Crossword Genius

Trade union splits very good sum (3,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tot up

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'sum' is the definition.
(I know that sum can be written as tot up)

'trade union splits very good' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'union' could be 'tu' (short for trade union) and 'tu' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'top' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tot up that I've seen before include "Add (some numbers)" , "Determine the sum of" , "Summate" , "Do summer job" , "Sum - total" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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