Get NUMBER (not string) from Zoho CRM

Get NUMBER (not string) from Zoho CRM

I am trying to get current numerical and currency values from Zoho CRM to be used in mathematical functions. Everything I try seems to return a string rather than a number.

Specifics:

When new record is created in Creator, match record by Email field and look up existing values in the CRM record. Then add the values from the new Creator record with values from the existing CRM record. Finally, update the CRM record with the total.