Cleaning Up Cross-Border Confusion for International Trading & Supply Co.

Our client was an established Canadian trading company offering stainless steel and aluminum supply solutions for distributors and service centres around the world. As a result of the company’s international success, the majority of their purchases and sales were being transacted in US dollars. However, their accounting records and financial reporting were being reported in Canadian dollars. This resulted in significant and unusual financial results. While monetary assets (primarily accounts receivable and accounts payable) were being converted at period end exchange rates, non-monetary assets (primarily inventory) was being converted at historical exchange rates.

Our team of experts at Willams & Partner assisted the company in applying to the Canada Revenue Agency to have the company’s reporting currency changed to US dollars. Upon approval from the CRA for this change, Williams & Partners worked closely with the company to make this transition.

The conversion to US dollar reporting resulted in financial data that was meaningful to management and users of the financial statements for better decision making and performance management.