There are very different formulas for the differential cross section that depend on what is more convenient for your particular case. However I found often usefull the formula for the differential cross section of a process "two particle in many particles":
$$A(p_1)+B(p_2)\rightarrow \sum_{i=1}^n{C_i(k_i)}$$
the differential cross section in this case can be written as:
$$d\sigma=\frac{(2\pi)^4\delta\left(p_1+p_2-\sum_i{k_i}\right)}{4\sqrt{(p_1\cdot p_2)^2-m_1^2m_2^2}}{\left|M(p_1,p_2;k_i)\right|}^2\prod_{j=1}^n{\frac{d^3k_j}{(2\pi)^32\omega_j(k_j)}}$$
where M is the matrix element of the process.
The total cross section is obviousli the integral of the differential cross section. However you usually define it as:
$$dN_r=dN_f \cdot \sigma \cdot n_b\cdot d$$
where [itex]N_r[/itex] is the number of particles produced by the reaction, [itex]N_f[/itex] is the number of particles in the beam, [itex]n_b[/itex] is the density of targets and d is the thickness of the target.
You can find some usefull formulas and a very good treatment of this subject here: http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~wit00103/ftip/Ch03.pdf