Hi thanks so much for replying and helping me however when I make the change you suggest the result I get is :

Result -

Item $

1.5 69

0.5 23

Subtotal NaN NaN

The values that were previously displayed as numbers now read NaN and still in the list rather than sum.

The underlying data is from a SQL data base and is in decimal format.

I tried using <xsl:value-of select='format-number(sum(../../*/*/costs), "###,###.00")' /> and this gives the same result as above, ie with NaN

If I just use <xsl:value-of select='format-number(costs, "###,###.00")' /> directly on costs I get the numbers, but not summed! so back to where I started.

Result-

Item $

1.5 69

0.5 23

Subtotal 69.00 23.00

Grateful for any further suggestions.