Rounding Money Amounts

When working with money, you need to know how to round it, either to the nearest cent, nearest dollar, or to a larger amount such as the tens or hundreds place.

There are two types of rounding techniques used when rounding money.

The first is rounding to the nearest dollar.

The second is rounding to the nearest cent.

Round down for a dollar amount that has 0 to 49 cents. For example, $89.27 rounds down to $89.

Round up for dollar amounts that have 50 to 99 cents. For example, $53.52 rounds up to $54.

Look at the number to the right of the full cents, if the number is five or more, increase the cents by 1. If the number is four or less, keep the cents the same.

For example: Round $143.864. Look at the last digit, that is 4, since 4 is less than 5 so keep cents the same. $143.864 rounds to $143.86.

Let's go through a few more examples.

Example 1

Round $31.67 to the nearest dollar.

When rounding money to the nearest dollar, look at the number right to the decimal point - 6. This is greater than 5, so we will round up.

So, $31.67 rounds up to $32.

Example 2

The price of gas is $3.299. Round this to the nearest cent.

When rounding money to the nearest cent, look at the number to the right of the full cents. In this case, that number is 9. If the number is five or more, increase the cents by 1. If the number is four or less, keep the cents the same. Because 9 is more than 5, $3.299 rounds to $3.30