Dual-currency LBP / USD accounting for Lebanese pharmacies
How dual-currency accounting works in Lebanon since 2019, what the till and the ledger have to record, and how exchange-rate variance should post under the Lebanese Plan Comptable.
Definition
Dual-currency LBP / USD accounting records every Lebanese pharmacy transaction in both Lebanese Pounds and US Dollars on the same journal line, using the exchange rate captured at the point of sale. It is required in Lebanon because both currencies circulate at floating parallel-market rates that fluctuate daily, and statutory reporting still demands LBP-denominated financial statements.
Why Lebanon went dual-currency
Before the 2019 financial crisis, the LBP was pegged at 1,507.5 LBP to the USD and most retail trade priced exclusively in LBP. After the de-facto unpeg, the Lebanese market split — a parallel-market USD/LBP rate emerged, settled daily by exchange dealers, and retail prices started being quoted in both currencies. Pharmacies were among the first sectors to dual-quote because drug import prices stayed dollarised even as patient affordability collapsed in LBP terms.
What dual-currency means at the till
Practically, every line of every sale has to display in both LBP and USD, computed from the exchange rate at the moment the sale is rung. Cashiers also need to accept any mix of LBP cash, USD cash, customer credit, and bank cards on a single sale, with change calculated in the customer's chosen currency. The exchange rate that applied has to be stored on the sale — not on the day, not on the shift — so months later the original numbers can be reproduced exactly.
- Both currencies on every line item, payment, and printed receipt
- Sale-time exchange rate snapshot stored on the transaction
- Mixed-currency payments accepted in a single sale (LBP + USD + card + credit)
- Change calculated in the customer's chosen currency
What dual-currency means in the ledger
On the books, every transaction posts to the Lebanese Plan Comptable with both LBP and USD amounts on the same journal line. The functional currency stays LBP for statutory filings (VAT, NSSF, income tax), but USD totals are carried alongside so management reporting, supplier reconciliation, and dollar-denominated bank accounts all tie out. The exchange-rate variance that accumulates between the sale-time rate and the rate when cash is banked, paid out, or reconciled posts to Plan Comptable accounts 6388 (loss) and 7388 (gain).
Handling rate changes during a shift
The standard approach is to fix the exchange rate when the shift opens and keep it for every sale in the shift. If the parallel-market rate moves enough during the day that the owner wants to update the till mid-shift, the rate rotation creates a small variance — the cash drawer no longer matches the journal at the original rate — that posts to the 6388 / 7388 accounts when the shift closes. Both rates (opening and rotated) are stored against the relevant sales.
Where this gets done wrong
The most common workaround on legacy pharmacy systems is to ring sales in LBP only and use a separate calculator (or, worse, mental math) for the USD equivalent on the receipt. This breaks down within a quarter — the calculator-derived USD never reconciles with the ledger, and reports that should sum cleanly drift by tens or hundreds of dollars. The right fix is software that stores both amounts and the rate on every transaction from day one.
Frequently asked
- Which exchange rate should a pharmacy use?
- The parallel-market rate, set daily by exchange dealers and confirmed by the pharmacy owner each morning. Most pharmacies update the rate when the shift opens. Some pharmacies on PharmEasy auto-fetch a reference rate at shift open and let the owner adjust before accepting; the rate that applies to a sale is whatever was active when the sale was rung, and that exact rate is stored on the transaction.
- Do tax filings stay in LBP?
- Yes. VAT returns, NSSF declarations, and year-end income tax filings are all submitted in LBP, using the LBP totals of each transaction at the sale-time rate. The USD totals are for management reporting, supplier reconciliation, and bank account tie-out — they are not filed with the Ministry of Finance.
- How do dual-currency supplier payments work?
- A purchase order issued in USD posts to Accounts Payable in USD at the PO-date rate. When the pharmacy pays the supplier (typically in USD), the payment closes the AP balance. Any rate variance between PO date and payment date posts to 6388 / 7388. If the pharmacy pays in LBP at a different rate than the PO-date rate, the same variance accounts absorb the difference.
Keep reading
Lebanese Plan Comptable for pharmacies — chart of accounts explained
What the Lebanese Plan Comptable is, why pharmacies need it, the accounts that matter most for a retail pharmacy, and how dual-currency LBP/USD posts onto it.
Read articleNSSF reimbursement for Lebanese pharmacies — the full workflow
How NSSF reimbursement actually works for a Lebanese retail pharmacy. What gets covered, what the pharmacy collects from the patient, and how the claim flows from dispense to payment.
Read articleOffline pharmacy POS — how to keep selling during a Lebanese outage
Why offline-first matters more in Lebanon than anywhere else, what software design has to do, and how a pharmacy POS keeps ringing sales when the power or internet drops.
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