A budgeting app for multiple currencies on a Mac

If you need a budgeting app for multiple currencies, the first question is how it treats the currency you live in. Most budgeting apps assume US dollars, US date order, and US banks. If you budget in ringgit (MYR), Singapore dollars (SGD), euros, or any other currency, you need an app that treats your currency as the default, and a sensible way to handle a second one. This guide explains how FireBudget, a zero-based budgeting app for Mac, handles currencies, and how to budget sensibly when your money is in more than one.

One budget, one currency, any currency

In FireBudget, each budget has its own currency, chosen from the standard ISO 4217 list of about 180 currencies. That covers MYR, SGD, IDR, THB, PHP, INR, AUD, NZD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and so on.

Each currency is stored with its proper number of decimal places. Ringgit and Singapore dollars use two, yen uses none. Amounts are stored as whole numbers of the smallest unit (sen, cents), so there is no floating-point rounding drift in your balances.

When you create a budget you also pick:

• Number format: 10,000.00, 10.000,00, or 10 000,00.
• Date input format: MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, or YYYY-MM-DD. Most countries outside the US write the day first, and this setting is also what FireBudget uses to read dates in bank CSV files.

You can change these later in Budget Settings. Changing the currency changes the symbol shown. It does not convert existing amounts, so pick the right currency when you start.

Why local banks matter more than the currency symbol

The bigger problem for budgeters outside the US is usually not the symbol but getting transactions in. The bank sync services that most budgeting apps rely on mainly cover North America, the UK, and parts of Europe. If your bank is somewhere else, the app may not be able to connect to it, and you end up typing or importing files anyway.

FireBudget is built around that reality. It has no bank sync anywhere, and every import path works with any bank:

• Bank CSV files. Many banks offer a CSV download in online banking. FireBudget reads decimal commas and day-first dates. See importing a bank CSV.
• PDF statements. Many banks only provide monthly statements as PDFs. An AI agent such as Claude Code or Codex can read the PDF and import the rows, with a preview before anything is saved. See importing a PDF statement with Claude Code.
• Manual entry with recurring transactions for predictable bills.

Budgeting with more than one currency

FireBudget does not convert between currencies. That is common among zero-based apps: YNAB, for example, also uses one currency per plan and recommends a separate plan for each currency. Here are approaches that work.

Foreign card spending in your home currency

If you live in Malaysia and spend in US dollars on a ringgit credit card, the card charges you in ringgit. Record the ringgit amount, which is what leaves your account. If you want to remember the original amount, put it in the memo, for example USD 20.00 @ 4.45.

Money held in two currencies

If you hold real balances in two currencies, such as a ringgit salary account and a Singapore dollar savings account, keep two budgets, one per currency. FireBudget supports as many budgets as you like, each with its own currency, and you switch between them from Manage Budgets.

When you move money between them, record it in both budgets, each in its own currency at the rate you actually got: an outflow in the sending budget, in a category you set aside for it (such as “Money sent abroad”), and an inflow in the receiving budget, categorized as Available to Budget so you can assign it there.

Foreign assets you only want to track

If a foreign-currency account is savings or investments rather than spending money, you can add it to your main budget as a tracking account and update its value in your home currency from time to time. It then counts toward your net worth without affecting what you have available to budget.

Several budgets for other reasons

Separate budgets are also useful for things other than currency: personal and household money, a small side business, or a practice budget to try things out. Each budget has its own accounts, categories, and settings. FireBudget can also create a sample budget if you want to explore before entering real data.

What FireBudget does not do

FireBudget runs only on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or later). It does not convert between currencies, has no bank sync in any country, no iPhone or Android app, and no sync between devices. Prices on firebudget.org are in US dollars.