Your reference field should be the the field containing the relevant currency or unit for the amount in your field. This can be within the same table or in another table (see SAP Help for technical details).
It's easy to understand if you use an example. Your SmartForm may contain an offer with the following text: "The price of 5 paper is 2." That won't help much, because the recipient would be wondering: Is it 5 sheets of paper, 5 boxes of paper, 5 kilograms of paper? And do I pay in Euros, US-Dollars or Bitcoins?
That's why you need a reference field, containing the unit and/or the currency. The amounts does not make any sense on it's own or may cause problems if someone starts adding them up under wrong assumptions etc.