Accountants were the first and foremost users of spreadsheet programs and they are still the dominant group using Excel. If you are working for accountants, you need to know this concept as these are critical formats for the accountants. They, sometimes, use Single Underlining and Double Underlining in their statement of accounts. Single Underlining is used to denote Subtotal and Double Underlining is used to denote Grand Total.

The concept, in simple terms (not in statement of account format) is illustrated below.

Q1 and Q2 totals are Subtotals, hence they are single underlined.

Grand Total is final total, hence that is double underlined.

To do so, right click on the cell and Format Cells (or CTRL+1) and go to Font tab. In the Underline box, you can select Single or Double Accounting.

Question – What is the difference between Single / Double and Single / Double Accounting underlines?

Answer – The only difference is vertical distance between number and underlines. In accounting, vertical gap is more.

Question – Then what to choose between Single / Double and Single / Double Accounting underlines?

Answer – It depends upon you / recipient of the Excel sheet what appeals to you / his eyes. Both are acceptable formats as far as accounting is concerned. One almost touches the number itself and one almost touches the lower boundary of the cell. That is the difference and it is an individual choice.

Question – Is there a way to do single / double underlining without right clicking and taking Format Cells?

Answer – Both Yes or No. You can go to Home tab > Click on Underline U to insert single underline. Click the small arrow next to U to expose option to insert double underline.

CATCH – This will not allow you to do accounting single / double underlining. For this, you will go through right click > format cells (CTRL+1) approach only.