Number, currency, and percent fields
Key Takeaway
Number, Currency, and Percent fields format and round values differently. All three work with a SUM in a roll-up summary, but Currency and Percent fields don't qualify as External IDs.
Number, Currency, and Percent are the custom field types for numeric data. All three let you set how many digits go before and after the decimal point, but they format and round values differently. The type you pick affects how the field works in roll-ups and formulas, what users see, and what happens when you later change the field's size.
When to use Number, Currency, and Percent
| Use for | How the value is treated | |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Any numeric value | Treated as a real number. |
| Currency | Money | Automatically formatted as a currency amount. The formatting carries over when you export data to a spreadsheet. |
| Percent | Percentages | Held as a decimal and shown as a percentage, so 0.10 displays as 10%. |
Number fields remove leading zeros, so an entry like 00123 loses its zeros. By contrast, a Text field accepts any combination of letters, numbers, or symbols.