Ownership percentage is the share of the business each owner holds.
What it decides
Distributions are normally paid in proportion to it — see owner distributions.
Proceeds of a sale are divided by it, which is where it matters most and is most often found to have been recorded loosely. See business valuation.
Voting frequently follows it, though it need not; ownership and control can be separated deliberately.
It should total one hundred per cent
Recorded ownership that adds to less than the whole means an owner is missing from the record. This is routine in businesses that added a partner informally and never wrote it down, and it becomes expensive at the point of sale or dispute.
Officers and owners shows the running total for this reason.