Checks, invoices and receipts
On a check, the amount appears twice: in figures in the box, and spelled out on the line below the payee's name. Writing it in words makes the figures harder to alter.
Invoices often repeat the total in words as well. The invoice generator prints it under the heading “Amount in words” when you tick “Write the total in words”, and on a receipt it confirms the sum you were paid.
How the numbers are spelled
The tool follows the American style. Tens and units are joined by a hyphen (“forty-two”, “ninety-nine”), there is no “and” inside the number (“one hundred five”), and “and” only introduces the cents (“and fifty cents”).
“Hundred”, “thousand”, “million” and “billion” never take an s after a number: “two thousand”, “three million”. Large sums work too: 1,200,000,000 becomes “one billion two hundred million”.
Currencies and their smaller units
Each currency brings its own words: dollars and cents, pounds and pence, euros and cents, Mexican pesos and centavos, Canadian dollars, Moroccan dirhams. One unit stays singular: “one dollar”, “one penny”. CFA francs have no smaller unit, so nothing follows them.
The Tunisian dinar is divided into 1,000 millimes, and the tool writes them out in full: “twelve Tunisian dinars and three hundred forty-five millimes”. A currency the tool can't name isn't offered, rather than ending with a code and a fraction.
A second language on the same document
Choose a second language and the tool writes the amount in both, one under the other. In Spanish, the cents follow “con”; in French, “et”; in Arabic, the sentence opens with “فقط” and closes with “لا غير”, and the currency agrees with the number. Copy both lines at once with one click.
Frequently asked questions
Is the amount rounded?
Yes, to the currency's smallest unit: to the cent for dollars and euros, to the millime for Tunisian dinars. Anything beyond that isn't written.
What about a negative amount, such as a refund?
The words are written without a sign, for example “fifty dollars”. On a credit note, the document itself shows that the money goes back to the customer.
Can I write the cents as a fraction, like “50/100”?
Not with this tool: it always writes the cents in words. If you prefer the fraction on a check, copy the dollars part and add the fraction by hand. More tools add or remove tax at a given rate.