This example shows how to set up QuickBooks and FormCalc for the task described above. If you need more basic information about the setup steps, please see the FormCalc Tutorial.

Overview

LanTex Apparel Company is a clothing manufacturer and wholesaler. Because of the wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors on most orders, they'd like their Packing Slips to provide a summary which lists a count for each style, size, and colors on the order. They believe having these details on the Packing Slip will serve as cross-check information for the shipping department and should therefore reduce shipping errors. It will also provide helpful information their customers will appreciate.

This example describes how LanTex used FormCalc along with their standard Packing Slip (a QuickBooks Invoice with a Packing Slip template applied to it) to provide these additional details.

QuickBooks Setup

Add three Items to use as FormCalc triggers. Make all of them Service-type Items, and name them SumStyles, SumSizes, and SumColors. Do not include anything in the Description field when you set up these Items...we will let FormCalc supply that when it processes the Packing Slip (Invoice) form.

The screen shot below shows the SumStyles Item; the SumSizes and SumColors Items are set up exactly the same way. (Note: the FormCalc Item Postings account assigned to these Items is an Equity account discussed in the FormCalc Tutorial.)

For reference, here is how the column headings look on LanTex Apparel's invoice when their Packing Slip template is applied to it. The important columns for this example are the Item, Size, and Color columns:

FormCalc Setup

Enter all three of the QuickBooks Items on FormCalc's the Trigger Items tab, as shown below.

Notes:

• The Replace Description option is checked for each Item. This is not completely necessary, since we set up the Items to have nothing in their Description field. However, checking this option guarantees that FormCalc will replace any Description text supplied by the Item with Description text provided by FormCalc.

Choose a Layout tab to use for processing the Packing Slip form, give it a meaningful name, and select values which match the QuickBooks form column order shown above, for the Item column number and Description column number fields. Since this Layout will be applied to counting whole items, set the Results decimal places value to 0 to improve the appearance of the results. (When the results might contain decimal values, always set the desired number of decimal places, such as 2.) Here's an example:

Next, add three Actions to the Layout. All three will be essentially the same--all of the "Extended count of unique items" Action type. But each one will provide an extended count of a different column of the QuickBooks form. Below are screen shots of the Edit Action window for each of these Action. (The first one is complete; the other two only show the important details.)

Note that each Action will display its results in the Description column--that's a "hard-wired" requirement built into this Action type--and each one provides some custom text to display in the Description column as well.

Associate each Action with its corresponding trigger Item. The Layout window should look something like this when you've finished:

Processing the QuickBooks Form

Here's an example of one of LanTex Apparel's orders, entered using their Packing Slip template on a QuickBooks Invoice form. Notice that the three trigger items SumStyles, SumSizes, and SumColors are entered below the order lines.

Here's the same form after processing by FormCalc, with red added to highlight the results provided by FormCalc:

Another Variation...

The "Extended count of unique Items" Action type used in this example shares a feature in common with all FormCalc Actions that rely on trigger Items to determine where their results are displayed:  namely, that the trigger Item can appear anywhere you want it. This Action type, and most others, can be used to "subtotal" any part of the form.

Suppose LanTex Apparel's objectives for the Packing Slip were different, and they only wanted a size summary for each shirt style on the order. In that case, they could fill out the invoice as shown below. We've added red arrows to show where the SumSizes trigger Item is being used:

After invoking FormCalc, it would look like the following; again, with red added to highlight the results provided by FormCalc.

 

 

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