Most formatting options in Costpoint are similar to those in the Windows Control Panel.

Why, then, does Costpoint not simply use the Windows settings, instead of having a Costpoint screen that asks for much of the same information? The reason is as follows:

You can choose any settings you want in the Windows Control Panel. Because of this, Costpoint screens and reports may look different, depending on what individual users have chosen. However, in the Costpoint user environment, the data format (especially on reports) must be consistent among all users. The only way to ensure this is to control the data format through the settings on the Manage Currencies screen. The Costpoint system manager can restrict access to this screen so that only authorized users can change the settings. This ensures control over the appearance of data.

Consistency is especially important when it involves the number of decimal places used by the currency. If different users have different settings for the number of decimal places, then currency amounts entered, processed, or calculated could have different values because Costpoint rounds all currency amounts to the number of decimal places for the designated currency.