Get Exchange Rates in Dynamics AX 2009 and 2012

Setup in Dynamics AX 2012

In DAX 2012 is now more than easy to setup the (periodic) import of Exchange Rates: 

Below is the screen with the current exchange rates [General Ledger - Setup - Currency - Currency Exchange Rates], as can be seen, it has been setup for EUR -GBP and EUR - USD and both hold one rate for the first of July. 

Create a new exchange rate provider via [GL - Setup - Currency - Configure exchange rate providers] and select one of the three default providers:

Next, import the new rates via [GL - Periodic - Import currency exchange rates]. Personally, I would uncheck "Create necessary currency pairs". It's providing new relations between currencies you haven't defined in your Exchange Rate Type. It'll only generated unwanted extra data, but hey maybe there's a good use for someone.

The forms gives you the opportunity to run this job in batch so you can update the rates whenever you prefer:

And that's it, the exchange rate is generated:

Setup in Dynamics AX 2009

Now in DAX 2009 it's a bit more difficult, there's no out of the box import available to update the rates. 

There is however a Microsoft white paper which shows how to consume a webservice which you can use to update Exchange rates, you can find the document here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4462. 

The document shows how to create a button to update the exchange rate of a single currency (btw, the document mentions to add a new MenuButton, this should be a Button). The methodology however can easily be reused to run as a batch job with which you can periodically update your exchange rates in AX 2009 as well: