Thanks again for your help… My solution was to fake it, as in one of the project files I sent.
I didn’t realize, until rendering, I had to use the “Set Decimals” node in XPresso since C4D calculates to the 3’rd decimal place when rendering. Because I need the animated display to show 000.00, I set my starting number at 100000, separate the last 2 digits a bit with kerning, put in an object for the decimal and hide the “1” with a Boole object so my animated display appears to start at 000.00