The Scratchpad is an area on the Snapshot tab, to the right of the columns which represent native columns of the QuickBooks form. It consists of ten blank columns colored with a light yellow background. In the Scratchpad, you can enter formulas which refer to the native QuickBooks columns. Also, formulas entered in the native columns can refer to cells in the Scratchpad.

In the example above, a formula entered on the Formulas row of the Scratchpad, =F18*G18, will calculate an extended weight for each line of an invoice, by multiplying the Unit Weight by the Quantity on each line. Presumably, a trigger Item named ShipWt will be selected somewhere toward the bottom of the invoice, and it will total the Extd Wt. column of the Scratchpad, to provide a total shipping weight for the entire invoice.

The Scratchpad lets you do things like create subtotals and totals of the QuickBooks form's columns, or do other intermediate calculations, without adding additional custom columns to the QuickBooks form (Invoice, Sales Receipt, etc.). This provides several benefits:

❖Using the Scratchpad can free up custom fields for other uses in QuickBooks. This can be especially important if you need a large number of custom fields (columns) for data but the number of custom fields available in your QuickBooks edition (such as QuickBooks Pro) is limited.

❖Sometimes, you may be able to add new calculations for a QuickBooks form without taking a new snapshot of the form. If you can add the new calculation in a Scratchpad column instead of modifying the form's layout, taking a new Snapshot won't be necessary.

❖The Scratchpad lets you do some kinds of calculations more simply than if all formulas had to be entered in (match up with) native QuickBooks columns. For instance, in some situations the Scratchpad lets you avoid using long formulas containing IF() statements.

❖Using the Scratchpad often makes FormCalc SST run faster! How? If you can remove custom columns from the Items area of a QuickBooks form (because they are no longer needed for use by FormCalc SST), the form will have fewer columns for to travel over as it gathers data and processes calculations. Fewer columns to travel over means quicker operation!

Now you can use wildcards in Item names you enter in FormCalc SST for Item-triggered formulas. This allows you to apply the same calculation formula to a range of related Item names instead of only a single matching name.

FormCalc SST can match Item names in either of two ways:

❖Exact match. This happens when an Item name you have entered in FormCalc SST exactly matches an Item name in QuickBooks. Exact matching ignores capitalization however: ItemName, itemname, and ITeMNAMe would all match a QuickBooks Item named ItemName.

❖Wildcard match. This happens if you have used wildcard characters in an Item name in FormCalc SST and a QuickBooks Item name is encountered which matches the wildcard name. FormCalc SST supports * and ? as wildcard characters: * matches any number of characters in an Item name, and ? matches any single character. Examples:

Local CST* would match these QuickBooks Item names:

Local CST Tax - Jacksonville
Local CST Tax - Key West
Local CST Tax - Orlando

Local Tax - Jack* would match these QuickBooks Item names:

Local Tax - Jacksonville
Local Tax - Jacksonville Beach

But not:

Local Tax - Key West
Local Tax - Orlando

Local Tax 3?? would match all of these QuickBooks Item names:

Local Tax 301
Local Tax 348

But not:

Local Tax 214
Local Tax 179

Some FormCalc SST users need to be able to do calculations on two or more different QuickBooks forms, such as Invoices and Sales Receipts, at any time—because they may enter sales on either form at any time.

This was a problem in older FormCalc SST versions because they only allowed running a single instance of the program at a time. If you had a data file (*.SSF) loaded for doing calculations on an Invoice, for instance, then wanted to apply calculations to a Sales Receipt, you first had to go to FormCalc SST and manually load a different data file—one set up for working with Sales Receipts.

This is no longer a problem however, beginning with FormCalc SST version 3. Now you can run multiple instances of the FormCalc SST program, and each instance (each running copy of the program) can have a different data file loaded, with a different hotkey assigned to it. So if you want to be able to quickly apply calculations to Invoices and also to Sales Receipts, you can start two copies of FormCalc SST and load a different data file into each one. (The number of FormCalc SST instances you can run at one time is essentially unlimited.)

The most important consideration for running multiple FormCalc SST instances, is to assign a different hotkey to the data file (*.SSF) you load in each one. To assign a different hotkey to a data file:

1.Open the desired data file (*.SSF) in FormCalc SST (File > Open).

2.Set the hotkey in the Preferences dialog (Edit > Preferences).

3.Save the data file (File > Save) to preserve your hotkey setting for that file.

What happens if you load two data files which both use the same hotkey? When you load the second file, FormCalc SST will display a message saying it could not register the file's hotkey. The solution is to set a different hotkey for the file, then close it and reopen it.

Below is an invoice for an actual FormCalc SST customer who sells communications products and services. (The Customer name on the invoice is fictitious.) FormCalc SST solved a major calculation problem for him:  he must calculate five different taxes on invoices, and each tax is based on different combinations of Item lines on the invoice; in other words, no tax calculation on the invoice is as simple as QuickBooks' standard sales tax calculation approach. So QuickBooks alone was incapable of doing the calculations he needed.

The red arrows indicate that FormCalc SST pulled together information from several different parts of the invoice to calculate the taxable amount for Local, State, and Gross Receipts tax calculations, $95.89. (It also copied that amount down to the various tax lines in the green box.

The blue arrow shows one of several examples of how FormCalc SST can copy numbers from higher on the invoice to Item lines farther below, for calculation purposes.

The green box shows the block of taxes FormCalc SST was responsible for calculating. The Items were selected by the user (their order is not important—FormCalc SST could work with them in any order). FormCalc SST even created the Description column information showing the tax rates as percentages, such as 8.5% for the USF tax Item.

The new STOR, GET, and wildcard Item name matching features let us set up a FormCalc SST data file which accomplished all of the calculations shown on the invoice above. The only things the user has to do are (1) fill out the invoice, with Item lines grouped in the various taxation categories as shown, and (2) press a single hotkey to get FormCalc SST to apply the calculations to the invoice.

This real-world example only scratches the surface of what is possible with FormCalc SST version 3!