Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

3. 
Other principles relating to the recording of 
transactions 
3.19.  The appropriate time to record transactions in 
services is when they are rendered (that is, when they are 
delivered or received). This may differ from the time 
                                                 
40
  Related enterprises are those where there exists a direct 
investment relationship, as described in BPM5 and BD3. 
BPM5 defines the direct investment relationship as 
ownership, by a direct investor resident in one economy, of 10 
per cent or more of the ordinary shares or voting power (for 
an incorporated enterprise) or the equivalent (for an 
unincorporated enterprise) of an enterprise resident of another 
economy. Further, direct investment enterprises comprise 
those entities that are either directly or indirectly owned by 
the direct investor. For further information, see box 7. 
41
  For further discussion on transfer pricing, see BPM5, paras. 
97–103. 

---

 
29 
when payment is made or received, which may be either 
before or after (or at the same time as) the transaction 
takes place. Thus, transactions should be recorded, 
whenever possible, on an accrual rather than a cash-
accounting basis. Services received are expenses and are 
recorded as debit entries, while services provided are 
revenues and are recorded as credit entries. Transactions 
in services should be recorded on a gross basis––that is, 
debit (imports) and credit (exports) transactions should 
be separately compiled, rather than recorded as the net 
of credits minus debits.  
3.20.  Transactions in services between residents of an 
economy and international organizations are included 
within the scope of resident/non-resident transactions. 
3.21.  Transactions may take place in a range of 
currencies, including the domestic currency of either the 
provider or the consumer of the services. To produce 
meaningful statistics, however, it is necessary for the 
compiler to convert all transaction values to a common 
unit of account. Most often, the common unit will be the 
national currency; this will facilitate the use of such 
statistics in conjunction with other economic statistics 
relating to the domestic economy. However, if this 
currency is subject to significant depreciation relative to 
other currencies involved in the international 
transactions of the economy, growth in money terms in 
transactions over time may result from this depreciation. 
A similar effect may be observed if a country is 
experiencing hyperinflation. In such cases it may be 
more analytically useful to express all transactions in 
another, more stable currency. 
3.22.  The most appropriate exchange rate to be used in 
converting transaction values from the currency of 
transaction to the currency of compilation is the market 
rate prevailing at the time that the transaction takes 
place. The mid-point between buying and selling rates 
should be used so that any service charge (the spread 
between the mid-point and those rates) is excluded. 
However, because the actual mid-point rate at the time at 
which the transaction occurs may not be available to the 
compiler, an accepted practice is to take the average 
mid-point rate for the period for which the data are being 
compiled. 
3.23.  BPM5 should be consulted for recommendations 
on conversion where there are multiple official exchange 
rates, or black or parallel market rates.
42
 
                                                 
42
  See BPM5, paras. 132–138.