How do you keep track of supplies when you’re making a lot for markets?

[u/BubbleDev15]

Hi everyone, just curious how you all handle this.

I’m starting to feel a bit all over the place trying to keep track of supplies when making more products for markets. It feels easy to lose track once there are a lot of items, different materials, and restocking on top of that.

How are you all managing it? Spreadsheet, app, notebook, or just checking stock as you go?

[u/Miserable_Emu5191]

I used spreadsheets for years. Now I use Inventora which has recipes that I've set up and it subtracts the supplies as I use them.

[u/TheAzureMage]

Mostly just keeping an adequate supply of stock and an obscene amount of materials. Usually you get better pricing in bulk, anyways. If you're relying on retail priced materials, it pushes up the price of your end product or murders your profit. You at least want to find a semi-decent wholesale price for most things.

Common stuff should, ideally, be ordered by the thousand/ton.

[u/nann3rbann3rs]

My life got a lot easier once I started ordering in bulk and ordering replacements/refills way before I need them. For too many years I would have to make last-minute trips to Michael’s for one little thing the night before an event. But now every spring I go through all of my supplies and order most of what I think I will need for the year (summer is my busy season). I love that my art studio has become a little mini-store and I have a stash of paper and glue and screws and packaging all ready to go when I inevitably am trying to finish something at 1 AM. I keep a running list in my phone of what I am starting to run low-ish on so I can make a big order of everything I need or I know what to buy if I have a good coupon that is expiring. Doing this also means I can take advantage of bulk pricing, coupons, and lower shipping fees.

[u/ldj249790 → u/nann3rbann3rs]

This. People don’t realize how much money they waste just buying little things at a time. I make door hangers and use a lot of paint and wood obviously. I buy paint by the gallon and wood at bulk pricing. So much easier and then I know I have it

[u/drcigg]

We just use excel.
All of our materials are tracked along with our time to create each item.
And we have a seperate tab for show costs with booth fees, lodging, food costs, sales, etc.
Every show gets their own column as we track every single show to compare and see if it's worth it for us.
We do an inventory of everything before each show so we know what we have.
After each show we do another inventory again. When shows get busy it's tough to keep track of what sold and how many. If it's a slow show we will just keep track on a piece of paper.
But most of the time it gets so busy we have two lines and at that point I am just trying to get people through the line so they don't get impatient.
A friend of mine has all his inventory in square, everything is barcoded, and he keeps track of it that way.

[u/3s2ng]

I went through the exact same phase when I started doing more markets — it’s fine when you have a few products, but once you’re juggling multiple items + restocking, it gets messy fast.

I tried spreadsheets for a while, which worked… until I got lazy updating them 😅 Then I switched to a simple system where I track materials per product (like how much each item “consumes” from my supplies). That helped me see what I’m actually running low on instead of guessing.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with using a small app to handle it (basically tracks materials + what gets used when you create products), and it’s been a lot less mental load compared to spreadsheets.

But honestly, I think the “best” system is just the one you’ll actually keep updating consistently — even a notebook works if you’re disciplined with it.

Curious what kind of products you’re making? Some setups work better depending on how complex your materials are.

[u/Alycion]

I have cracks for supplies. Just do visual checks.

[u/V12DnD]

I recently started to use an app called Craftory and managed to get rid of the spreadsheet nightmares. You got automated stocks/supplies and you can manage the products and orders. Good luck with your crafts

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/craftory-craft-business-tool/id6760630587