The guideline
Make the total on the cart the amount that will actually be charged. Include VAT or sales tax and every mandatory fee — booking fee, service charge, resort fee, environmental levy — inside that figure, itemised beneath it rather than added after it. If a charge genuinely cannot be computed until a destination is known, say so next to the total and name what determines it. A total that grows between the cart and the payment screen is not a total.
Common failures
- A charge the user cannot decline is added after the cart, so the amount they agreed to on the cart is lower than the amount they are asked to pay.
- The cart shows a total with no indication of whether tax is inside it, so the user cannot tell if the number will hold.
Where it applies
Pages
Disciplines
Devices
Why it matters, how to fix it, and the research behind it
Rubric's full guide adds the reasoning, the fix and the sources for this check, and checks your client's pages against it and hundreds of others. Findings come back worst first.