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The most interesting formation for the Necrons to me has to be the royal court. I thought the idea of taking an extra HQ was awesome, but while using BattleScribe I have noticed that I may be looking at the formation from the wrong way. My main question is, does the Royal Court count as your HQ when running the formation along a CAD or do I need to also run a 4th HQ with the combined arms detachment. I'm hoping the earlier as I only have 3 HQs at my disposal (being the Overlord, Cryptek, and Lord) and would really hate to be forced out of using the Royal Court for my army.

A unit can only belong to a single detachment. If you bring a Royal Court formation, the models are part of that, and not a CAD. As such, you still need an HQ for a CAD.

From 'Detachments' (pg. 118, main rulebook), text is in bold:

However, all of the units in your army must belong to a Detachment and no unit can belong to more than one Detachment.

While you have permission to have certain models in more than one detachment with the Decurion Detachment, you do not have permission for a model to be in both the Decurion Detachment and the Combined Arms Detachment simultaneously.

The short answer is yes, you do need a 4th HQ.

You are not required to run a CAD whatsoever, but models may only belong to one detachment. A CAD is a type of detachment, a Formation is another. You can have an unlimited number of them, but (again) a model may only belong to one detachment. The only exception to this that I can think of is a decurion-type detachment, which is a formation made up of other formations.

As a side note; I'm not overly familiar with the Necron Codex, but I believe you can only take [up to] a [single] Royal Court if you also use a Reclamation Legion, which also requires an Overlord. I may be misremembering.

 Ond Angel wrote:
The only exception to this that I can think of is a decurion-type detachment, which is a formation made up of other formations.

Formations and units. For example, Deathmarks and Flayed Ones are units that can be taken as an auxiliary choice in a Decurion that are not formations.

 Ond Angel wrote:
As a side note; I'm not overly familiar with the Necron Codex, but I believe you can only take [up to] a [single] Royal Court if you also use a Reclamation Legion, which also requires an Overlord. I may be misremembering.

They may be taken as a standalone Formation alongside of the Decurion. They however will not receive any of the Command Benefits of the Decurion.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Ond Angel wrote:
The only exception to this that I can think of is a decurion-type detachment, which is a formation made up of other formations.

Formations and units. For example, Deathmarks and Flayed Ones are units that can be taken as an auxiliary choice in a Decurion that are not formations.

 Ond Angel wrote:
As a side note; I'm not overly familiar with the Necron Codex, but I believe you can only take [up to] a [single] Royal Court if you also use a Reclamation Legion, which also requires an Overlord. I may be misremembering.

They may be taken as a standalone Formation alongside of the Decurion. They however will not receive any of the Command Benefits of the Decurion.

Ah, cheers for the clarification on that.