What is Hubdoc's Multi-Currency Processing?
Hubdoc, acquired by Xero in 2018, is a document management and data capture tool designed to help businesses extract financial data from receipts, invoices, and bank statements. On paper, Hubdoc includes "multi-currency support" as a listed feature, suggesting it can handle bank statements from different countries and currencies.
However, for businesses operating internationally - whether you're managing clients across multiple countries, processing foreign vendor payments, or reconciling multi-currency revenue streams - Hubdoc's multi-currency capabilities reveal significant limitations that can create serious reconciliation headaches.
"One of the top complaints regarding Hubdoc comes from accountants who manage clients who deal in multiple currencies, and although the product has built-in multi-currency functionality, it can improperly handle some currencies, especially when used in conjunction with QuickBooks."
Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com, 2026
For accounting professionals managing international clients, this isn't just an inconvenience - it's a workflow blocker that requires manual intervention for every foreign currency transaction.
How Hubdoc Handles Foreign Currency Statements
When you upload a bank statement with foreign currency transactions to Hubdoc, the system attempts to extract the data and push it to your connected accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks Online, or others). Here's what actually happens:
Currency Detection
Hubdoc may detect the currency code (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.) from the statement, but this recognition is inconsistent across different bank formats.
No Conversion
Critical limitation: Hubdoc does not convert foreign currency amounts to your base currency. A USD10 transaction posts as GBP10 if your Xero file uses GBP.
Manual Adjustments
You must manually calculate and adjust each foreign currency transaction based on the exchange rate, adding significant time to reconciliation.
Xero Integration Issues
Foreign currency added via Hubdoc errors cannot be removed from Xero, potentially corrupting your chart of accounts and currency settings.
The result? What should be an automated workflow becomes a manual reconciliation process where you're double-checking every foreign currency transaction, looking up historical exchange rates, and making corrections in your accounting software.
Key Limitations of Hubdoc's Multi-Currency Processing
Same Value, Wrong Currency
Hubdoc's most critical flaw: it shows the same numerical value regardless of currency. If you upload a receipt for USD$10, it posts to Xero as GBP£10 (or whatever your base currency is). This isn't just inaccurate - it can inflate or deflate transaction values by 20-50% depending on exchange rates.
For a business processing 100 foreign transactions per month, this means manually correcting 100 amounts every single month.
No Automatic Currency Conversion
Users have explicitly requested that Hubdoc add a feature to convert bills in foreign currencies into the base currency based on the forex rate of the invoice date. This feature doesn't exist. You're left manually looking up exchange rates and calculating conversions for every foreign transaction.
QuickBooks Multi-Currency Problems
While Hubdoc's Xero integration has currency issues, users report even worse problems with QuickBooks. Multi-currency functionality "can improperly handle some currencies, especially when used in conjunction with QuickBooks," according to analyst reviews.
For accounting firms managing both Xero and QuickBooks clients, this creates inconsistent workflows where the tool works differently (and poorly) depending on which software the client uses.
Permanent Currency Contamination
Here's a nightmare scenario: if Hubdoc uploads an invoice with the wrong currency code (USD instead of AUD, for example), that foreign currency gets permanently added to your Xero file. Xero doesn't allow you to easily remove currencies once added, which can affect reporting and complicate your chart of accounts going forward.
User Experience Reality
Perhaps most telling are direct user reports. One Capterra reviewer stated bluntly: "It does not understand currency, so my travel expenses were a pain." Another user noted that "multi-currency functionality needs development," particularly for clients with bills in U.S. dollars where "the exchange effects can be messy when moving to QuickBooks."
These aren't edge cases - these are fundamental workflow problems for any business operating internationally.
