AX is Better at Math than I Am

Did you know that AX has a built in calculator? You can access it under File > Tools > Calculator.

All AX installations come standard with Calculator.

But even though that is a sweet feature, that is not what my post is about. I am here to tell you today that AX is better at math than either of us and if you don't know about the functionality I am about to share with you, I guarantee that it will put a smile on your face.


Imagine you are taking an order from a customer by phone. They start rattling off their order and you are trying to rapidly enter it into AX. Then they throw a zinger. They say "I want seven pallets of 456 for item A0001." They are a customer that is set up to order by eaches, and they just threw some math at you. While you are still trying to process that number, they are moving on to the next part of their order. This is where AX is very smart. In the quantity field of your sales order that is being entered, just put 7*456 in the field, and when you tab over, it will have calculated the total for you.

Under quantity on my Sales order, I entered 7*456 before tabbing to the next field.

Once I hit tab, the field quantity calculates for me to 3,192.

As you can see in my example above, AX has calculated the amount for the customer's order without a lot of extra work. I just typed in my equation and when I tabbed out of that field, it had calculated it for me as a value of 3,192!

You can see where this has some similarity to the functionality in Excel, but instead of typing a formula into the field with a preceding equal sign, this is just the bare bones math.

I have tried this with so many different types of math problems, and it always works. This is something that can be very helpful when trying to enter a customer's order quickly, deducting inventory when creating a counting journal, or calculating a BOM's scrap percentage. As long as you write your formula correctly, AX will do the math for you. Let me know how you use this functionality in AX. I would love to hear how this is being utilized.