Prevent Excel from Formatting UPCs in Scientific Notation

Created by Francesca Halberg, Modified on Thu, 11 Jul, 2024 at 9:17 AM by Francesca Halberg

When Excel sees a number 12 digits or longer, it automatically formats it into a type of rounded number called Scientific Notation. It turns a number like 756637132873 into 7.56637E+11. If an Excel user saves their spreadsheet while numbers are in that format, there's no way for Catalyst to use it. They have to start over and re-export the data from their POS.

So how is the user supposed to prevent Excel from saving UPCs like this in the first place? The fix is very easy. One can change the column format to Number and set decimal places to 0.

For more information than is provided in this procedure, visit this link

 

  1. Select the column by clicking on the column header
    Click on the letter at the top of the column to select the entire column that contains UPCs, as highlighted in red below:
    8c021edf-3767-4497-90c0-8508e1395e53.jpg

  2. Home > Number group > Change Number Format to "Number"
    ​Ensure the column from the previous step is still selected.
    ecd8ca9c-c565-4167-ba30-9f790d1a8f6a.jpg

  3. Decrease decimal places to none
    Ensure the UPC column is still selected. Click the "Decrease Decimal" button until there is no decimal after each UPC.
    062bc2cc-2eb6-49f4-8133-2b80b2b2dc92.jpg
     

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