ResourcesPlatform guidePart 5
How biosuite handles multi-currency POs, exchange rates, and number formatting.
Biotech companies frequently work with suppliers across multiple countries and currencies. A CRO in the United States invoices in USD, a regulatory consultant in Switzerland bills in CHF, and a lab services provider in Denmark charges in DKK.
Managing these currencies should not create complexity in your procurement process. In biosuite, currencies are handled transparently and with minimal manual effort, so your team can focus on the work rather than on currency conversions.
All contracts, purchase orders, and invoices are always managed in their original currency.
This means that when you create a contract for €850,000 with a CRO, the contract value stays at €850,000. When a purchase order is raised for $120,000 with a US-based consulting firm, the PO amount remains $120,000. When an invoice arrives for CHF 45,000 from a Swiss lab, the invoice total stays at CHF 45,000.
Contractual values, PO amounts, and invoice totals are never altered by currency conversions during day-to-day use. The amounts you enter remain unchanged – always in the currency they were agreed in.
Exchange rates only come into play for one specific purpose: approval routing.
Approval limits in biosuite are defined in the company's standard currency – the reference currency you chose during company setup (for example, EUR or DKK).
When a purchase order is created in a currency that differs from the standard currency, biosuite needs to determine whether each approver's limit is sufficient. To do this, it automatically converts the PO amount into the standard currency using the current exchange rate, and compares the result against each approver's limit.
This conversion is used only to determine the correct approval flow. The PO itself remains in its original currency throughout its lifecycle.
A simple example
Let's say your company's standard currency is EUR, and you create a PO for $55,000 USD.
The current exchange rate is 1 USD = 0.92 EUR.
biosuite automatically converts the PO amount: $55,000 × 0.92 = €50,600.
Your manager has an approval limit of €50,000. Because the converted amount exceeds their limit, the PO is escalated to the next approver in the chain.
None of this requires any manual action. The PO remains at $55,000 USD, and the conversion is handled entirely behind the scenes.
biosuite maintains a central set of exchange rates that are updated once per month.
Each month has its own set of rates. This means that a purchase order submitted in January uses the January rates for approval routing, and a purchase order submitted in March uses the March rates.
Rates are sourced from established financial data providers and applied consistently across all companies using biosuite. Individual companies do not need to enter, update, or maintain exchange rates themselves.
All currency conversions for approvals are handled automatically by biosuite, without requiring users to manage or maintain exchange rates manually.
Administrators can view the exchange rates that apply to their company from the Control Center.
The currencies view shows a month-by-month overview of the rates used for your company's standard currency. The currently active period is highlighted, so you can immediately see which rates are being applied to current purchase orders.
Historical rates are displayed alongside the active period, giving you a clear audit trail of the rates that were in effect at any point in time.
This is a read-only view – rates are maintained centrally by biosuite and do not require any action from your team.
During company creation, you select the currencies your company works with and choose a standard currency.
The standard currency is the reference point for all approval limits. When you set a user's approval limit to €50,000, that limit is always in the standard currency – regardless of what currency a purchase order is created in.
You can add or remove currencies at any time from the company settings. Adding a new currency makes it available for use in contracts, purchase orders, and invoices. Removing a currency does not affect existing records – it simply prevents new records from being created in that currency.
Each supplier can have a default currency assigned to them.
When you create a purchase order for that supplier, the currency is automatically pre-filled based on the supplier's default. This saves time and reduces errors, especially when you consistently order from the same supplier in the same currency.
You can always change the currency on a specific purchase order if needed – the default is a convenience, not a restriction.
Contracts and purchase orders each have their own currency field. These are independent – a contract in EUR can have purchase orders in EUR, USD, or any other currency your company has set up.
This flexibility is important in biotech, where a single engagement may involve payments in different currencies at different stages.
Example: A CRO contract for a multinational clinical trial is denominated in EUR at €1,200,000. Some purchase orders under this contract are issued in EUR for European sites, while others are issued in USD for US-based services. Each PO keeps its own currency, and biosuite tracks the total spend against the contract value regardless of the currencies involved.
In addition to currency handling, biosuite supports different number formats to match regional conventions.
You can choose between:
This setting is personal – each user can choose their preferred format from their profile. All amounts throughout biosuite are displayed according to your chosen format.