title: SQL Reporting Services - Export to Excel - why "Custom" formats?
body: <p>I have a SQL Reporting Services report which contains monetary values, shown without the currency symbol (ie. 1,234.56). I export this report to Excel and, should I then choose to re-format these as currency values, and press the "Currency" format button, I get "$ 1,234.56". </p>
  
  <p>Ok... except I'm in the UK and my regional settings specify "£" as the currency symbol. If I just fire up Excel, type in 1234.56 and hit the currency format button, I get "£ 1,234.56" - so it doesn't appear to be the default settings for Excel.</p>
  
  <p>I looked more carefully at the exported Excel sheet and noticed that the values are formatted with a "Custom" format, specifically "[$-1010809]#,##0.00;(#,##0.00)". I'm not sure what the "1010809" is <em>(<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8076487/excel-number-formatting-with-locale-how-does-it-work">see here</a>). (This may not be related)</em></p>
  
  <p>It turns out that the "Currency" button applies the "Accounting" format, but that, in the spreadsheet exported from SSRS, is a custom format of "<em>("$"* #,##0.00</em>);<em>("$"* (#,##0.00);</em>("$"* "-"??<em>);</em>(@_)". This presumably accounts for the dollar symbol.</p>
  
  <p>Is there not a way to have the exported spreadsheet not use "custom" US dollar formats for currency values ? I have looked at the report and tried to find some setting or property that says "English (US)" or something similar, but found nothing.</p>