> looking at and add it to a running total.

Whats wrong the CPU used time in top ?

"top -c" for example, try sorting by user or group.

For example my X server has used 535mins, 13.4 seconds of CPU time in
uptime (10 days 16 hrs)

4139 root 15 0 207m 152m 6560 S 0.7 10.0 535:13.14 /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -ac -audit 0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth vt7

Jon