§9.6.1

Accounting Number Formats

A formatted number—transcribe it or normalize it?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §9.6.1 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

Every number in a cell MUST be transcribed exactly as printed — parentheses, currency dashes, separators and change markers included. The output MUST NOT carry a normalised twin of the value beside it, and MUST NOT replace the printed form with a normalised one.

When it applies

Accounting pages print numbers in shapes that look as if they ask to be tidied up. They do not: the cell is copied character for character.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output

Printed:     (1,204)    $—     n/m     1.204,50 (EU)     △2.5%
Verbatim:    (1,204)    $—     n/m     1.204,50          △2.5%
Normalized:  -1204      0?     null?   1204.50           +2.5%? -2.5%?

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

Requirements

Printed form	Requirement
Parenthesised negative — `(1,204)`, `(2.0)%`, `($8.75)`	MUST keep its parentheses; MUST NOT be rewritten with a minus sign.
Leading minus — `-50.009`	MUST stay a leading minus; MUST NOT be converted into parentheses. The page's convention is the one recorded.
Currency and percent dashes — `$—`, `— %`	MUST stay dashes, with their currency or percent sign.
Placeholders — `n/m`, `NM`, anything printed in place of a figure	MUST be transcribed as written.
Separators — `1.074.778`, `1.204,50`	MUST stay as printed: thousands points stay points, a decimal comma stays a comma, and no separator is removed or swapped for the other convention.
Change markers — `△2.5%`	MUST stay attached to the number, in the same cell.

Spacing printed inside a value — 3.8 %, $ 17,565.8 — is part of the printed form and is kept.

✅ SampleThe rule applies

Negative percentages as (2.0)% and (8.3)%`sssa`

Negative percentages as (2.0)% and (8.3)%, and elsewhere with a space before the percent sign, (2.6) %, (3.5) % — each kept as printed. The two parent rows are bold in every cell; Ticket and Transactions are indented under them.

Source page

Expected output

	2023					2024
Fiscal year ending December,	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	FY	Q1	Q2	Q3
Systemwide Same Shop Sales	(2.0)%	3.8 %	4.0 %	5.0 %	2.8 %	10.0 %	4.1 %	2.7 %
Ticket	6.3 %	6.4 %	9.5 %	5.4 %	7.2 %	8.8 %	6.1 %	1.9 %
Transactions	(8.3)%	(2.6) %	(5.5) %	(0.4) %	(4.4) %	1.2 %	(2.0) %	0.8 %
Company-Operated Same Shop Sales	(3.5) %	1.6 %	2.8 %	4.6 %	1.5 %	10.9 %	5.2 %	4.0 %
Ticket	6.5 %	6.1 %	9.1 %	4.9 %	7.1 %	8.2 %	6.0 %	1.6 %
Transactions	(10.0) %	(4.5) %	(6.3) %	(0.3) %	(5.6) %	2.7 %	(0.8) %	2.4 %

✅ SampleThe rule applies

Parenthesised negatives printed in red — ($8.75), ($11.99)`e22`

The parentheses already carry the sign, so the red is decoration and the text is kept as printed. The column headings are bold as a row; Rx Claim Information is also underlined.

Source page

Expected output · excerpt

Rx Claim Information	Generic	Brand	Specialty	Total
…
Experience Period Paid PMPM	$9.36	$17.90	$29.51	$56.77
Experience Period Rx Rebates PMPM				($8.75)
…
Projected Paid PMPM	$9.42	$24.25	$39.27	$72.94
Projected Rx Rebates				($11.99)
Net Projected Paid PMPM				$60.95

✅ SampleThe rule applies

German conventions`entwick`

1.074.778 with thousands points, and -50.009 with a leading minus rather than parentheses. Cells the page leaves blank stay empty. The column headings wrap inside words at printed hyphens (Kapital- / rücklagen), so each is one label; the closing row is bold.

