Simple question I think. I need to keep a running balance based on result of last record. i.e I have a field called balance that needs to be carried from the last record to the new one. This balance will then chage (add or subtract to it) depending on additions or subtractions based on other fields. The now new balance has to be carried over to the next new record.
Make sense?

Sorry, makes no sense to a non-programmer like me.
Thought I could use a @globalvalue

I appreciate your help but maybe I need to re-explain myself (or I'm presently too dense to comprehend) All I need to do is
grab 1 number from the very last record and carry it to a new record.  So if the last saved record has a field called balance and the value is $1000 I just need that to transfer over to a new record at the add data screen. I could call it old balance
(but this was not my original idea, my original was to just carry it over to the balance field on the form in add data )  and  then perform the math on this amount and store it in the balance field. When this record is saved I now need the new balance to be carried forward to a new record. Thats why I thought I could just make it a @globalvalue but unl;ike a numbering system I do not need it incremented.
Isn't there a simple instruction that can pull a value from the last saved record and put it on a new record?
something on the line of (I'm making this up now)
If oldbalance = "" then oldbalance = getfromlastsavedrecord "balance" or isn't life that simple

GrandTotal = item4 + @xlookupr (@filename, 999999999, "counter", "GrandTotal")


The above formula computes the GrandTotal including the figures on the current record. If you just want to know the Old_Balance

Old_balance = @xlookupr (@filename, 999999999, "counter", "GrandTotal")

(Xlookupr command does not need to have the exact match, it accept next lower value match. The logic is 999999999 being very large number, it will match with the record with the highest value of Counter: element. )

Globalvalue () command can be used for creating a counter.  Counter you will need, whether you will create it using @number or Globalvalue (), it should not matter. With GlobalValue (), you can create multiple counters, while only one @number is used per application.

I hope this should add some clarity.