CEILING in Collabora Office: Round Up with Collabora’s Signed-Step Rules

• Introduced: original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the sources reviewed.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 help, scoped to the desktop-help release.
• Platform scope: support in every online or mobile deployment is not inferred from desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Complete function-specific documentation and independent arithmetic controls; no native Collabora test was performed.

=CEILING(number[;significance[;mode]])

significance is optional. Its default is +1 for a positive number and -1 for a negative number. With positive number and positive significance, rounding moves away from zero.

When both are negative, omitted or zero mode rounds toward zero; nonzero mode rounds away from zero. Collabora documents an error when number and significance have opposite signs. The exact error label is not established by this reference.

These are the rules of Collabora’s unsuffixed CEILING. CEILING.MATH instead ignores the significance sign. Examples use English names and semicolon separators.

A fictional supply item comes in packs of six. Enter requirements 17, 18, 19 and 31 in A2:A5, then fill down:

=CEILING(A2;6)

Expected purchased quantities are 18, 18, 24 and 36. Divide those values by six to obtain 3, 3, 4 and 6 packs. Subtract the requirements to obtain unused quantities 1, 0, 5 and 5.

The exact multiple 18 stays unchanged. Rounding upward does not mean adding a full step when the input already satisfies the rule.

=CEILING(-17;-6)
=CEILING(-17;-6;0)
=CEILING(-17;-6;1)

Expected results are -12, -12 and -18. The first two move toward zero; the third moves away from zero. These results have the same absolute step size but different policies.

=CEILING(-17;6) is a documented opposite-sign error case. Do not replace the negative significance with a positive one merely because another spreadsheet function accepts it.

Put -25, -17 and -6 in D2:D4, and put either 0 or 1 in F1:

=CEILING(D2;-6;$F$1)

With F1 equal to 0, expected results are -24, -12 and -6. With F1 equal to 1, they are -30, -18 and -6. The absolute reference keeps the chosen policy fixed when filling down.

For the documented negative case, any nonzero mode has the away-from-zero meaning; mode is not a count of extra steps. These examples use 1 for clarity.

Two separate requirements of 7 and 7 each need 12 units when rounded separately:

=CEILING(7;6)+CEILING(7;6)
=CEILING(7+7;6)

Expected totals are 24 and 18. The smaller pooled quantity is valid only when the two requirements may share the same packs. Separate deliveries can require the larger total.

Collabora documents exporting its CEILING as Excel’s CEILING.MATH. For older Excel workflows, the page discusses CEILING.PRECISE and CEILING.XCL as alternatives with their own rules. This is a documented mapping, not a tested round trip here; Excel release dates do not establish Collabora’s introduction date.

Zero significance, zero-number default-sign handling, text coercion and native floating-point edge cases remain unverified. Keep positive, negative, exact-multiple and mode controls beside any interoperability test workbook.

• Collabora Office 26.04: CEILING.
• Editorial testing standards.

The complete function section was reviewed. Worked results are independently checked expectations; native execution and unlisted edge cases remain unverified.