ROUND

Round a number to a set number of decimal places.

Purpose

Round a figure to a set number of decimal places

Returns

The number rounded to the places you asked for

Syntax

=ROUND(number, [digits])

Argument	Required	What goes here
`number`	Required	The number to round, or the formula giving it.
`digits`	Optional	2 for cents, 0 for whole units. Left out, it rounds to a whole number.

How to use ROUND

ROUND takes a number and how many decimal places to keep. Halves go away from zero, so 2.5 rounds to 3.

Narrowing a column does not do this. Formatting changes what is shown and leaves the stored figure alone, which is why a column of neatly displayed pennies can add up to something that ends in a fraction.

A figure that has to tie to something else has to be rounded, not just formatted. Anything derived by division or by a percentage is the usual candidate.

Nought places rounds to whole numbers. A negative number of places rounds to tens, hundreds and thousands, which is what a summary in thousands wants.

Examples

Every result below is worked out by the same evaluator that marks your answers, on the sheet shown here.

Payables ageing — October.xlsxSheet1

Harbour Foods payables at 31 October 2026, with supplier terms alongside
	A	B	C	D	E	G	H
1	Invoice	Supplier	Status	Days overdue	Amount	Supplier	Terms (days)
2	INV-8801	Brightwell Paper	Overdue	12	940	Ashgrove Catering	30
3	INV-8802	Calder Utilities	Queried	47	1180	Brightwell Paper	30
4	INV-8803	Meridian Freight	Overdue	63	2450	Calder Utilities	14
5	INV-8804	Ashgrove Catering	On terms	0	405	Meridian Freight	45
6	INV-8805	Brightwell Paper	Overdue	38	760	Thornbury Print	60
7	INV-8806	Thornbury Print	Overdue	91	1320
8	INV-8807	Meridian Freight	On terms	0	580
9	INV-8808	Calder Utilities	Overdue	24	215

Formula	Result
`=ROUND(E2*0.175,2)`Tax on an invoice, rounded to the penny rather than shown to the penny.	164.5
`=ROUND(AVERAGE(E2:E9),2)`An average is the classic source of trailing decimals.	981.25
`=ROUND(E4/3,2)`An amount split three ways. Note the three parts will not add back to the original, which is a real problem and not a rounding error to ignore.	816.67
`=ROUND(SUM(E2:E9),-3)`A negative places argument rounds to thousands, for a summary that reports in them.	8000

Notes

Excel rounds halves away from zero. That is not the banker's rounding some accounting systems use, so a figure can differ by a penny from the ledger it came out of.
Round once, at the end. Rounding at every step compounds the difference.

Practise ROUND in Unit 18

A reference tells you what it does. A unit makes you use it.

Syntax

How to use ROUND

Examples

Notes

Related