This article answers frequently asked questions about how exchange rates are used in Productive.
Exchange rates are only relevant if your organization has a multi-currency setup. For example, if your company’s base currency is USD, but you work with clients, projects, or team members in other currencies like EUR or GBP.
Exchange rates come into play in several areas of Productive, including:
Project budgets and client deals in foreign currencies
Labor costs when team members are paid in a different currency than the budget
Reports that compare financial data across currencies
Forecasting where future bookings include currency conversions
Invoices when amounts are shown or reported in a different currency
Read on to learn how exchange rates are sourced, when they’re applied, and why small differences can sometimes appear in your reports or budget calculations.
Which exchange rate provider does Productive use?
Productive supports several third-party exchange rate providers. By default, the most common one is Open Exchange Rates.
You can check or change your exchange rate provider by going to:
Settings > General > Exchange rate provider.
📌 If the exchange rate provider is not set up, you encounter issues, or wish to change the exchange rate provider, please contact us via the in-app chat ☎️
How exchange rates affect reporting and payroll timing
Exchange rates are applied based on the date of each time entry. Once a cost is generated (set in the users' cost rates), the exchange rate for that date is snapshotted and saved. This rate is then used in all related reports and calculations going forward.
📌 Example:
A team member logs time on July 15 → Productive uses the exchange rate from July 15 to calculate the cost.
If that same team member logs time for July 20, even for the same service and hours, the cost in the budget currency (e.g., USD) might differ due to a different exchange rate.
Although the cost is the same in the person’s original currency (e.g., EUR), in the budget currency, it may vary. Since cost affects profit, this leads to slightly different profit figures for entries on different days.
Can I see which exchange rate was applied?
Not directly in the app at the moment. Productive applies and stores exchange rates behind the scenes. In reports, we handle two types of conversions:
Time entry currency → Budget currency
Time entry currency → Organization default currency
Switching the report’s display currency can also trigger a recalculation using the current exchange rate provider’s data.
What happens if payroll and time entries fall in different months?
That’s a valid scenario:
A person works on a project in July, and logs time accordingly.
Their salary is paid in August, when the exchange rate may differ.
Since the exchange rate is based on the time entry date, the project cost reflects July’s rate, and not the rate on the payroll payment date.
This can cause minor differences between the actual payout and what’s shown in the project or budget report.
📌 Productive does not retroactively update past exchange rates when salaries are paid. This avoids shifting historical figures and helps preserve data consistency in reports.
How are exchange rates used in the Resource Planner and for forecasting?
When you create bookings in the Resource Planner, Productive applies the exchange rate based on the date of each booking item.
If the exchange rate for a future date is not available yet, Productive will temporarily use the most recent available rate. Once the target date is reached and the actual rate becomes available, the system updates the conversion.
📌 Example:
You create a booking for April 1st.
On March 28th, the system uses the rate from March 28th.
On March 29th, it updates to March 29th's rate.
On April 1st, the actual April 1st rate is applied.
So, for each day in the booking, Productive uses the actual rate of that specific day, once available.
When does scheduled time get overridden with actual time for future bookings?
This happens daily, around midnight (based on your account timezone).
At that point, actual time tracked replaces the scheduled (forecasted) time for the same day, so your forecasts stay accurate and reflect real work.
Why do I see small differences between converted invoice values in reports vs invoice views?
This usually happens when using the Display currency option in a report. The system uses the exchange rate of the invoice issue date to calculate values.
In some cases, you might notice small discrepancies, especially with currencies like HRK (Croatian kuna), which had a fixed conversion rate to EUR.
However, depending on your exchange rate provider, this conversion might still involve USD as an intermediary. For example:
Conversion may go from HRK → USD → EUR using available rates for that date.
Even slight differences in USD/HRK or USD/EUR rates across days can cause rounding variations of a few cents.
📌 Example calculation:
June 11, 2025:
USD_TO_HRK: 6.594682
USD_TO_EUR: 0.875343
→ Result: 0.1327148
May 8, 2025
USD_TO_HRK: 6.660895
USD_TO_EUR: 0.884
→ Result: 0.1327346
Even though these values are close, multiplying them by larger HRK amounts (e.g., invoices) can result in visible differences.
Can this be avoided or fixed?
Not really. Even if you switch to another provider like HNB, you may still see minor fluctuations due to:
Precision (number of decimal places)
Rounding differences in reports vs tooltips
Indirect conversions through USD
We recommend treating report currency pickers as informative tools, not as sources of exact financial conversions.