Multi-currency feature

Project Title

Creating a currency conversion feature for a Cloud-Native Software Asset Management Platform.

Software Asset Management is utilized to monitor procurement and costs associated with acquiring and maintaining software and hardware across an entire organization.

Objective

To add new functionality closing a feature gap with competition and bring new business.

Context

There was no such feature in the platform.

My role

Leading designer for the project.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Problem statement

Assessing whether the absence of a feature is a significant issue and, if so, designing solutions to meet user needs.

My process and tasks:

➜ Benchmarking

➜ Analysing interview insights

➜ Design & Iterations

➜ Usability Testing

➜ Implementing changes

➜ Overseeing implementation, Design QA

The competitor benchmarking I conducted highlighted a feature gap – several competitors offer a multi-currency feature.

Furthermore, during sales and support interviews with some of existing customers, it became apparent that they were hesitant to transition from an on-premises solution to a SaaS model.

A hypothesis has arisen suggesting that the absence of a currency function could hinder the transition of current clients and the acquisition of new ones.

To discover more information about the issue and needs of customers interviews were performed.

Needs

Big Enterprises, users from the same organisation were located in multiple countries, using different currencies
Software purchases were made in different currencies
Imported licenses were in different currencies
Currency can’t fluctuate on real-time basis.  Finances have established a pattern of conversion rates for a fixed period of time (quarterly mostly) 
Assurance that historical data remains tied to the exact rate used at the time of conversion for audit trails

RESEARCH

Problems

Users could view financial information in one currency only
Users had to convert and calculate costs outside the platform which causes a lot of additional administrative work blocked many users from using the platform
Time-consuming to reconcile regional purchases against global budgets without a built-in multi-currency mechanism. 
Absence of a currency function hindered the transition of current clients and the acquisition of new ones.

Finance / Procurement Administrator 
(sometimes combined with IT Asset Manager)

Works in global enterprises with subsidiaries in multiple countries. Oversees software purchasing, license management, and cost tracking.

Goals:

Maintain accurate financial reporting across multiple currencies
- Ensure compliance with corporate accounting standards
- Provide clear cost visibility to management in a preferred currency

Persona

Accounting & Audit Compliance

The finance department publishes official “corporate exchange rates” each month or quarter. These rates are derived from market data but fixed for the period (e.g., “Q1 rate: 1 USD = 0.92 EUR”).

Budgeting & Forecasting

Stable, fixed rates allow consistent cost planning. Automatic daily changes create unpredictable fluctuations.

Contractual Consistency

Software contracts and internal chargebacks are calculated using a predetermined rate; automatic rates could change obligations mid-period.

Data Control & Security

External FX APIs introduce third-party dependency and potential security/compliance risks.

Why Fixed Rate and not Automatic Conversion-Rate Provider?

The Administration feature for manual addition and upload of a file of Conversion Rates.

Ability to add Conversion rate to selected currencies 
Establishing period of time for rates  - if provided period got overdue, conversions made on the last rates and Admin gets notified
 
Possibility to change preferred currency for each user 
Option to change Base currency for the whole tenant (for Admin) 
Manual and bulk fixed rates upload options - user can provide conversion rates either manually or upload through csv file template

SOLUTION

Design tested during Usability testing session with 3 participants:

high completion success rate, good average time spend on task, overall good satisfaction with design, minor design issues.

After iterating and implementing the design multi-currency became one of the most used features in administration, unlocking migration to higher grossing product with value stream above 10 mln $ ARR and closing a big feature gap with competition.