Source page

Expected output

	Grundkapital	Kapitalrücklagen	Gewinnrücklagen	Sonstige Rücklagen	Eigene Anteile	Gesellschafter VAG	Minderheitenanteile	Gesamtkapital
1. Jänner 2005	218.100	1.074.778	2.816.854	172.965	-14.761	4.267.936	1.493.854	5.761.790
Unrealisierte Gewinne/Verluste (-) aus der Bewertung von Wertpapieren:
Saldo Gewinn/Verlust (-) der Periode vor Ertragssteuern				200.291		200.291		200.291
Ertragssteuern				-50.009		-50.009		-50.009
Realisierte, im JÜ ausgewiesene Gewinne (-)/Verluste vor Ertragssteuern				-77		-77		-77
Ertragssteuern				19		19		19
Rückkauf eigener Anteile								0
Währungsdifferenzen aus der Umrechnung ausländischer Geschäftsbetriebe				158.718		158.718	120.673	279.391
Jahresüberschuss			593.579			593.579	99.714	693.293
Dividendenausschüttung			-131.414			-131.414	-1.814	-133.228
Kapitalerhöhung	81.900	-81.894				6		6
30. Juni 2005	300.000	992.988	3.279.019	464.170	-14.474	5.021.703	1.695.593	6.717.296

Why no normalised twin

A cleaned-up value beside the printed one looks free to produce and saves every consumer the same work. It is refused for two reasons.

Normalisation here is not a transformation, it is a guess. A "clean" column would have to decide things the page does not say: is $— zero, or not applicable? Is n/m null, an empty string, or a string literal? Does △2.5% mean up or down — the triangle's direction is conventional and the sign is not printed at all. A twin column would carry three guesses dressed as data, and nothing downstream distinguishes a guessed value from a read one.

A second value is a second thing to be wrong. The printed form is verifiable against the page; the derived form is verifiable only against whatever rules produced it. A consumer that needs a number applies its own conventions to the printed string — and it knows its own conventions, which the producer does not.

Hence: one value per cell, and it is the one on the page. Verbatim leaves the interpretation to whoever consumes the table, the only place it can be made safely.

✅ SampleThe rule applies

$`yef`

$ — for a nil value beside (626.6) parenthesised negatives, and a bare — in the rows below. The page sets a space between $ and the figure, and it is kept. The year line is a bold band across the grid, rendered as a spanning header cell.

Source page

Expected output · excerpt, first year block

(in millions)	Willowbrook Segment	Corporate, Support and Other	Total
Year Ended February 1, 2025
Net sales	$ 17,565.8	$ —	$ 17,565.8
Cost of sales	11,284.1	—	11,284.1
Gross Profit	6,281.7	—	6,281.7
Other revenue	0.1	12.6	12.7
Selling, general and administrative expenses	4,193.2	639.2	4,832.4
Operating income (loss)	2,088.6	(626.6)	1,462.0
Interest expense, net			107.5
Other (income) expense, net			(29.1)
Income from continuing operations before income taxes			$ 1,383.6
Depreciation and amortization expense	$ 488.9	$ 38.0	$ 526.9
Capital expenditures	$ 1,262.2	$ 38.3	$ 1,300.5
…

✅ SampleThe rule applies

(8)%`wdb`

(8)%, NM and — % in one table — three different ways of writing not a number here, each kept as printed. The years sit on the second header line with an empty ruled cell beneath them, so they take no rowspan. The row labels are bold; the Total revenues and Adjusted EBITDA rows are bold in every cell.

Source page

Expected output

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2024	2023	% Change		2024	2023	% Change
$ in millions			Reported	Ex-FX^(*)			Reported	Ex-FX^(*)
Distribution	$ 2,598	$ 2,833	(8)%	(7)%	$ 8,070	$ 8,769	(8)%	(7)%
Advertising	1,490	1,709	(13)%	(13)%	5,691	6,394	(11)%	(11)%
Content	833	215	NM	NM	1,396	744	88 %	87 %
Other	89	111	(20)%	(21)%	250	300	(17)%	(18)%
Total revenues	5,010	4,868	3 %	3 %	15,407	16,207	(5)%	(4)%
Costs of revenues (excluding depreciation & amortization)	2,185	1,800	21 %	22 %	7,088	7,243	(2)%	(1)%
Selling, general and administrative	710	672	6 %	6 %	2,087	2,109	(1)%	— %
Adjusted EBITDA	$ 2,115	$ 2,396	(12)%	(11)%	$ 6,232	$ 6,855	(9)%	(9)%

Rule id tables-accounting-number-formats · tables fidelity numbers

When it applies

Requirements

Why no normalised twin

Neighbouring rules, and how they differ

More