How to round to two decimal places (properly)
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 ✓ Verified in Google Sheets (2026-08-30)Round a number to 2 decimals in the value itself — not just the display format.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | =ROUND(A2,2) | ROUNDUP / ROUNDDOWN force the direction; negative digits round left of the decimal. |
| Google Sheets | =ROUND(A2,2) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =ROUND(A2,2) | Identical. |
How it works
ROUND changes the actual value: 3.14159 becomes exactly 3.14. That's different from formatting the cell to show 2 decimals, which only hides digits — the full value still flows into later formulas and totals can appear "off by a cent". Round in the formula when downstream math (invoices, currency) must match what's displayed; use ROUNDUP/ROUNDDOWN when the direction matters, and ROUND(A2,-2) rounds to the nearest hundred.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =ROUND(A2,2) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 3.14 — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. It returned 3.14 for the worked example, the same value LibreOffice produced. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run desktop Excel.
Functions used
ROUND — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.
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