A mining-adjacent supplier runs much of its business in US dollars, not just as a pricing reference but as the actual currency of debtors, creditors and a dedicated bank account. Here's how Chilufya Mining Supplies & Services handles it.
Businesses that supply the mines often end up trading substantially in US dollars themselves, since that's the currency the industry around them runs on. Chilufya Mining Supplies & Services Ltd — a supplier and contract driller, not a mine itself, and one of our eighteen fictional reference companies — is built around exactly that reality.
Where the complexity actually is
Chilufya doesn't just have one USD balance to manage — it has three working side by side: a USD-denominated debtors control, a USD-denominated creditors control, and a dedicated USD bank account alongside its ordinary Kwacha ones. A rig finance facility and site bonds sit on the books too, and two separate bank statements — one Kwacha, one dollar — both need reconciling against what's outstanding.
Fully onboarded, and transacting
Chilufya went through the same review and sign-off workflow described in our opening balances post, and has carried on since: a real quotation, order, invoice and payment on the selling side, a real purchase order, supplier bill and payment on the buying side, and — with three separate USD balances on the books — a month-end exchange rate revaluation across all of them, catching what the Kwacha's movement against the dollar did to each one.
Get in touch if multi-currency accounting like this is closer to your own business than a standard trading company.
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