Multicurrency Exposure For SMBs: Know The Risks And Manage Them With Microsoft Dynamics GP

Don't worry! soothes the People's Bank of China. Its devaluation of the yuan in early August by 1.9 percent was a one-time adjustment, bringing the yuan more in line with supply and demand. Won't happen again.

Nonsense, says BloombergBusiness. China's move raises the risk of a "currency war" in which export rivals seek weaker exchange rates to stay competitive. And don't believe this is a one-time fix, warns Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University and former non-executive chairman for Morgan Stanley in Asia; it will take more than 1.9 percent to jump-start China's drooping exports. If that's the case, writes Roach, we may expect an "increasingly destabilizing skirmish" in the global currency war, with a "race to the bottom" by other Asian economies and by extension, western economies.

So what is a company operating in a multicurrency environment to do?

Multinationals and Fortune 1000 companies know the ins-and-outs, but small and medium enterprises that buy, sell or operate overseas need to be just as adept-maybe more so. A $250,000 fluctuation is loose change for Hewlett Packard, a potential disaster for an SME.

Microsoft Dynamics GP users are armed with its Multicurrency Management module - "The strongest package I've found in terms of the middle market for foreign currency," says Peggy Evleth. She is a Senior Associate with McGladrey and an experienced implementer of Dynamics GP ...