Impact on Multi-Currency Reconciliation Workflow
For accounting professionals, Hubdoc's multi-currency limitations transform what should be an automated workflow into a time-consuming manual process:
The Reality of Multi-Currency Reconciliation with Hubdoc
Upload bank statements to Hubdoc
Mix of domestic and foreign currency statements from international clients
Data extraction completes
Hubdoc extracts transaction data but doesn't convert foreign currencies
Identify incorrect amounts in Xero/QuickBooks
Review every transaction to find which ones have wrong currency values (USD10 = GBP10)
Look up historical exchange rates
For each foreign transaction, find the exchange rate on the transaction date
Manually calculate converted amounts
USD10 × 0.79 exchange rate = £7.90 actual value
Edit each transaction in accounting software
Manually update amounts one by one to reflect proper currency conversion
Track foreign exchange gains/losses
Separately calculate FX impact for financial reporting
Finally complete reconciliation
After hours of manual corrections, you can reconcile the accounts
Time cost: For a bookkeeping firm processing 50 multi-currency statements per month with an average of 20 foreign transactions each, that's 1,000 manual corrections monthly - adding 20-30 hours of unbillable reconciliation work.
This workflow completely negates the value proposition of automated document processing. You're not saving time - you're just moving manual data entry from the extraction phase to the reconciliation phase.
For businesses managing clients across multiple countries, or companies with international suppliers and customers, Hubdoc's multi-currency limitations make it unsuitable for core bank reconciliation workflows.
Hubdoc vs Zera Books: Multi-Currency Feature Comparison
| Feature | Hubdoc | Zera Books |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic currency detection | Inconsistent | Yes |
| Automatic currency conversion | No | Yes |
| Exchange rate tracking | Manual lookup | Automatic |
| Multi-currency reconciliation | Manual process | Automated |
| Foreign transaction fee extraction | Not supported | Yes |
| Multi-country bank support | Limited formats | All worldwide |
| Manual adjustments required | Every transaction | None needed |
| Integration accuracy (Xero/QuickBooks) | Errors common | 99.6% accurate |
Key takeaway: Hubdoc's multi-currency support exists in name only. The lack of automatic currency conversion means you're doing the same manual work you'd do without any automation tool - just at a different stage of the workflow. For international businesses, this defeats the entire purpose of automated bank statement processing.
Why International Businesses Need Better Multi-Currency Processing
The global economy doesn't operate in a single currency. If your business or clients operate internationally, proper multi-currency bank statement processing isn't a luxury - it's a fundamental requirement:
E-commerce & Online Businesses
Shopify, Amazon, and international payment processors create bank statements with multiple currencies daily. Manual conversion of hundreds of small transactions is impractical.
International Accounting Firms
Managing clients across multiple countries means processing statements in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, and more - often for the same client with operations in multiple regions.
Import/Export Businesses
Foreign supplier payments and international customer receipts create complex reconciliation scenarios where exchange rate accuracy directly impacts profit margins.
Multi-Entity Organizations
Businesses with subsidiaries in different countries need consolidated financial reporting that accurately reflects currency conversions and FX gains/losses.
For these use cases, Hubdoc's approach to multi-currency processing creates more work than it saves. You need a solution that understands that USD10 and GBP10 are fundamentally different amounts, and handles conversion automatically based on historical exchange rates.
How Zera Books Handles Multi-Currency Bank Statements
Zera Books was built from the ground up to handle the complexity of international accounting workflows. Here's what proper multi-currency processing looks like:
Automatic Currency Detection
Zera AI recognizes currency codes from any bank format worldwide - USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY, CNY, and 150+ other currencies
Historical Exchange Rate Conversion
Each transaction is converted using the actual exchange rate from the transaction date, not month-end estimates
Foreign Transaction Fee Extraction
Automatically identifies and separates foreign transaction fees charged by banks for currency conversion
Base Currency Normalization
All transactions export in your base currency with proper conversion, ready for immediate reconciliation
FX Gain/Loss Tracking
Transparent exchange rate tracking for each transaction enables accurate financial reporting and tax compliance
Direct QuickBooks/Xero Integration
Converted amounts export correctly to your accounting software without manual adjustments or currency contamination
The result: Upload multi-currency statements, get properly converted transactions ready for reconciliation. No manual exchange rate lookups, no amount corrections, no workflow disruption.
Beyond multi-currency handling, Zera Books includes multi-account auto-detection (automatically separating checking, savings, and credit cards from a single PDF), AI categorization for QuickBooks and Xero, and batch processing for unlimited statements - all for $79/month with no per-page fees.
For comprehensive guidance on handling complex currency scenarios, see our guide on multi-currency bank statement reconciliation.
