Cross Footing

What is Cross Footing?

Cross footing was a method of double checking, whereby you summarized column totals and arrived at a grand total. 

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How it Works

In the days of manual systems, businesses kept their financial records in a system of journals. 

Each journal was divided into columns. 

The columns showed details about each transaction. 

You updated the journals on a daily basis. 

As you went along, you found the total of each day’s transactions. 

At month end, you tallied each column. 

Once complete, you found the total of all columns. 

To double check your work, you tallied the daily totals. 

This process was known as cross footing. 

If the summarized totals equal the grand total, then it showed your work was correct.