(That is, if it is not already open.)

For this tutorial, we suggest you open an Invoice, though FormCalc will work with any QuickBooks form in which Items are used.

...including several Item lines that have entries in the Quantity column. Be sure to select the "Total" Item (the trigger Item you set up in an earlier step) on the last Item line you enter.

When you're done, your QuickBooks form might look something like this:

On most forms, an easy way to do this is to click on the Next button to save the data, then click the Previous button to return to it. In recent QuickBooks versions you can use the Save button.

This step is important if you're testing a new or changed FormCalc Layout! If you don't save the form's changes and there's a problem with your Layout—an incorrect column number, for example—you risk having FormCalc overwrite some of the data you've entered.

This step is important, because FormCalc must be invoked while the cursor (caret) is located in the QuickBooks form's detail area.

(If you fail to do this, FormCalc will display an error message.)

Press the FormCalc hotkey, which is the F10 key unless you've changed it in FormCalc Preferences. This will display the FormCalc Layout selection window:

Select the desired Layout from this window. You can either click on the Layout name with the mouse, or press the corresponding number key, 0...9.

For this tutorial, select Layout 0.

Don't type on the keyboard or use the mouse while FormCalc is processing the QuickBooks form.

If your Layout's column numbers were correct, etc., FormCalc should have put the results of its calculations in the appropriate location(s). If the results meet your approval, save them by clicking the form's Next button.

Hopefully, your form looks something like the following. We've added a red arrow to show where FormCalc added the Quantity column total.

If the results appear incorrect however, revert the form's data to its saved version as described earlier. Then examine your Layout and its Action(s) to figure out what may be wrong.

If FormCalc displayed an error message before it finished processing the form, and the message alone doesn't help you figure out what went wrong, review the topics on the Troubleshooting sub tab of FormCalc's main Help tab window.