> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://guide.exiqtive.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Operating countries and currencies

> Choose the countries and currencies your account works in, set a default country, and manage exchange rates.

These two settings define which countries and currencies your account works in. They feed [Fair Pay](/fair-reward/fair-pay), where each pay range is set for a country and a currency.

Go to **Account → Settings → Configuration**.

## Operating countries

Your account has a list of operating countries, and exactly one is the **default country**. A new account starts with the United States as its default.

| Action | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Add** | Pick a country from the catalog. A country can be added only once. |
| **Retire** | Stops the country being used for new pay ranges. Existing pay ranges keep working. You can't retire the default country. |
| **Reactivate** | Makes a retired country selectable again. |
| **Set as Default** | Makes an active country the default. To retire the current default, set another country as default first. |
| **Work hours per year** | Select the value in the row to edit it. It sets the working-year hours used to annualize hourly pay for that country. It must be a whole number above 0. |

The default country is always listed first, then the rest A–Z. Retired countries stay in the list, marked **Retired**. The list shows 5 rows per page, and paging appears only when you have more than 5 countries.

After you add a country, exIQtive may offer to add or reactivate that country's main currency as an operating currency. It's only a prompt, and you can decline.

## Operating currencies

Your account has one **reference currency**. Every other operating currency has an exchange rate to it, and that rate is either:

* **Daily**: refreshed automatically each day from the exchange-rate provider.
* **Corporate**: a rate you set yourself. The daily refresh skips it.

You can add a currency, retire or reactivate it, change a rate or its mode, and use **Set as Reference** to change the reference currency. Changing the reference rebuilds the rates against the new one.

The Currency column of the Operating Currencies table doesn't show country flags.

## Common questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Does the default country set my reference currency?">
    No. The two settings are independent.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I delete a country or currency?">
    No. You can retire it.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Fair Pay" icon="scale-balanced" href="/fair-reward/fair-pay">
    Set pay ranges by country and currency.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Account users" icon="users" href="/account/account-users">
    Manage who can sign in to your account.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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