Global logo
Information about our company and how to find us Products and services offered by Global Business Systems and our partners Latest news including press releases and position statements Online sales enquiry form for software, hardware and service queries Our international distributors and how to contact them Reseller-only section Career opportunities at Global Business Systems Search this site for information on a specific topic Back to our home page

EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION

GLOBAL 3000 AND EMU

BACKGROUND

On 1 January 1999 the majority of EC member states joined together to use a common currency, the euro. During the current transitional period, this simply means a fixed exchange rate between those countries' existing currencies (e.g. conversion between DM and FF goes via the euro and those currencies have fixed conversion rates to the euro). Some time around 1 Jan 2002 (October 2001 and February 2002 are the most popular dates) new euro coins and banknotes will be introduced and the old local currency notes and coins will be withdrawn (probably over a period of a few days or weeks).

WHAT'S NEW IN GLOBAL 3000 V4.5

Global 3000 has been extensively modified to accommodate EMU. Version 4.5 (released December 1998) includes as standard the following new features:

  • EMU-compliant currency routines throughout the software
    • Exchange rates held to 6 significant figures
    • Facility to define baskets of currencies - to cater for euro-constituent currency conversion at a fixed rate
    • Ability to specify 0, 1 or 2 decimal places for currencies
    • Triangulation handled automatically - conversion between 2 currencies within the same basket (e.g. FF to DM) always goes via master currency
    • All transactions in Debtors Ledger, Creditors Ledger, General Ledger and Cash Manager are held in original ('entry' currency) and in company base currency, and for banking transactions also in 'book' (i.e. Cash Manager cash book) currency
    • Exchange rates applied at transaction level
    • Statements can be printed by currency

  • 3.2 Compliance with Article 235 Regulation
    • Article 4 rules on rounding are complied with.

UK USER REQUIREMENTS

Now that EMU is under way, how do UK business users want to use it, and how does Global 3000 handle it?

  • Make and receive payments via a euro bank account (so no exchange gain/loss, and cash flow in euro stream)

    Possible using Global 3000 v4.5.

  • Pay suppliers in euros

    Yes, provided that the POP supplier is a pure euro account (i.e. all POs for that supplier are in euro). (You can of course make actual payments via Creditors Ledger in any currency you like, including the euro.)

  • Invoice in Euros

    Yes, you can invoice in euros provided the customer's trading/account currency is euro. Note that in order to convert an existing customer from e.g. FF to euro, there must be no outstanding transactions on their account.

  • Operate in euro

    No - but few UK companies want to do this until the UK joins.

FUTURE PLANS

There are currently two areas where further work remains to be done: removing a few restrictions on use of the euro within the Global 3000 distribution suite (for example, allowing orders in both euros and national currency on a single account, quoted costs in a different currency to the supplier's standard currency, and purchase orders to the same supplier in more than one currency), and providing the necessary conversion routines to enable UK companies to convert to using the euro as their base currency if and when the UK joins EMU.

The first of these - making the distribution modules such as Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing and E-commerce fully euro-compliant - is relatively straightforward. The requirement has been specified and it is our current intention to complete this work by mid 2000.

The second area - providing routines whereby a company currently using sterling as its base currency can convert to using euro instead - is more complex. The major problem is reconciling the accounts before and after conversion, particularly stock values. At present, while the UK remains outside EMU, there is no significant demand from UK companies for this facility, but Global Business Systems commits to providing it within the permitted conversion period should the UK decide to join.

GLOBAL 2000 AND EMU

Global 2000 is not EMU-compliant and there are no plans to make it so. Global 2000 users with the requirement to trade in euros are recommended to upgrade to Global 3000 v4.5 or later.

Last updated: 14 June 1999