Cross Foot Accounting

See Also:
Account Reconciliation
Account Reconcilement Definition
Journal Entries (JEs)
Role of a Company Back Office

Cross Foot Accounting Meaning

Cross Foot accounting is the procedure of verifying the mathematical accuracy of a total of rows and columns. To “foot” a column of numbers means to total the rows and compare to a grand total. To “cross foot” a row means to total across the numbers in each column.

foot = vertical sum of a column of numbers

cross foot = horizontal sum of a row of numbers

Once a group of numbers have been footed and cross footed then a “check symbol” with a horizontal line through the top is placed at the end of the numbers that have been foot and cross foot.

Cross Foot Errors

Cross foot errors in excel can occur as a result of adding or deleting rows and columns after the original sum formulas were created. It is useful to sum spreadsheets both horizontally (cross foot) and vertically (foot) using formulas then compare the two calculations.
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