neooffice form problem with numerics

Hi, I am trying to use a neooffice form to insert numerical values
into a postgres database and get the following error:

ESTERROR: 42804: column "back_load" is of type numeric but expression
is of type character varying at character 35

ESTHINT: You will need to rewrite or cast the expression.

ESTLOCATION: transformAssignedExpr,
/Users/Shared/src/postgresql/postgresql-8.3.1/build-leo/src/../../src/backend/parser/parse_target.c:440

ESTSTATEMENT: INSERT INTO "public"."security" ( "back_load",
"company_id", "expense_ratio", "front_load", "is_benchmark",
"proxy_id", "security_name", "security_type_id", "ticker", "turnover"
) VALUES ( $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10 )

I am using PostgreSQL 8.3.1 on Mac OS X 10.5.5 and have tried the
following drivers:
pg74.216.jdbc3
postgresql-8.3-603.jdbc3
postgresql-8.4dev-700.jdbc3

This also happens no matter what kind of form field I use, formatted
or numerical.

Any advice? Thanks!

Reuben Cummings