Forum Discussion
Excel formula result doesn't match calculator result
The exact result of 340.70 * 1.13 is 384.991. Rounded to cents (2 decimal places), that is 384.99
The Windows calculator produces the same result:
Base: $340.70
Tax: $44.30 (13%)
Total: $385.00
My desktop physical calculator duplicates this exactly.
I just tried the windows calculator and I get the same result you did, $384.991.
I also tried my iphone calculator and it gets $384.991.
Seems there is no excel issue then. It's just odd that the vendor and my physical calculator want $0.01 more. It must automatically round up if there is a thousandths of a penny. I've struggled with formatting for way too long for this result.. thanks for replying. Appreciated.
- SergeiBaklanApr 26, 2022Diamond Contributor
I could understand if physical calculator shows 384.991 as 385.00. But why 44.291 is shown as 44.30 ? Perhaps special edition for the accountants, who made it?
By the way, you may enter in search bar in your browser (google.com, bing.com, etc) 340.7*1.13, it shows
One more option What is 13 percent of 340? Calculate 13% of 340. How much? (dollartimes.com)
In general tons of them.
- sircamsonApr 27, 2022Copper ContributorHi Sergei,
Yes I have a Victor 1310 desktop calculator that is primarily for accounting purposes. It does have a physical switch that allows me to change it, and add the thousandths decimal place. When I tried this yesterday, I got 384.991. When I switched it back to 2 decimal places again, it resumed displaying 385.00 as a result.
I'm thinking maybe it is an accounting standard to always round up from the thousandths but honestly I've never heard of it. In any case, my spreadsheet will go forward with an asterisk now.- JoeUser2004Apr 27, 2022Bronze Contributor
sircamson wrote: ``I have a Victor 1310 desktop calculator [....] maybe it is an accounting standard to always round up from the thousandths``
There is no such accounting standard that I am aware of it. Of course, any such standard would depend on the country and the "application" (purpose). So, I doubt that any general purpose calculator would "enforce" such a standard automatically.
I am not familiar with the calculator. But according to a user manual that I found with a google search, the physical "5/4 rounding" slider switch can be set to any of 3 positions: always round down; always round up; or round up if the 1st digit not to be printed is 5 or more, otherwise round down.
Another switch controls the number of decimal places, to wit: A (auto; decimal point added to the left of last 2 digits entered); 0 to 4; or F (floating; display up to 10 or 12 digits, based on another switch). When "F" is set, any more digits to the right are dropped without rounding.
In any case, I agree with your conclusion: based on your choice of switch positions, the calculator is automatically rounding up to 2 decimal places (or less). And we would need to use ROUNDUP to cause the same behavior in Excel.