How to Quote Clients in Another Currency

Quoting a client abroad? How to choose the currency, protect yourself from exchange rate swings, handle tax and get paid without losing margin.

Sooner or later a client asks for a quote in their own currency. It might be a company overseas that found your website, a property owner who lives abroad, or a local business that budgets in dollars or euros. Saying yes can open up better-paying work, but it raises questions most small businesses never had to think about.

Which currency should the quote be in? What happens if the exchange rate moves before the client pays? How do tax and payment work across borders? This guide answers those questions in plain terms, with simple rules you can apply to your next international quote.

Should you quote in your currency or theirs?

There are two options, and each one puts the exchange rate risk on a different person.

• Quote in your own currency: you know exactly what you will receive, but the client carries the risk and has to work out the conversion.
• Quote in the client's currency: the client knows exactly what they will pay, which makes saying yes easier, but you carry the risk if the rate moves.

For small one-off jobs, quoting in your own currency is simple and safe. For larger or repeat work, especially with businesses abroad, quoting in the client's currency often wins the job. Companies prefer a number that fits straight into their budget and accounts, and a quote that already speaks their currency looks more professional than one that asks them to do the maths.

Build in a buffer for exchange rate movement

If you quote in another currency, the amount you finally receive in your own money depends on the rate on the day the client pays, not the day you quoted. For a job that takes weeks, that gap can be meaningful.

A simple way to protect your margin is to convert your normal price at today's rate and add a small buffer. A few percent is common for short jobs. Longer projects, or currencies that move a lot, justify a bigger buffer.

A worked example

Say you are based in the UK and your price for a website build is £2,000. A client in the US wants the quote in dollars, and today's rate is $1.27 to the pound. That converts to $2,540. Add a 4% buffer and round it, and you quote $2,650. If the pound strengthens to $1.30 by the time the client pays, $2,650 still brings in about £2,038. Without the buffer, $2,540 would have brought in about £1,954, leaving you £46 short. The same maths works for any pair of currencies, whether you earn in euros, rand, Australian dollars or rupees.

Web designers deal with this more than most, because so much of their work comes from clients abroad. If that's you, see how quotes and invoices for web designers handle per-project pricing in the client's currency.

Put the terms in writing

A good international quote leaves no room for confusion about money. Spell out the essentials on the quote itself.

• The currency, written as a code such as USD, EUR or GBP, not just a symbol. Several countries use the dollar sign.
• How long the quote is valid. A short validity period limits how far the rate can move before the client accepts.
• Who pays bank or transfer fees. International transfers often lose money along the way, so say that the amount must arrive in full.
• When payment is due, and whether a deposit is required before work starts.

For long projects, consider staged payments in the same currency. Each payment locks in the rate for that part of the work, which spreads your risk instead of leaving it all until the end.

It is also worth saying what happens if the client accepts after the quote has expired. A simple line such as "Prices are valid for 14 days, after which the quote will be updated to the current exchange rate" gives you a fair, agreed way to requote instead of an awkward conversation when the rate has moved against you.

Tax on work for clients abroad

Tax is where international work needs the most care, because the rules depend on your country, the client's country and the type of service. In many countries, services supplied to businesses abroad are treated differently from local sales, and in some cases VAT is charged at zero or not at all. In other cases it still applies.

Do not guess. Ask your accountant how to treat work for overseas clients before you send the first invoice, and set up the quote and invoice to match. Keep a note of the client's country and business details on the client record, because you may need them to justify the tax treatment later.

Getting paid across borders

Traditional international bank transfers work, but they can be slow and the fees come out of the amount you receive. Online payment providers and card payments are often faster and simpler for the client, though they also charge fees and convert the money at their own rate.

Whichever method you use, check what actually arrives in your account against the invoice, and record any difference as a fee or exchange loss rather than leaving the invoice partly unpaid. If you take on regular overseas work, look at the quoting tools for digital and tech businesses, where cross-border clients are common and the same patterns apply.

Keep your books in order

Once you invoice in more than one currency, the biggest mistake is adding the totals together. £10,000 plus $1,000 is not £11,000, and a report that mixes them gives you a false picture of the business.

• Keep each invoice in the currency it was issued in.
• Look at totals per currency, not mixed together.
• Record the amount received in your own currency when the payment lands.
• Give your accountant both figures at the end of the year.

How QuoteGenio handles quoting in another currency

In QuoteGenio you set the currency on each quote and invoice, choosing from more than 40 currencies, and the totals, PDF and public link all show it correctly. Reports and the dashboard keep each currency's totals apart, with an optional approximate view in your home currency, so nothing gets added up by accident. See how multi-currency quotes and invoices work, and send your next international quote in the currency your client thinks in.