Setting up your exchange in Nexto — the first four steps

From here on we set up an exchange from scratch, starting with a completely empty installation — no customers, no trades. Your first day has five steps, and this part takes the first four: settings, currencies, the rate board and users. The fifth, opening balances, gets a part of its own.

What you will learn

• Which system settings you fix on day one, and which one locks forever
• Why the reference currency is the single most important decision of the setup
• How to choose your currency list, decimals and rate mode
• How to fill the rate board by hand and how to let it update itself
• How to stop a mistyped rate before it becomes a voucher
• How to create users with the minimum permissions they need

Step by step

Step one — settings

From the management menu, open settings. The first section is the system language. This is the language your voucher descriptions and account names are stored in, and it's also the default display language for every user.

Then comes the single most important decision of the whole setup: the reference currency — what part two called the measuring stick of every report. Read the small print just below it: it can only be changed before the first voucher is recorded. Right now, with no vouchers at all, you're free to pick; after the first trade it locks. Take your time over this one.

Your exchange's own details

Further down are the exchange's own details: local name, English name, phone and address. These aren't decoration — they sit on the header of printed receipts, on PDF exports and on WhatsApp messages. Type the exchange name, then the phone and address, and upload the logo, which is the image that shows up in the menu, on the login page and on printed receipts.

In the same page there is the vouchers and editing section, where you set how many hours the edit window stays open. The default is twenty-four hours; if you run a busy shop you can make it shorter.

Step two — currencies

Open the currency management page. At the top are your selected currencies, and only these appear in the trade and transfer forms. So if you never deal in euros, take it off this list and keep your forms uncluttered.

For each currency two settings matter. First the number of decimals: the US dollar takes two, but for a currency nobody writes fractions of, you'd set zero. Second the rate mode, multiply or divide: for currencies stronger than your reference, multiply; for weaker ones, divide. Nexto proposes the right one itself, and you only change it when you need to.

Need a new currency? At the bottom of the same page there's a section for adding from the world currency list — type a name or a code and search. Over two hundred national currencies are there, plus crypto, gold and remittance units, and one click adds one to your selection.

Step three — the rate board

This page is your shop window sign. For each currency you enter two numbers, the buy rate and the sell rate — the same two numbers you'd chalk up on the board outside. The gap between them is your spread, which is your margin.

Typing rates in by hand every day gets tiring, and that's what the rate settings page is for. Per currency you say that the rate should be read from the API, what coefficient to apply on top, what percentage the spread should be, and how many digits to round to. You set it once, and the board keeps itself current every five minutes.

A guard rail against typing errors

On the same page you can say that if a trade's rate strays more than a given percentage from the board, the system should warn you — or refuse the entry altogether. Which means if your clerk types one zero too many, the system stops them before it becomes a voucher.

Step four — users

Create a separate user for every colleague, and never hand your own password to anyone. A new user takes a name, username, password, and role — manager, trader, cashier or accountant. Beneath that are the fine-grained permission checkboxes, where you decide exactly what this person can see and what they can record.

The golden rule is to grant the minimum needed. A trader has no business seeing settings, and a cashier has no business creating users. The in-app page help (the ? icon at the top of the page) has more detail on what each permission covers.

Tips

• The reference currency can only be changed before the first voucher is recorded — decide it before you enter anything.
• Trim your currency list to what you actually trade; short lists mean faster, safer forms.
• Set the rate deviation guard so a mistyped rate is caught at entry rather than found in a report later.
• Give every colleague their own user and the minimum permissions their job needs.

FAQ

What happens if I pick the wrong reference currency?

It locks as soon as the first voucher is recorded, so there is no quick fix afterwards. This is why the setup order matters: settle the reference currency while the installation is still empty, before any trade or opening entry exists.

Do I have to type the board rates every morning?

No. In the rate settings page you point each currency at the API, add your coefficient and spread percentage and choose the rounding, and the board updates itself every five minutes. You can still enter rates by hand whenever you want to.

Can I shorten the twenty-four hour edit window?

Yes, in the vouchers and editing section of the settings you set how many hours it stays open. A busy shop often makes it shorter. How that window is used to correct a voucher is covered in part three.

What comes after these four steps?

Opening balances — carrying your old books into Nexto and then locking the system so normal work can begin. That is the most important step of the setup and it has its own part, part five.