> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/how-cashback-works/currency.md).

# Currency and exchange rates

Your networks report in whatever currency they use. Your members are paid in one. This page is how the plugin gets from one to the other.

### The site currency

Everything is converted into a single **site currency**, chosen once when you first set up the ledger.

`Settings` → `General` → **Currency and cashback** → **Site currency**.

Pick the currency you actually pay your members in. Not the one your biggest network uses, and not the one your country happens to use if you pay in something else.

{% hint style="danger" %}
**This is effectively a one-time choice.** Every balance you hold is already stored in it, and changing the setting does not rewrite history — it changes only what happens next.

On a site with real members and real balances, changing it leaves you with figures in two currencies added together. If you picked the wrong one, ask support before touching anything.
{% endhint %}

![The currency and holding-period settings](https://3545740495-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-M69sU0hfZj3QsteYxmI%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-4e3f9dc48f0d982bed912f8537fb4dc8efac6e98%2Fsettings-currency.webp?alt=media)

### How conversion happens

When an order arrives in a currency other than yours, the amount is converted **at the rate in force at that moment**, and the order keeps a record of what it originally was.

That matters: cashback is fixed at the moment it is earned. A member who earned £5 keeps £5, whatever the exchange rate does afterwards. Nothing is recalculated later.

The original figure and currency stay on the order, so when a member questions an amount you can always show where it came from.

### Where the rates come from

Automatically, from the **European Central Bank**, refreshed once a day.

The ECB is a good default: it is free, reliable, published daily and not trying to sell you anything. It is a reference rate rather than a trading rate, so it is close to but not identical to what a bank would give you.

### Setting your own rates

`Settings` → `General` → **Manual exchange rates**.

You can fix your own rate for any currency, and it is used instead of the ECB's.

Two reasons to bother:

**Stability.** A daily-moving rate means a member's cashback figure drifts between the day they earned it and the day they read about it. Members notice, and it is hard to explain.

**Your actual cost.** If your network pays you in dollars and your bank converts at a worse rate than the ECB's, the ECB rate quietly overstates what you received — and you pay cashback on money you did not get.

Set a rate slightly conservative to your real one and the difference stops being a slow leak.

{% hint style="info" %}
A manual rate applies to **new** orders only. It does not restate cashback already earned, for the same reason the automatic rates do not.
{% endhint %}

### Networks with their own currency setting

Two networks need a word here.

**CJ Affiliate** reports in USD by default. If CJ pays you in something else, set **Publisher currency** in the CJ settings — otherwise every figure is out by an exchange rate, quietly. See [CJ Affiliate](/affiliate-networks/supported-networks/cj.md).

**Impact** has a **Default currency** used only when it reports an amount without stating one. See [Impact](/affiliate-networks/supported-networks/impact.md).

### If a rate is missing

A currency the ECB does not publish, and for which you have set no manual rate, cannot be converted. Those orders are recorded and reported in `Cashback Tracker` → `Logs` rather than being guessed at.

If you work with a network in an unusual currency, set a manual rate for it before the first orders arrive.

### Related

* [Balances: pending, available, paid](/how-cashback-works/balances.md)
* [The cashback ledger](/how-cashback-works/the-cashback-ledger.md)
* [Importing orders](/affiliate-networks/importing-orders.md)