Subtotale

Subtotale is the partial sum of a set of numbers, commonly used to represent the cost of items before adjustments. In invoices, receipts, and shopping carts, it denotes the sum of line-item totals prior to taxes, shipping, discounts, or other charges.

Practically, the subtotal is obtained by adding the price times quantity for each item. Taxes, fees, and discounts are then applied to arrive at the final total.

In spreadsheet and data tools, subtotal can refer to a computed partial sum, and is also the name of a function in some software (for example, Excel's SUBTOTAL), which can operate on visible rows or multiple aggregation types rather than a plain sum.

Origin and usage: the term comes from Italian subtotale meaning partial total; it is widely used in accounting, retail, and e-commerce to convey item costs before additional charges.