Countries and Currency Login

For each TOTECS project there is the ability for administrators to set details about the country that the project trades within, as well as the currency it uses to trade with. Additionally there is the ability to control the countries that users are allowed to create addresses with, and send orders to, as well as the currencies that users to can see pricing with.

Countries

For each TOTECS project one country can be designated as the default country. The default country is used to control several aspects of the project, and denotes the country that the project trades within. Additionally other countries can be activated for a project. When a country is activated it allows users to choose and register with one of the activated countries, as well as create addresses within the active countries. Generally countries should only be activated for a project where users from that country are allowed to register, and order from.

International Orders

When users submit orders through either the Trade interface, or a content managed website, the country assigned to the delivery address in the order will be compared to the project's default country, if they do not match then this may allow the tax applied to the order to be removed, since the order is being sent to an international location where local taxes may not apply. There also exists a project setting that controls if internal orders should still apply local tax or not. View the Dependent Configurations section further down for more details on how to control this.

Currencies

For each TOTECS project one currency can be set as the default currency. The default currency is used to define the currency that all pricing within the project is set against. It is important that the project's default currency matches the same currency that any pricing being imported from 3rd party business systems is in. For example if product pricing is stored in an accounting system in Australian dollars, and the pricing is imported into a TOTECS project, then its wise that the project's currency is also set as Australian dollars. If an external business system stores its pricing in different currencies, then the pricing will need to be recalculated using exchange rates before being imported.

Any pricing for products, baskets, and orders is always calculated in the project's default currency.

The project's default currency is also used to tell other external systems of the currency when pricing is passed to the external systems. For example when an order is sent to the Connector software, the order data will specify which currency its pricing is based on, using the default currency assigned to the project at the time the order was submitted.

Multi-Currency

A project can have any number of currencies activated within it. This allows users to view pricing in a currency other than the project's default. For example a user from the USA may wish to view product pricing in US Dollars, but the project's default currency is Australian Dollars. By activating the US currency in the project and setting the exchange rate for the US currency to the project's default Australian currency, the user can be given the option to view product pricing in US dollars, or Australian dollars. Note that when the user is proceeding through the the order checkout process, the user will always see the final order pricing in the project's default currency.

Each user can be assigned to one designated currency. This allows the project to remember which currency to display pricing in when the user logs in next. Additionally regions can be set up in content managed web sites that allow region guest users to be assigned to given currency. This allows guest users arriving from overseas countries to view pricing tailored to their location.

Content managed websites can be set up so that the user can switch their assigned currency, which can be handy if the user is arriving to a website from an international location but wish to view the product pricing in the local currency.

Note that the exchange rate for each active currency in the project must be manually set by an administrator user. It is recommended to update the currency rate between once a day, to once a week.

Also note that the currency exchange rate has no bearing on any underlying product, basket, or order pricing calculations since the pricing is always calculated using the project's default currency. The currency exchange rates are used just as a guide to help users relate to pricing in a currency that they understand.

Within the Administration Centre of a TOTECS project, under the Stores menu there is a menu item labelled Countries and Currency that takes administrator users to the Countries and Currency interface. Within the interface administrator users can view all of the activated countries, and activated currencies for the TOTECS project. Additionally administrator users can activate, or deactivate countries, as well as currencies, and additionally set the exchange rates for currencies.

Activate A Country

For administrator users to activate a country, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the Countries and Currency menu item link.
4. Under the Countries section, for the Show Countries filter click on the All radio button. This will allow all the world's countries to display.
5. For the countries that are to be activated click on the Active checkbox in the country table row.

Each country that is activated will now display in the country drop downs that display within the project's Trade interface, and any content managed website webpages where users can create, and modify addresses, as well as sign up and register.

Deactivate A Country

For administrator users to deactivate a country, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the Countries and Currency menu item link.
4. Under the Countries section, for the countries that are to be de-activated click on the Active checkbox in the country table row to untick the checkbox.

Each country that is deactivated will now no longer display in the country drop downs that display within the project's Trade interface, and any content managed website webpages where users can create, and modify addresses, as well as sign up and register. Note that existing addresses of users will still still be set to any deactivated countries.

Set The Default Project Country

For administrator users to set the default country of the project follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the General settings menu item link.
4. Within the General tab, under the Locality section, for the Country setting click on its drop down and choose a country to set as the default for the project.
5. Click on the Save button.

