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The word foot is used by accountants to refer to a column of numbers. Crossfoot refers to checking whether the sum of the totals in various columns corresponds to a total total. The debit column is on the left side of the account while the credit column is on the right. Amounts are entered to these columns as business transactions are recorded and posted. Once all transactions are recorded and posted, the account balances are computed. Account balances are the amounts that are reported in the financial statements.
In accounting, footing refers to the result after summing up all the credits and the debits. We will use the table below to illustrate the meaning of crossfoot or crossfooting. Note that the table shows the hours that three employees spent working for three clients. The column for Adam has the sum of 121, Beth’s has 176, and Cindy’s has 66. An auditor will “foot” each of these columns as well as the “Total” column to verify that the detailed amounts appearing in each column add up to the each column’s sum (121, 176, 66, and 363). Accounting and bookkeeping terminology is often unique to the field.
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The financial accounting software will automatically calculate the footing in the expenses column to ensure the total costs are accurate and adequately reflected in the financial statements. The final balance after adding all the debits to accounting is called a footing. To calculate the account balance, the debits are added to the total, then the credits are added.
In Excel, how do you use tick and cross?
To “cross foot” a row means to total across the numbers in each column. Accounting professionals use the term foot to refer to adding a column of numbers. Crossfoot is to confirm that the sums of various columns agree to a grand total.
As business transactions are recorded, accountants enter the amounts for each type of transaction in one of two columns. The debit and credit columns footing in accounting are summed, whereby the total of each column is a footing. In accounting, a footing is the final balance when adding all the debits and credits.
