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When your spreadsheet totals don't match

The summary says one thing, the raw data says another, and you're scrolling rows trying to find where they split. Tally recomputes every figure from the data and points straight at the one that's wrong.

The problem

The summary and the data disagree

Your summary tab totals to one number; the raw data underneath adds up to another. Nothing looks obviously broken, so you start the hunt — sorting, filtering, re-summing chunks of rows to find where the two drifted apart. It's the tax every spreadsheet operator pays, and it always seems to happen right before the number is due.

Operators call it "spreadsheet drift" — and when it bites, it bites hard:"our counts were off by 30% and we ended up doing an emergency physical count on a Saturday." The cause is almost never exotic. A total swept in a footer row. A value got counted twice. The summary was right last week and the data moved. But findingwhich is the afternoon you lose.

How Tally does it

Straight to the figure that's wrong

Rebuilt from the rows

Tally re-adds every total and summary directly from the raw data — trusting the rows, not the summary cell you're doubting.

The one that doesn't reconcile

Instead of a hunt, you get the exact figure that's off and the reason — a duplicate, a footer swept into the sum, a stale summary.

The rows behind it

Click the figure and see exactly which rows it came from — so you fix the cause, not just the symptom.

Live right now

Reconciling a summary against the raw data it came from is what Tally does today — free, in your browser, no account. Drop in the spreadsheet and it finds the figure that doesn't add up, with the rows to prove it.

Totals that don't match — common questions

Find the figure that's off

Free, no account, and your file never leaves your browser.

Related: Check a report before sending· Reconcile two spreadsheets· What Tally is