In this article

Format numbers as currency

Remove currency formatting

What's the difference between the Currency and Accounting formats?

Create a workbook template with specific currency formatting settings

Format numbers as currency:

If you want to display numbers as monetary values, you must format those numbers as
currency. To do this, you apply either the Currency or Accounting number format to the
cells that you want to format. The number formatting options are available on
the Home tab, in the Number group.

You can display a number with the default currency symbol by selecting the cell or

range of cells, and then clicking Accounting Number Format in the Number group
on the Home tab. (If you want to apply the Currency format instead, select the cells,
and press Ctrl+Shift+$.)

If you want more control over either format, or you want to change other aspects of
formatting for your selection, you can follow these steps.

Select the cells you want to format

On the Home tab, click the Dialog Box Launcher next to Number.

Tip: You can also press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box.
In the Format Cells dialog box, in the Category list, click Currency or Accounting.

In the Symbol box, click the currency symbol that you want.

Note: If you want to display a monetary value without a currency symbol, you can
click None.

In the Decimal places box, enter the number of decimal places that you want for the
number. For example, to display $138,691 instead of $138,690.63 in the cell, enter 0 in
the Decimal places box.

As you make changes, watch the number in the Sample box. It shows you how
changing the decimal places will affect the display of a number.

In the Negative numbers box, select the display style you want to use for negative
numbers. If you don't want the existing options for displaying negative numbers, you
can create your own number format.

For more information about creating custom formats, see Create or delete a custom
number format.

Note: The Negative numbers box is not available for the Accounting number format.
That's because it is standard accounting practice to show negative numbers in
parentheses.

To close the Format Cells dialog box, click OK.

If Excel displays ##### in a cell after you apply currency formatting to your data, the
cell probably isn't wide enough to display the data. To expand the column width,
double-click the right boundary of the column that contains the cells with
the ##### error. This automatically resizes the column to fit the number. You can also
drag the right boundary until the columns are the size that you want.

Remove currency formatting

Select the cells that have currency formatting. On the Home tab, in the Number group,
click General. Cells that are formatted with the General format do not have a specific
number format.

What's the difference between the Currency and Accounting formats?

Format Description Example

Currency When you apply the Currency format to a

number, the currency symbol appears
right next to the first digit in the cell. You
can specify the number of decimal places
that you want to use, whether you want
to use a thousands separator, and how
you want to display negative numbers.

Tip: To quickly apply the Currency format,

select the cell or range of cells that you
want to format, and then press Ctrl+Shift+
$.

Both the Currency and Accounting formats are used to display monetary values. The
difference between the two formats is explained in the following table.
 Format Description Example

Accounting Like the Currency format, the Accounting format

is used for monetary values. But, this format
aligns the currency symbols and decimal points of
numbers in a column. In addition, the Accounting
format displays zeros as dashes and negative
numbers in parentheses. Like the Currency
format, you can specify how many decimal places
you want and whether to use a thousands
separator. You can't change the default display of
negative numbers unless you create a custom
number format.

Tip: To quickly apply the Accounting format,

select the cell or range of cells that you want to
format. On the Home tab, in the Number group,

click Accounting Number Format . If you

want to show a currency symbol other than the
default, click the arrow next to the Accounting

Number Format button and then select

another currency symbol.

Create a workbook template with specific currency formatting settings

If you often use currency formatting in your workbooks, you can save time by creating a
workbook that includes specific currency formatting settings, and then saving that
workbook as a template. You can then use this template to create other workbooks.

Create a workbook. Select the worksheet or worksheets for which you want to change
the default number formatting.

How to select worksheets

To select Do this

A single Click the sheet tab.

sheet
 To select Do this

If you don't see the tab that you want, click the tab scrolling buttons
to display the tab, and then click the tab.

Two or Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down Shift while you click
more the tab for the last sheet that you want to select.
adjacent
sheets

Two or Click the tab for the first sheet. Then hold down Ctrl while you click
more the tabs of the other sheets that you want to select.
nonadjacent
sheets

All sheets in Right-click a sheet tab, and then click Select All Sheets on the shortcut
a workbook menu.

Tip When multiple worksheets are selected, [Group] appears in the title bar at the
top of the worksheet. To cancel a selection of multiple worksheets in a workbook, click
any unselected worksheet. If no unselected sheet is visible, right-click the tab of a
selected sheet, and then click Ungroup Sheets.

Select the specific cells or columns you want to format, and then apply currency
formatting to them.

Make any other customizations that you like to the workbook, and then do the
following to save it as a template:

Save the workbook as a template

If you’re saving a workbook to a template for the first time, start by setting the default
personal templates location:

Click File, and then click Options.

Click Save, and then under Save workbooks, enter the path to the personal templates
location in the Default personal templates location box.

This path is typically: C:\Users\Public Documents\My Templates.

Click OK.

Once this option is set, all custom templates you save to the My Templates folder
automatically appear under Personal on the New page (File > New).

Click File, and then click Export.

Under Export, click Change File Type.

In the Workbook File Types box, double-click Template.

In the File name box, type the name you want to use for the template.

Click Save, and then close the template.

Create a workbook based on the template

Click File, and then click New.

Click Personal.
Double-click the template you just created.

Excel creates a new workbook that is based on your template.

How to increase or decrease the number of decimal places?

By using a button

Select the cells that you want to format.

Go to Home > Number and select Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal to show more
or fewer digits after the decimal point.

By applying a built-in number format

Go to Home > Number, select the arrow next to the list of number formats, and then
select More Number Formats.

In the Category list, depending on the type of data you have,

select Currency, Accounting, Percentage, or Scientific.

In the Decimal places box, enter the number of decimal places that you want to display