Formpak Software Overview

Formpak software is used in complex ingredient and formulation environments. It is used in various ways by different companies, depending on business needs. Formpak software is primarily used for developing formulations, managing ingredients and product libraries, managing projects and work flow, handling technical and regulatory affairs including generating and managing documents. A video which introduces Formpak is available on our YouTube channel here: Introduction to Formpak.

In a standard installation, a window to the Formpak Support site can be seen on the home page of the software. The site contains walkthroughs and guides for many key software functions, plus an ever-increasing catalogue of help topics.

There are additional video’s available on topics including regulations and how to use Formpak. They are posted on our YouTube Channel

Menu Navigation

The Formpak menu options have titles which relate to the task they perform. There are a few ways to navigate around Formpak:

Enter a word into the Smart Search navigation on the top left, to see potential matching tasks. E.g. entering ‘raw’ brings up all tasks with ‘raw’ anywhere in their title.

Use the top menu buttons, which are focused on broad areas of the application like ‘Items’ and ‘Properties’.

Use the slider to move up and down through the menu options.

For more about navigation you could try the Quick Start Guide.

Common terms

Items: Raw Materials and Formulations

Raw Materials: This includes simple Raw Materials (having no composition information) or complex Raw Materials like essential oils (which have composition information)

Formulations: Formulations that are designed by your company

Components: The ingredients of Formulations and Raw Materials, which can be regulatory components, or physical raw materials

Properties: Attributes of Items which appear in the Property area of View a Raw Material / Formulation and Properties which appear in Projects and Tasks. These include properties like allergens, health and safety, nutritional information and stability. Properties are highly flexible, if you want to access and apply useful information about Items, this can be achieved with Properties

Suitability: Suitability checking is able to take an Item and look at specific rules to determine if the item is suitable for use. This can be answer such questions as ‘Is this product suitable…’ for a specified customer, taking into account the application, dosage, country of use and any customer imposed or business restrictions

Documents: Documents that are generated by, or stored on, Formpak. They appear in the Document tab of View a Raw Material / Formulation

Party: Party is the collective term for groups such as customers and suppliers

Attachments: Attachments are documents produced outside Formpak and uploaded to Formpak for attachment to Parties or Items