CEILING in SoftMaker PlanMaker 2026: rounding to multiples

• Introduced: Documented by PlanMaker 2016; the original introduction version is not established.
• Availability: Documented in PlanMaker 2026, with matching syntax in the 2024 reference. This is not a final working-version endpoint.
• Scope: The current reference belongs to the 2026/NX manual family; FreeOffice and individual mobile-build availability are not established here.
• Checked: October 14, 2026, against the official function reference. Documentation and independent calculation; no native test.

When work must be purchased, packaged, priced, or allocated in fixed increments, the result needs to be a multiple rather than a chosen number of decimal places. CEILING turns a demand of 23 units with a carton size of 5 into 25 units, which is five whole cartons. It similarly moves 12.31 upward to 12.35 for a 0.05 price increment (a mathematical example, not a legal tax-rounding rule).

For positive inputs, CEILING chooses the smallest valid multiple greater than or equal to the input. For negative inputs paired with a negative base, it chooses a multiple farther from zero. Consequently -42.5 becomes -43 at a -1 step, rather than -42. The manufacturer’s own examples and sign requirement support this counterintuitive point. 2026 CEILING reference.

Use ROUND(Number,n) when the goal is a number of decimal places, and MROUND(Number,Base) when the goal is the nearest valid multiple instead of the next multiple away from zero. Do not substitute the latter automatically: PlanMaker’s MROUND manual separately restricts Base > 0 and documents midpoint behavior. 2026 MROUND.

=CEILING(Number, Base)

Both arguments are displayed as required in SoftMaker’s 2026 and 2024 English syntax, with no optional brackets. Omit neither. The supplier’s description explicitly calls opposite signs a #NUM! error. It does not state a default base, so do not assume 1 if Base is absent. 2026 · 2024.

Implementation note: this guide uses the English function name, commas and decimal points printed in SoftMaker’s manual. It does not claim all localized PlanMaker installations accept identical separators, and uses the separators shown in that reference.

Create a new worksheet, type these headers into A1:F1: Scenario, Number, Base, Formula, Expected result, Numeric check. Enter the values listed below into columns A–C in rows 2–10, as ordinary numeric cells, preserving negative signs. Put the indicated formula in D2 and fill it through D10. Column E displays the separately calculated expected answers; enter them as numeric values for the verification calculation. (The table’s formula strings are the ones to type, not text to paste into numeric cells.)

In F2, enter =ABS(D2-E2)<0.000000001 and fill through F10. TRUE means the calculated and expected numbers differ by less than the stated tolerance. Increase displayed precision if the outputs look the same but the check fails.

Documented sign-mismatch diagnostic: in a different empty cell, try =CEILING(5,-2). Both arguments have opposite signs; the manufacturer’s documentation explicitly specifies #NUM!. Check the input signs instead of masking the error.

Buy complete cartons without under-ordering

Suppose H2 = 23 (units needed), H3 = 5 (units per carton). =CEILING(H2,H3) yields 25 units, and =CEILING(H2,H3)/H3 yields 5 cartons. =H2/H3 is only 4.6 cartons, which is not an actionable whole-carton order. For a requirement already divisible by the carton size (H2=25, H3=5), the calculated output stays 25 rather than increasing again.

Quantize a positive price to a 0.05 step

With H2 = 12.31 and H3 = 0.05, =CEILING(H2,H3) yields 12.35 by decimal arithmetic. This is an illustrative positive-price quantization rule only: it is not a recommendation about jurisdiction-specific cash, card, tax, legal or accounting rounding.

Construct a larger-capacity multiple

With H2 = 137 available workload units and H3 = 25 units per machine shift, =CEILING(H2,H3) has expected capacity 150; =CEILING(H2,H3)-H2 computes 13 units of headroom. For a signed correction H2 = -57 and step H3 = -12, CEILING’s manufacturer-described away-from-zero rule produces -60, not -48.

Why CEILING is not ROUNDUP or a mathematical ceiling in all cases

=CEILING(23,5) returns 25, whereas =ROUNDUP(23,0) has the integer result 23 because decimal precision and batch multiples are different targets. With negative Number=-57, Base=-12, the independently expected CEILING result is -60 because PlanMaker’s signed direction moves away from zero. Neither a generic ceil(-57/12) operation nor Excel-specific assumptions replace the vendor’s sign rule.

The companion rounding direction

For the same positive (21,5) input, CEILING has the expected result 25 while FLOOR has the expected result 20. On the signed input (-42.5,-1), their expected results are -43 and -42 respectively. Their official documentation pages are CEILING and FLOOR.

Documented cross-application difference worth testing: Microsoft’s Excel CEILING documentation explicitly gives CEILING(-2.5,2) → -2 (a negative input with positive significance). SoftMaker PlanMaker’s 2026 CEILING page says opposite signs give #NUM!. Therefore, the same formula is not safely interchangeable for this case, notwithstanding equivalent function names and XLSX-oriented workflows.

• Opposite signs: SoftMaker documents #NUM! when Number and Base have different signs. A negative Base is not a switch that reverses the rounding rule.
• Unexpected negative result: CEILING increases the absolute magnitude. Compare the signed examples before choosing a rule for corrections or losses.
• Formula rejected: Both arguments are required. Check the leading =, numeric input cells and the separators accepted by the installed function assistant.
• Display differs from the calculation: Number formatting hides decimal places without changing the stored value. The worksheet checks use a tolerance because fractional steps such as 0.05 can introduce representation differences.
• Zero Base, blanks, text or extreme values: The short vendor entry does not establish a complete error/coercion matrix. Validate inputs; no exact behavior for those cases is claimed here.

For decimal places, see ROUND, ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN. For nearest-multiple rounding, see MROUND.

• PlanMaker 2026 — CEILING: current function definition and vendor examples.
• PlanMaker 2024 — CEILING: earlier documented syntax.
• PlanMaker 2016 manual: historical function entry, page 463.

Example verification: Expected values were calculated independently using exact decimal and rational arithmetic. No PlanMaker or Excel application execution is claimed. Vendor-documented errors are distinguished from input cases whose behavior still needs a native check.