate.
If the provider is briefly unavailable, a converting sync doesn’t fail — affected rows go to review as FX pending (see Budget Sync).

You can also override any date manually or import rates from a CSV.

Open the FX Rates page

The page is organized per currency pair:

A hero card shows the latest rate, a trend sparkline, and coverage for the selected date range.
Currency pairs are seeded from your FX-enabled flows, and you can add your own.

View rate history and coverage

Below the hero, a coverage ledger lists every day in the range, calling out gaps, and labels each rate’s source (Frankfurter, Uploaded, Manual, or Derived).

Fill missing rates

Select Fill range from Frankfurter to backfill every missing day in the range in one click. Actual Bench reports how many days were inserted versus already set.

Override a rate

Use Set your rate to enter a rate for a specific date manually.

Manual rates take precedence for that date and pair.
When your override affects already-synced transactions, an impact preview lists them with their old → new converted amounts, so you can see the effect before deciding to update.

Import rates from CSV

Import a CSV of rates for a pair from the FX Rates page. Uploaded rows are labeled with the Uploaded source in the coverage ledger.

Preview a converted transaction

In a converting flow’s sync preview, each row shows the original amount, the applied rate, and the converted amount, each labeled with its currency. A missing or future-dated rate is sent to the review queue as FX pending rather than failing the run.

Immutable snapshots and rate locking

Every converted transaction stores an immutable snapshot — the exact rate, source/target amounts, provider, and dates — plus a compact audit note on the target transaction.
Rates lock at first sync, so a later rate change never silently rewrites past conversions.
To apply a corrected rate to already-synced transactions, use the opt-in Update synced transactions when the rate changes flow option, which goes through the normal previewed, safety-checked update path.

Limitations

No FX gain/loss accounting.
No silent recalculation of past conversions.
No multi-currency within a single Actual budget file.
Rate availability depends on the provider and on the coverage you’ve filled or imported.

See Known Limitations for the full list.

Troubleshooting

“FX pending” in a preview — no rate exists for that date/pair yet; Fill range from Frankfurter, add an override, or import a CSV.
A weekend or holiday date — Actual Bench falls back to the latest prior rate; fill the range if you want explicit coverage.
A future-dated transaction — a future rate isn’t available; it stays FX pending until a rate exists.
CSV rejected — check the columns and values against the in-app import guidance.
Wrong pair direction — confirm the source and target currencies on the flow.
Converted amount differs slightly — rounding is applied to the final converted amount.