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Which would be the more readable way to format negative numbers:
Details: Most of our user base has finance experience and but some have none at all. We don't deal with international currencies and it's a web application so I don't know of anyway to get the user's system settings. |
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My wife is a Certified General Accountant, so I asked her about this question. The standard accounting way is always to show negative numbers in parentheses. If you want to appeal to primarily financial professionals, that's the accepted practice. She also cautions against using red or drawing attention to a negative number. Highlighting a number necessarily draws attention to it, but negative numbers are a normal part of bookkeeping and financial statements. Unless you have a specific reason for drawing attention to a particular number, it's best not to make it stand out. If you're highlighting a number that is completely normal (even if it is negative), you can actually damage readability and usability. The user has to stop and think, why is this number different or special? At best, highlight situationally and only when it makes sense. |
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No, No, No, No, No, No, No. You should always use the culture settings of the region your app is running into. Locale specific representation is the way to go. In Europe 1 mill is 1.000.000,00 not 1,000,000.00. They also may use a different standard for negative numbers. Also there's subtle differences between US/Canada. It's way simpler to just pull the culture info and display it as the user's settings are set to. |
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Maybe color them red, so the negatives will stand out. |
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I realize this is a bit old, but it appears that the 'answer' is -($#.##) ??? I was looking for a clear -$ -$ for non accounting here, but this struck me as odd. I agree with the localization 'answer' and RED as not inherent to 'negativity' as well. But generally, (aside from the numeric and decimal placeholder), a set of () in finance/accounting denotes a negative number. This holds true in [North] America, as well as [Europe] (at least France, dont j'en sais un peu, donc je dirais que c'est probablement également la même partout pour la comptabilité). Thus I have to strongly concur with @VirtuosiMedia you are creating a CONFUSING display. With both a - and (), you are using TWO formats. Use only one or the other. When I see both used together, I immediately think
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If most of your user base has finance experience, then go with ($99.99). It is pretty standard in the U.S. Caveat: I have no idea what is common or standard outside the U.S. |
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Microsoft Excel displays negative currency in the following format: $ (#.##) Since some of your users have some financial experience, I would recommend the following format in red: -$ (#.##) That way, users of all types are most likely to immediately recognize this is a negative number. |
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