Accountants use the word foot to mean adding a column of numbers. To crossfoot means to verify that the sum of the totals in various columns also agrees to a grand total.

For example, assume you have a table of numbers that shows the sales of five items for the past week. Column A consists of the names of the five items. Columns B through H show the sales of each item for the days Sunday (Column B) through Saturday (Column H). Column I reports each item’s total sales for the week. After footing each of the eight columns B through I, a good accountant will verify that the total of the totals in Columns B through H agrees to the total of Column I. This last step is known as crossfooting.

About the Author: Harold Averkamp (CPA) has worked as an accountant, consultant, and university accounting instructor for more than 25 years.

He is the creator of the AccountingCoach Pro which has been praised for its ability to simplify accounting in a way that anybody can understand.

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