guide
Should you price in USD and LBP? Dual currency for a Lebanese business
For most shops and restaurants in Lebanon, yes — show prices and take payment in both US dollars and Lebanese pounds, at a clear exchange rate you control. The trick is keeping the two in sync everywhere, automatically.
Why dual currency matters
Lebanese customers carry both currencies, and the rate moves. If you only price in one, you either turn away cash or you’re forever doing mental math at the till. Showing both — and recording both on the receipt — keeps pricing honest, speeds up checkout, and avoids arguments over what the rate “was” at the moment of sale.
How to handle the exchange rate
Pick one rate for the shop and change it deliberately, not per transaction. A few practical rules:
- Set one rate centrally so every till and every staff member uses the same number.
- Record both amounts on the receipt — USD and LBP — so the customer and your books agree later.
- Update the rate in one place when the market moves, instead of editing prices product by product.
- Keep your reports in a stable currency (usually USD) so trends mean something across weeks where the rate changed.
Where it usually goes wrong
The pain isn’t the idea of two currencies — it’s keeping them consistent. When the rate lives in someone’s head, or in a spreadsheet separate from the POS, receipts disagree with the books and customer balances drift. The fix is to make dual currency a property of your system, not a manual step.
How ARC does it
ARC has dual USD/LBP currency built in. You set one exchange rate, and it flows through every price, payment, customer balance, receipt and report automatically — including invoices you send on WhatsApp. Change the rate once and the whole platform follows. See the point of sale or read what ARC is.