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Full precision vs As displayed

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Hello, i am curious if there is an article or community post that you can point me to that explains the differences between Full Precision and As Displayed (the impact on the data, recommended uses for each, downfalls for each).  We have had rounding issues in the past for our proxy filing, where numbers were slightly off due to rounding.  I believe we fixed it by changing all $ numbers and formulas to be in Full Precision and left any numbers that were percentages as As Displayed.  But we are tackling this a little blindly, and it would be helpful to understand the impact for both settings and recommended uses.  

Thanks!

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  • Official comment
    Isabel Messore

    Hi Melodie Morin,

    Happy to provide some information here.  

     
    Full Precision: Uses the true underlying value of a number, including all decimal places. Calculations use the exact, unrounded value.
    • Example: Cell shows 5.56 but contains 5.555 — Full Precision uses 5.555
    • Best Practice: Source data / formulas / decimals → use Full Precision
    • Downfalls: When exporting to Excel, formulas will always display with full precision — Excel does not support Workiva's ability to show visually rounded results. Additionally, switching to Full Precision on values that were previously As Displayed can cause unexpected changes (e.g., 6000 becoming 5999)
    As Displayed: Uses the visually rounded/formatted value in the cell for calculations. What you see is what gets used.
    • Example: Same cell showing 5.56 — As Displayed uses 5.56
    • Best Practice: Presentation tables (the values shown in the final document) → As Displayed is generally acceptable and sometimes expected
    • Downfalls: Can cause rounding discrepancies when summing or performing calculations on displayed values. Additionally, Document Health may flag cells as "Result set up as displayed" (this is a warning but not necessarily a risk). Lastly, destination links cannot be changed from As Displayed to Full Precision — this setting is controlled at the source. 
    Your approach of using Full Precision for $ numbers and formulas, and As Displayed for percentages, is aligned with best practice. Presentation-layer rounding (like percentages showing 2 decimal places) is often intentional and not a risk.
     
    For more information on spreadsheet-level precision settings, see: Manage Spreadsheets — Precision Settings
  • Melodie Morin

    This is so helpful.  Thank you!

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