Working with clients in different countries means different currencies and tax rules. Here's how to handle it without making mistakes that cost you money.
The moment you take on your first international client, billing gets complicated. You're invoicing in USD but your costs are in MYR. The client's country has different tax requirements. Bank transfers have conversion fees. And if you get the tax wrong, you could face penalties.
Invoice in the client's currency
Always invoice in the currency agreed upon in the contract. If the client expects USD invoices, send USD invoices. Don't make them do the conversion — that's your job, and it's a source of trust.
Your system should support multiple currencies natively, not as a workaround. Each invoice has a currency, each line item calculates in that currency, and the total is in that currency.
Tax schemes per corporation
Tax rules vary by jurisdiction. Malaysian clients need SST. European clients might need VAT. Some clients are tax-exempt. The right approach is to configure tax schemes per corporation — your supplier entity and each client entity — so the correct tax applies automatically when you create an invoice.
This avoids the error-prone process of manually selecting tax rates on every invoice. Set it up once for each client, and it's correct every time.
Multiple bank accounts
If you receive payments in multiple currencies, you likely have multiple bank accounts — an MYR account for local clients, a USD account for international ones. Each invoice should show the correct bank details for the currency it's denominated in.