It was my understanding that it represents the percentage of cells within the gate, when I changed the decimal settings to include three numbers after the decimal pints, the values alter. Can anyone please help me understand this.
I do not know about changing the decimals, but the number is the percentage of the parent gate. So if you make Gate A, then Gate B is a subgate from Gate A, then it is a percentage of Gate A, not the whole.
It is precisely the reasoning that Goodwin gave. It is a rounding situation. Why are you going to the third decimal place? That must be a very discreet population.
FYI The number reflected in the gate is the percentage of cells within that gate relative to the dot plot.