This error comes when you try to store an out-of-range floating point value into a Numeric variable. For example, if your NUMERIC or DECIMAL variable is defined as NUMERIC(5,2) than the maximum value it can hold is 999.99, if you try to store something like 1000.00 then it will throw "Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type numeric". One of the common reason of this error is the ignorance and misunderstanding of the NUMERIC data type. For example, many SQL Server DBAs and developers think that a NUMERIC(5,2) variable can hold a 7 digit floating point number where 5 digit is before decimal and 2 digits are after the decimal. This is wrong. A NUMERIC(5,2) means, the total number of digits in the value cannot exceed 5 and decimal precision is 2 digits i.e. the maximum possible value is 999.99.