# Run a Revaluation

A revaluation restates every open foreign balance at a closing rate and posts the difference.

It is a period-end step, it takes a few minutes, and skipping it is why foreign balances look wrong on a balance sheet.

![An open exchange adjustment, BCA-0001, showing the currency it revalued, the rate applied, its status and the gain or loss it posted.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/exchange-adjustments/exchange-adjustment-detail.png)

*A revaluation is a dated document. Run it at period end, not whenever the rate moves.*

## Run it

- **Choose the revaluation date**

  Normally your period end.
- **Enter the closing rates**

  One per foreign currency you hold balances in.
- **Review what will be revalued**

  Open foreign receivables, payables and bank balances.
- **Post the adjustment**

  The difference posts to your exchange gain or loss account.
- **Reverse it next period, if that is your policy**

  Many accountants reverse unrealised adjustments so the realised figure lands cleanly later.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Check the rate direction before posting**
>
> A rate typed the wrong way round produces a large and confident gain or loss that looks plausible on the report and is wrong by roughly the square of the error. Read the preview.

## What gets revalued

| Balance | Revalued | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Open foreign invoices | Yes | You are owed a foreign amount worth a different base amount today. |
| Open foreign bills | Yes | Same, in the other direction. |
| Foreign bank accounts | Yes | You hold the currency itself. |
| Settled invoices | No | The difference was realised at payment. |
| Base currency balances | No | There is nothing to translate. |
| Stock | No | Held at cost in base currency. |

## To reverse or not

Both policies are defensible and the important thing is consistency. Reversing keeps each period's gain or loss attributable to that period alone; not reversing carries the cumulative position forward. Agree it with your accountant once and then never think about it again.

> **Tip:**
>
> **A gain that reappears every month**
>
> That is the signature of a policy to reverse that nobody is actually applying. The same unrealised difference is being posted repeatedly on top of itself.