Unit types are used in two ways. Firstly, unit types appear as headings in data entry tables. Secondly, unit types format numerical data. For example, the dollar currency unit type defines the prefix as $, and decimal places as two. There is no limit to the number of unit types that you can create.

Unit types that format data are purely descriptive and do not indicate that any calculations are performed on the data. For example, if the unit type is Percentage and 0.1 is entered in the Data Entry dialog box, it appears as 0.1%.

When performance ranges and unit types use a different number of decimals places, performance colors might appear to be incorrect. Performance colors are based on stored values, or the data that is input or imported into Metrics Management. Metrics Management performs calculations on stored values to produce the index values used with performance ranges. If a measure or location’s index value is formatted by a unit type that uses fewer decimal places than the performance range, the display value might be rounded and the performance color might appear incorrect.

For example, a performance range displays red for values equal to and greater than 100 and yellow for values below 100. The performance range uses two decimal places and a measure uses a unit type that has one decimal place. If the measure contains a stored value of 99.99, the display value is rounded to 100. However, the performance range uses the stored value of 99.99 to determine the appropriate performance color of yellow.