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Poll: Do you round up or down on your invoices to avoid amounts with decimals?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Aug 6, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you round up or down on your invoices to avoid amounts with decimals?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 01:22
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Other Aug 6, 2019

I believe in full transparency with my customers: I usually invoice the exact number of source words (except for scanned PDFs that cannot be converted into an editable text file) x the agreed rate, but I must say that I occasionally quote a per-project price, which is normally a rounded price…

Liena Vijupe
Olavo Nogueira
Michael Harris
Philip Lees
Muriel Vasconcellos
neilmac
Alaa Mahm
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 02:22
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
No or other Aug 6, 2019

With most agencies I have an agreement about a word rate and a range of variations for Trados repeats. There are always decimals, and we add them up as they come. I send monthly invoices, and I work out the VAT from the total at the end.

With direct clients and when I charge an hourly rate, I often round up or down to the nearest ten or 25 Danish Kroner as a rule.
Then they can check at a glance that the 25% VAT is correct (and so can I!).


Adam Warren
 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:22
Japanese to English
+ ...
Avoid decimals Aug 6, 2019

I always invoice the exact amount with no rounding of decimals. That way the agencies know they are being charged the exact amount whereas the rounding might create misunderstanding.

Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Muriel Vasconcellos
 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:22
Japanese to English
+ ...
Avoid decimals Aug 6, 2019

I always invoice the exact amount with no rounding of decimals. That way the agencies know they are being charged the exact amount whereas the rounding might create misunderstanding.

 
Mair A-W (PhD)
Mair A-W (PhD)
Germany
Local time: 02:22
German to English
+ ...
no Aug 6, 2019

ProZ.com Staff wrote:

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you round up or down on your invoices to avoid amounts with decimals?".

View the poll results »



Uh, no. I invoice the agreed price.


 
LIZ LI
LIZ LI  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 09:22
French to Chinese
+ ...
Local business courtesy Aug 6, 2019

I always voluntarily round it down, not only to avoid decimals but to practice local business courtesy.
Take it as a widely accepted trick in CRM, or kind of a loyalty plan.
But it's true that it doesn't always work well. Some may even NOT be aware of it.


Gibril Koroma
 
Noni Gilbert Riley
Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 02:22
Spanish to English
+ ...
No rounding in either direction except... Aug 6, 2019

... on the instructions of a Spanish Ministry, one of my clients, who have given me instructions to round up my quotations, and therefore my bills, to the nearest euro. Then I have to add IVA - value added tax - and the cents appear again.

Ours is not to reason why...


 
Ekaterina Chashnikova
Ekaterina Chashnikova  Identity Verified
Local time: 02:22
Member (2011)
English to Russian
+ ...
Other - up or down depending on the number Aug 6, 2019

I follow a rule they teach you in school. For example, if a value is 1,4 or less, you round it down to 1. If the value is 1,5 or more, you round it up.

 
JaneTranslates
JaneTranslates  Identity Verified
Puerto Rico
Local time: 21:22
Spanish to English
+ ...
I round down, but not to avoid decimals Aug 6, 2019

I round down to avoid billing a fraction of a cent.

At the moment, my base rate is an even cent amount. When I raise my rates, it is usually in half-cent increments. When I'm charging a rate of XX.5 cents, the fee for the job often ends up in three (or more) decimal points--say, $376.375. In that case, I round down to $376.37.

Also, sometimes I offer a discount or surcharge expressed in a percentage. That could work out to an even longer string of decimals, like $350.02
... See more
I round down to avoid billing a fraction of a cent.

At the moment, my base rate is an even cent amount. When I raise my rates, it is usually in half-cent increments. When I'm charging a rate of XX.5 cents, the fee for the job often ends up in three (or more) decimal points--say, $376.375. In that case, I round down to $376.37.

Also, sometimes I offer a discount or surcharge expressed in a percentage. That could work out to an even longer string of decimals, like $350.02875. Again, I round down, to $350.02. With 875 at the end, I could justify rounding up to $350.03, but I don't want to look (or be!) petty, especially over a mere penny. I doubt that anyone even notices, but if clients do the math, I want them to see and remember that I rounded down, not up.

--Jane
Collapse


 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:22
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
If you go to a supermarket Aug 6, 2019

you will see a lot of items priced at $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99, etc. Should we recommend the owner to round them up?

Rounding up or down would result in discrepancies between my invoices and the clients' POs, which may further lead to the rejection of my invoices.

[Edited at 2019-08-07 07:18 GMT]


Muriel Vasconcellos
Liena Vijupe
Kunal Jaidka
 
Elizabeth Tamblin
Elizabeth Tamblin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:22
French to English
No Aug 6, 2019

I state the exact amount that appears on the purchase order; otherwise, it would create confusion in the customer's accounts department.

Noni Gilbert Riley
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Muriel Vasconcellos
Alaa Mahm
Adam Warren
 
Daniel Vega
Daniel Vega
Argentina
Member (2015)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Electronic transfers Aug 6, 2019

Most payments are processed through wire transfers or virtual transfer accounts (i.e. PayPal or Payoneer), and there's no reason to round. In a local situation, I guess I would round down...



[Edited at 2019-08-06 23:29 GMT]


Gibril Koroma
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 18:22
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
No Aug 7, 2019

When my clients do the calculation, they always use two decimal places. I have no choice. The only time I quote anything but a per-word rate is when I quote my minimum, which is a round figure.

Liena Vijupe
 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:22
German to English
+ ...
on the supermarket analogy (OT) Aug 7, 2019

jyuan_us wrote:

you will see a lot of items priced at $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99, etc. Should we recommend the owner to round them up?

For curiosity's sake - Canada got rid of the cent a while back. If an item costs $2.96, you pay $3.00. If it is $2.94, you pay $2.90. In both cases you use only coins. Unless you pay by credit card, in which case $2.96 remains $2.96 and you win; but $2.94 remains $2.94 and you lose.


 
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Poll: Do you round up or down on your invoices to avoid amounts with decimals?






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