Expert: Lynn Houston - 11/22/2010

Question
Describe a situation in which it would make more sense to round up the number 7.122 to 8 or even 7.13 rather than rounding down to 7 or 7.12 as the rules for rounding dictate.

So there are different possibilities with this situation.
However, I am looking at this in a retail business perspective
I believe it makes more sense to round up to the nearest whole number.
does this make sense?

interested to hear your findings sincew this has become quite the discussion.
Thank you

Answer
The only reason I can think of to round up (in retail) is to make sure you have enough money if you're computing the tax.  So if your take rate is 10% and you round down from 7.12 to 7, then the tax would be $.70 and if you only had $7.82 (short a penny), you wouldn't have enough money. If you rounded up to $8, you compute tax at 80 cents, so you'd have 7.92.

So that only applies if you're buying the product.  If you're the seller, I see no reason to ever round up.