How to Convert Financial Data Between Won, Millions, and 100 Millions
Learn to separate financial data units from currencies and verify conversions. Cover million-won and 100-million-won units, percentage formatting, text numbers, and missing values.
Keep original and converted units in separate columns and apply a consistent conversion factor to financial data. Changing amount units and converting won to dollars are different tasks. After conversion, check the work by converting back to the original values and verifying table totals.
Save the original table header first
Copied numbers alone do not tell you whether 1,000 means won or millions of won. Capture the table title, unit label, reference period, and currency alongside the figures. Even within one report, monetary tables and per-share figures can use different units, so do not apply one factor to the entire document. OpenDART’s financial information guide also distinguishes currency from individual amount fields. When importing data, check the unit explanation for the supplied format and do not assume the web screen and downloaded file use identical units. Compare a few sample rows with the original.
Handle amount units and number formats separately
To convert from units of KRW million to units of KRW 100 million, divide by 100; to convert won to units of KRW 100 million, divide by 100,000,000. USD million means millions of dollars, not millions of won. Currency conversion requires a separately specified exchange rate and reference date; do not hide this step within a unit conversion. If numbers arrive as text, check regional conventions for commas and decimal points. Microsoft’s NUMBERVALUE guide explains converting text to numbers with specified separators. The existence of a conversion function does not justify treating blanks or dashes as actual zeros.
Check distortions caused by rounding and percentages
Reducing displayed decimal places and rounding stored values can produce different results. Calculate with original precision where possible, then set decimal places for display. For percentage formatting, 0.15 and 15 are different inputs; applying percentage formatting to 15 can display 1,500%. If the source uses parentheses for negative values, check that their signs have been retained. Finally, reverse-convert selected items and check relationships between totals and components, while noting that rounding can cause small differences in totals.
Worked example
Hypothetical example: 325,000 in units of KRW million equals 3,250 in units of KRW 100 million, or KRW 0.325 trillion. Multiplying 3,250 by 100 returns 325,000 in units of KRW million, checking the conversion factor. Operating profit of 26,000 in units of KRW million converts on the same basis to 260 in units of KRW 100 million, so the margin is 26,000 ÷ 325,000 = 8%, and 260 ÷ 3,250 is also 8%. If a ratio changes after conversion, check whether you applied different factors to its numerator and denominator.
What to check
- Have you preserved the original units, currency, and period?
- Have you avoided applying the total-amount conversion factor to per-share figures?
- Have you kept blanks and dashes from being overwritten with numeric zeros?
- Have you checked reverse conversion and whether ratios remain unchanged?
Sources and primary materials
This is educational material about research methods. For an actual company decision, verify the filings and primary sources for the relevant period.