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simple math in number

I'm trying to take my gallons sold and the price per gallon get that answer then multiple that time my tax rate for the county. The sum would be the cell before the tax and the cell after the tax. Sometimes it is off by 1 penny. it will not take the multipled answer as a decimal of only 2 places. it picks up the number as if it had 3 or more decimal places.

I tried to change from currency to numbers and back. I know this is sounds stupid but I love my Mac an it should be able to add 2 numbers with 2 decimal places. WHAT am I doing wrong?????

Gallons 250.5

Cost p/g 2.49

Total 623.75 Formula B2*B3

Tax 0.08

Tax total 49.90 Formula B4*B5

Total w/tax 673.64 Formula B4+B6

THANKS

BRU

Form

Posted on Jan 31, 2023 5:59 PM

Top-ranking reply

Barry

Level 9

59,951 points

Posted on Jan 31, 2023 9:16 PM

Hi Billy,

Setting the number of decimal places for a cell containing Numbers or Currency to 2 makes the cell display the number it contains with two digits after the decimal.

It does not change the number stored in that cell.

The displayed values are rounded to the nearest hundredth of the currency unit, but the actual number is not. The actual number is what is used in the calculation to create the actual sum, difference, product or other result of the calculation. That result is rounded as well to the nearest hundredth and that rounded result is what is displayed.

If you want the Sum to always match the sum of the displayed values, you'll need to use the ROUND function to round the actual value in each cell to the number of decimal places before handing it over to the SUM function.

Regards,

Barry

PS: In Canada, where the penny ( $0.01 ) was discontinued and later withdrawn from circulation some years ago, retail cash registers still record individual item prices to the penny, and sum those prices to the penny as well.

A customer paying by credit card or debit card pays the amount as totaled.

A customer paying with cash pays the total amount rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of five cents—the smallest coin currently available as legal tender.

Regards,

Barry

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simple math in number

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