Why do my Kuwaiti dinar expenses show three decimals, and why did 1.2345 become 1.235?
Because the Kuwaiti dinar divides into 1,000 fils, so the smallest amount anyone can actually pay has three decimals. The tool stores every amount in its currency's smallest unit, so a fourth decimal is rounded: 1.2345 becomes 1.235. The same rule covers the Bahraini dinar, the Jordanian dinar and the Omani rial, while SAR and AED use two decimals.
What the tool actually did
We entered a few amounts in the Expense summary generator tool and read how each was stored:
- 1.2345 in KWD: stored as 1.235, that is 1235 fils.
- 1.2345 in OMR: the same, 1.235, since the Omani rial also has three decimals.
- 120.50 in SAR: stored as 120.50, that is 12050 halalas.
- 120.505 in SAR: stored as 120.51, because SAR has two decimals and a half rounds away from zero.
- -1.2345 in KWD: stored as -1.235; negative amounts follow the same rule.
Why round each entry before adding?
Because every expense you paid was a real, payable amount, and nobody pays a quarter of a fils. We tried two entries of 1.2345 KWD each under the category 'Rent'. The tool rounded each to 1.235, then added, and the total showed 2.470 KWD. Adding the raw figures first would give 2.469, a fils away from the sum of the lines you see in the table.
That is the whole idea: every total, per currency, per month and per category, is built from the same rounded entries as whole numbers of fils or halalas. So there is never a fractional gap between a total and the lines under it, however many entries you have.
Which currencies get three decimals?
- Three decimals: KWD, BHD, OMR and JOD.
- Two decimals: every other three-letter code, such as SAR, AED, QAR, USD and EGP.
- An unknown but well-formed code, meaning three Latin letters: accepted and counted with two decimals.
Must I type dinar amounts with three decimals?
No. 12, 12.5 and 12.500 are all read correctly. Just avoid more than three decimals unless you are happy for them to be rounded. If your file comes from a system that works out tax or commission to four or more places, the total here may differ from that system by a fils or two, because the tool treats each entry as an amount paid, not an intermediate calculation.
If you want one total for dinar and riyal expenses together, pick a reporting currency and type a rate for the dinar. The conversion also rounds to the reporting currency's decimals, so in SAR it comes out with two.
Common questions
Can I force the dinar to two decimals?
No, the number of decimals comes from the currency code and cannot be changed in settings.
How does the total appear in the PDF?
With the currency's own decimals, three for the dinar and two for the riyal, in the PDF and in the CSV.