Call to account for gross profit and ask after total (4,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
take to task
'call to account' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gross profit and ask after total' is the wordplay.
'gross profit' becomes 'take' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'total' becomes 'tot' (synonyms).
'ask' after 'tot' is 'totask'.
'take' next to 'totask' is 'TAKE TO TASK'.
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for take to task that I've seen before include "slag off" , "Be critical" , "censure" , "transport for mission" , "give worker a lift in" .)