Multi-currency invoicing: which currency to bill in 2026

Invoice in the currency your client holds money in, as long as your own costs run in a currency you can receive cheaply. Avoid letting a card processor or wallet convert for you, because that is the most expensive route. Use a multi-currency account, and add a rate clause to long contracts.

Why the USD default is weaker now

For years the lazy answer was to bill in dollars. Most clients accepted it, and the exchange cost was someone else's problem. That default is less safe than it was. The IMF's October 2025 World Economic Outlook covers a year of large currency swings, including a weaker dollar. If you live in the eurozone or the UK and invoiced in dollars through 2025, the same invoice bought fewer euros or pounds at the end of the year than at the start. Billing in dollars is an open currency position, and you took it without choosing it.

The reverse also holds. A US business that bills foreign clients in their local currency may have come out ahead on the same work. Currency choice is a pricing decision, not a clerical one.

What you actually pay when currencies do not match

The cost sits in fee schedules, and it is easy to miss because it hides inside the exchange rate.

On cards, Stripe applies an additional 1.5 percent international card fee when the card is issued in a different country from your account, per Swipesum's guide to Stripe fees. Currency conversion adds more on top of the base rate, so a cross-border, cross-currency card payment can cost several percent before anything else.

On PayPal, Tipalti's fee breakdown puts the currency conversion spread at 3 to 4 percent, plus an additional 1.5 percent for international transactions on top of the domestic fee. The page notes these are estimates based on US business fees as of May 2025, so check PayPal's own schedule.

A multi-currency account is usually much cheaper. Wise's business pricing page lists conversion fees starting from 0.23 percent on some currency pairs, and the fee varies by pair. Other providers publish allowances and per-conversion fees, so compare the pair you actually use.

The pattern is simple. The most expensive place to convert is inside the payment processor or wallet. The cheapest is inside an account built to hold several currencies. For a deeper look at the fees, see the guide to cross-border payment costs, and for account options see Wise vs Revolut vs Mercury.

What instant payments changed

Payment rails in the euro area now move money much faster. The European Central Bank shows the Instant Payments Regulation required euro-area payment providers to be able to receive instant payments from 9 January 2025 and to send them, with verification of payee, from 9 October 2025. In practice, a euro-area client can now pay a euro invoice into your euro account in seconds, for the cost of a normal bank transfer and with no card fee.

The US has a similar network in FedNow, which makes dollar payments between US banks settle quickly. Neither rail converts currency for you, so a dollar invoice paid to a euro account still needs a conversion somewhere. What changes is that billing in the client's own currency, paid by their local rail, is now fast and cheap in both regions.

Stablecoins also exist as a settlement route, but they bring their own tax, compliance and exchange issues. Most small service businesses do not need them. If a client proposes one, take advice first.

Three questions to decide the currency

Where does your client hold money? A US company with US bank accounts finds dollars easy. A German company finds euros easy. The friction at the payer's end is the most common reason invoices are paid late or disputed. Removing it is usually worth more than saving a fraction of a percent on your side.

What currency do your costs run in? If your rent, software and tax bill are all in euros, take revenue in euros. Holding a balance in a currency you have no costs in is a bet you did not choose to place.

How long is the invoice open? A $5,000 project paid in 30 days is barely exposed. A one percent move is $50, which is about the size of a payment fee. A six-month retainer in a single foreign currency is a real exposure. The longer the commitment, the more it pays to match the client's currency or to write a rate clause.

The rule that comes out of this: bill in the client's local currency where you reasonably can, use dollars as the shared currency only where no clean local route exists, and convert inside a multi-currency account and not inside a card processor.

What to do in practice

Open a multi-currency account with local account details for the currencies your clients use most, typically USD, EUR and GBP. Clients can then pay by local transfer, and nothing passes through card-network exchange rates.

State the currency on the quote, the contract and the invoice, and say which exchange rate applies if there is a conversion. A public mid-market reference on the issue date is a common choice. An open-ended foreign currency commitment with no rate stated is a forecast, not a price.

For contracts that run more than a quarter, add a clause that reopens the price if the exchange rate moves by more than an agreed percentage between issue and payment. It is one sentence and it removes a lot of arguments. Have a lawyer or accountant read the wording for your jurisdiction. If rising costs are also affecting your clients, see how tariffs squeeze service pricing for the conversation that tends to follow.

Finally, keep a note of what you invoiced, what landed and what the conversion cost for each client. After a quarter the pattern shows which clients cost you the most to be paid by, and that belongs in your next quote.

Tax and records

Different countries expect different things on a foreign-currency invoice: the exchange rate used, the local-currency VAT amount, or a particular rate source. These rules vary, and they change. Ask your accountant which rate and which date your tax authority expects, and write that into your invoice template so you do not decide it again each time.

How Delivvo handles billing clients in different currencies

Delivvo keeps the paperwork for a foreign client in one line from quote to payment, and leaves the actual conversion to your gateway and account.

1. Build the quote in Proposals and state the currency and any exchange-rate rule in the quote and contract before the client signs.
2. Send the quote and contract together. Clients sign by typing or drawing, and the signing record keeps a SHA-256 hash, the IP address and the device, with an archived PDF.
3. Use a payment schedule of up to 12 payments to split a long engagement into dated invoices, so a six-month retainer does not sit open at one rate.
4. Issue invoices with your own sequential numbering. Every invoice, receipt, contract and quote carries a verification code that shows the issuer, number, dates, amount and status.
5. Clients pay through your own processor, such as Stripe, PayPal or Square. Each gateway decides which currencies it accepts and how it converts, so check that before you promise a currency to a client.

Delivvo is never the merchant of record and takes 0 percent of payments, so the only conversion cost is the one your gateway or bank charges. The client portal needs no password, so a client abroad opens the quote, contract and invoice with a one-time code and does not need to create an account. Learn how documents work on the invoices and tax page, and see the payments page for the list of gateways.

Delivvo is a CRM and client portal for service businesses. See how payments work.

FAQ