FAQ - Printing reports

Question
Buying Solutions, AIMS, rounding for bulk upload or exports
Answer

In general the rounding rule used is that values less than or equal to 0.5 of the (next) decimal place are round up.  Values less than 0.5 of the (next) decimal place are round down. This is true throughout the Buying Solutions (AIMS) bulk export or bulk upload facility.


In other reports, this actually depends on the report that is used, as we have provided specific rules implimented at some customers' requests.


Specifically the rounding function we use in the Buying Solutions (AIMS) bulk export is the Microsoft TSQL ROUND() function
Explicitly examples are:

  • rounding 123.994 to 2 decimal places produces the result  123.990
  • rounding 123. 995to 2 decimal places produces the result  124.000

 

However this is not the end of the story. The result depends on the place the rounding is used.
Specifically WTD and (Employer's) NI totals (per work rate period) are calculated then rounded.
A period is defined as a time between:

Start

  • start of shift
  • change of rate
  • change of day
  • end of break

End

  • end of shift
  • change of rate
  • change of day
  • start of break

If as is the case with some exports, the rounding function is used within Excel, then this may be different to the rounding used in Ava as Excel support a number of rounding functions. Where Ava exports data, if the result produced by Ava is a function of a rate times a non integral number of hours, then Ava will calculate to the maximum accuracy and then round. It is possible with some spread sheet calculations to round a rate and then multiply it by a given number of hours. The variations within Excel are described reasonably clearly in the link at the end of this article:

This is in line with Buying Solutions response when information was requested by us to ensure appropriate upload.

Using our Buying Solutions (AIMS) bulk export reports customers have uploaded between 100,000 shifts and 1,000,000 shifts to date.

 

Microsoft reference on rounding

Readable article on Excel rounding

If you found this information useful, please share it!


This FAQ was last updated on 21 July 2011

Contact Information

To find out more about Ava solutions you can contact us in a number of ways:
Follow Us...