The project's default country will be updated. Note that for the Country drop down setting that it will only show countries that have been activated. If the country is not in the drop down then the country will need to be activated first. Follow the "Activate A Country" steps above before trying to set the default country.

Activate A Currency

For administrator users to activate a currency, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the Countries and Currency menu item link.
4. Under the Currency section, for the Show Currencies filter click on the All radio button. This will allow all the world's currencies to display.
5. For the currencies that are to be activated click on the Active checkbox in the currency table row.

Each currency that is activated will now be able to be assigned to a user, as well as users being able to choose the currency to view pricing for in a content managed website, if the multi-currency feature has been turned on for the project. After following these steps it is highly recommended to set the exchange rates for each activated currency.

Deactivate A Currency

For administrator users to deactivate a currency, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the Countries and Currency menu item link.
4. Under the Currency section, for the currencies that are to be de-activated click on the Active checkbox in the currency table row to untick the checkbox.

Each currency that is deactivated will now no longer display in the currency drop downs that display on any content managed website webpages where users can choose a currency to view pricing in.

Set The Exchange Rate Of A Currency

For administrator users to set the exchange rate of a currency compared against the project's default currency, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the Countries and Currency menu item link.
4. Under the Currency section, for the Show Currencies filter click on the All radio button. This will allow all the world's currencies to display.
5. For the a given currency table row, click on the Rate row cell.
6. In the table cell editor enter a numeric exchange rate value.
7. Press on the Enter key to save the exchange rate for the currency.

Once the exchange rate has been updated, the next time a user logs in and has the currency assigned to them, the pricing of the products may be converted using the currency's exchange rate, if the multi-currency feature is turned on, the project is configured to show pricing based on the user's set currency.

Set The Default Project Currency

For administrator users to set the default currency of the project follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to the Administration Centre for the relevent TOTECS project.
2. Click on the Stores menu button.
3. Click on the General settings menu item link.
4. Within the General tab, under the Locality section, for the Currency setting click on its drop down and choose a currency to set as the default for the project.
5. Click on the Save button.

The project's default currency will be updated. Any orders submitted by users through the Trade interface, or content managed websites will now be assigned to the chosen currency, as well as order pricing labelled in the default currency. Additionally submitted credit card, and PayPal payments will be paid for in the chosen currency.

• For administrator users to be able to access the Countries And Currency Administration Centre interface, the users must be assigned to a Administrator Permission Role that has the "Countries And Currency" permission set to Allow. If the permission is not set to Allow then the Admistrator users will not be able to click on the Countries And Currency menu item link in the Inventory menu of the Administration Centre.
• To allow users to be able to view and select an activated currency in a User Locale area on a content managed web page, the Multi-Currency feature must be turned on for the project. Otherwise the user will only be able to see the project's default currency.
• To allow orders sent to an international location to still have local tax applied, within the Administration Centre, under the Stores menu, in the Order settings interface, set the "Include Tax On International Orders" setting to "YES".

• A number of content managed web page areas can be set up to display the pricing of products, and pricing of the user's basket in their preferred currency, if the Multi-Currency feature has been turned on. Additionally the product pricing in the user's chosen currency can be displayed with the pricing in the project's default currency for the content managed web page areas. The areas where this can be done are:
  • Product Detail
  • Product Combination
  • Related Products Listing
  • Category Listing
  • Product Search Results Listing
  • Shopping List Products
  • User Details/Favourites/Orders
  • Basket Summary
  • Basket Products Heading
  • Basket Products Listing
  • Basket Products Detail
  • Redeemable Deal Products Listing
  • Product News Listing
    
    Each of the areas contain formats with pricing hooks which will display the pricing in the users chosen currency. Any pricing hooks that contain the word "Project" in its name mean that the hook will display pricing in the project's default currency (that is will no exchange rate calculations factored in).
• Ensure that the project's default country and currency match any external business systems that are importing pricing into the project, or receiving data from the project.
• Ensure that any merchant bank accounts, and credit card payment gateway accounts configured to the TOTECS project are able to support the default country and currency and assigned to the project.
• Turn on the Multi-Currency feature and the Multi-Region feature to allow guest users navigating to a project's content managed website from an international country, to be able to view pricing of products based on their own country's currency. Contact your TOTECS person to be able to have regions, and currency be tailored to web traffic from selected international locations.
• if  the Multi-Currency feature is turned on it is highly recommended that a person updates the exchange rates of activated currencies between once a day and once a week.