To crossfoot is to add the totals of several columns horizontally and confirm that the result agrees with the overall grand total. It is a basic arithmetic check used by bookkeepers, accountants and auditors on any multi-column record, such as a payroll register, a special journal, an aging schedule or a spreadsheet. If the figures do not agree, there is an error somewhere in the additions.
Crossfooting is the companion of footing. To foot a column is to add it from top to bottom; to crossfoot is to add across. Together, footing and crossfooting prove that a schedule is internally consistent before its totals are posted to the general ledger or relied on in an audit. The term comes from the days of hand-written ledgers, but the check remains useful in electronic records.
Crossfooting in plain terms
Picture a table of a shop's daily takings split into cash, card and gift-voucher columns, with a total column at the end. If you add each column down and then add those column totals across, you should arrive at the same number as when you add the total column down. Both routes lead to one answer.
When they do not match, something has gone wrong: a number was copied incorrectly, a row was left out of one column, or a formula skipped a cell. Crossfooting does not tell you which figure is wrong, but it tells you quickly that you need to look.
How crossfooting works
A simple payroll register shows how the check is done:
| Employee | Gross pay | Tax withheld | Other deductions | Net pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2,400 | 380 | 120 | 1,900 |
| B | 3,100 | 520 | 180 | 2,400 |
| C | 1,900 | 260 | 90 | 1,550 |
| Totals | 7,400 | 1,160 | 390 | 5,850 |
First each column is footed. Then the totals are crossfooted: gross pay of $7,400 minus withholding of $1,160 minus other deductions of $390 equals $5,850, which matches the net pay total. Only after this check would the bookkeeper record the payroll journal entry, debiting wages expense for $7,400 and crediting the withholding liabilities and cash or accrued payroll.
In a multi-column special journal, such as a cash receipts journal, crossfooting means confirming that the totals of all the debit columns equal the totals of all the credit columns. If a business's receipts for the month show Cash debits of $48,500 and Sales Discounts debits of $500, the credit columns, perhaps Accounts Receivable of $31,000 and Sales of $18,000, must total $49,000 as well.
Where crossfooting is used
- Bookkeeping. Before posting the column totals of special journals, bookkeepers crossfoot them so that the ledger stays in balance and the trial balance will agree.
- Payroll and billing. Payroll registers and invoice summaries are crossfooted so that gross amounts, deductions and net amounts reconcile.
- Auditing. Auditors foot and crossfoot client schedules, such as an aged listing of receivables or a fixed-asset roll-forward, as a basic test before relying on the totals. It is one of the simplest procedures in a journal audit and in the review of supporting schedules.
- Spreadsheets. Analysts add a check cell that compares the sum of row totals with the sum of column totals, flagging any difference that a broken formula or an inserted row might cause.
Crossfooting in electronic systems
Modern accounting software adds columns automatically, so arithmetic slips are rarer than in hand-written books. Crossfooting has not disappeared, however; it has moved to the points where data passes between systems. When a payroll provider sends a summary file, when sales from an online store are imported into the ledger, or when a subsidiary ledger is exported to a spreadsheet for analysis, totals can be lost or duplicated. Comparing row totals with column totals at each hand-off is a cheap way to detect a missing batch, a duplicated line or a filter that was left switched on.
Audit software and spreadsheet templates often build the check in. A common design places a control cell below the grand total that subtracts the sum of the column totals from the sum of the row totals and highlights any result other than zero. Reviewers are trained to look at that cell first, before reading anything else on the schedule.
Limitations
Crossfooting only proves that the arithmetic is consistent. It will not catch an amount entered in the wrong row, a transaction that was never recorded, or a figure that is wrong in both its column and its total. Two offsetting errors can also cancel out. For these reasons it is combined with other controls, such as reconciling totals to source documents, the bank reconciliation and review by a second person.