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Kim Bemis

6 Years Ago

Do You Use An Inventory Management Program?

I am looking for an inventory management program to keep track of my photography in galleries, sales, etc. Do you have a recommendation?

I have been looking at artsala.com. Has anyone tried it?

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Cynthia Decker

6 Years Ago

I have a spreadsheet with a sheet for each gallery that I use to track inventory, cost/profit, commission, rent, and art I have in temporary spaces like shows or restaurants.

I'd like to follow this thread as I'm interested in what else is out there. I'll have to look into artsala.

 

Rich Franco

6 Years Ago

Kim,

What would be the use of such a system? What problems would this solve?

Rich

 

Cynthia Decker

6 Years Ago

I wasn't impressed with artsala, but it seems setup to be more appealing to artists without a website or a selling portal.

 

Roy Erickson

6 Years Ago

I have a couple of spread sheets that I use to keep track of my files - I was primarily interested in being able to match my file names with the title of the work. I don't have enough sales to worry about any other things.

 

Kim Bemis

6 Years Ago

Rich,
I have my work in several shops, and a lot of prints and frames stored at home. Although I usually have a good idea where everything is, on occasion I forget, and I need to hunt for it.

I am away in India for most if the year, which makes it difficult to determine what I have available.

This weekend, the Art League of Ocean City, Maryland, invited me to display my work in the Art's Alive show this weekend. I arrive in the US on Thursday. Since I do not have an inventory of my work, I am unable to give them a list of my display in advance. And on Friday I may need to scramble to locate one of the pieces that I want to show.

It woke me up to the fact that I need better inventory control to know locations, sizes and prices.

Cynthia and RD, a spreadsheet could work. Since I travel a lot, it might be more convenient if there was an inexpensive app or software that I can access online.

 

Cynthia Decker

6 Years Ago



Here's a small image of my inventory format. I have different formats I sell; large prints, 12" squares, etc. Each use inventory numbers; different for each category/type of print. Then you can see at the bottom I have a similar sheet for each venue, and one for what I have at my home studio. I update the inventory every month when I get receipts from galleries, and I update whenever I order new inventory.

I also have a sheet for sold items. When something sells, I move it to that sheet. When I combine that info with my sales data from Fine Art America, I can see which of my images sell the most often and which formats sell best.

I have a different spreadsheet for tracking cost/commission/rent/pricing/profit for each venue. I want my gallery pricing to be in line with my online pricing as much as possible, although I do offer some products in galleries that customers can't purchase online.

And lastly I have yet another spreadsheet where each month I track my income from each venue (including online sales and design work) and my overall spending for the business so I have a running total of my gross and net incomes and expenses.

So at any given time, I know where things are, where to order what, what they cost, and how much I made on them in past months.

 

Jimmie Bartlett

6 Years Ago

I believe a system, whatever works, is needed to track all of our art. If the system is a 'photo graphic' memory that would be great. I keep a folder for each place I have art in and update the changes as they are made. Keeping track of all my art I have at home is the toughy. I just keep looking till I find it! lol

 

Rich Franco

6 Years Ago

Kim,

Now I understand!

I have a different method: 4 pieces in the hall closet, 4 pieces in the guest room, 3 each under the guest beds,.....etc. etc.! LOL!

Rich

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

6 Years Ago

I started losing track of where I had last shown my art - but I didn't think a system that required the records to be stored someplace other than with the art (like in a computer) would work for me.

I don't use a spreadsheet, I use sticky notes, the very big ones, with the lines printed on them for writing on. I keep a show record (venue & show dates) I've shown the work, and it stays stuck to the back of the artwork.

Sticky notes for art currently on display go in one file folder.
Sticky notes for sold art get stored in another file folder, with the date / venue / price-sold information, and any other info I care about written on them.

 

Kristalin Davis

6 Years Ago

Brilliant Rich :)

I love your organization skills Cynthia. I can imagine that the more successful the artist becomes, the more need for good organization and 'book keeping' also becomes.

 

Kim Bemis

6 Years Ago

Cynthia, your your spread sheet system might be just what I need. Thank you for taking the time to share it.

Jim and Rich, lol, your systems are more what I currently have, in the closet, against the wall, under the bed, in the shed.

A good system does look more professional. One of the stores that shows about 20 of my pieces wants me to keep them up to date with an inventory list of what is on display. They are extremely professional in what they do, and I feel like I should meet them on the same level if professionalism.

 

Roger Swezey

6 Years Ago

When I started my "Rats,Bats, Vultures,etc.: enterprise, forty years ago, way before this digital age, I had an elaborate inventory system, giving each original it's own descriptive name with it's hopefully logical number.

It got out of hand very quickly. When I couldn't keep track as to which appellation applied to which piece, it turned into a total disaster and eventually all those handwritten spreadsheets went into a drawer, never to be taken out again.

From then on it became "Ignorance is Bliss"...and to "Go with the Flow" became my mantra.

As long as I was satisfied with the income I was making, in relation to the time and creative effort it took to produce the work, I figured why bother with anything else.

 

Bill Swartwout

6 Years Ago

Very interesting, Kim. I was a member of the Art League of Ocean City for a couple of years and try to visit Arts Alive every June. I may see you there this weekend. Safe travels.


---------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com
~ Visit me on Facebook.

 

Bill Posner

6 Years Ago

I use Lightroom, I created a collection of images I've sold, and just move them into that collections, and set keywords for customer and location etc. I have collections for Instagram, Twitter, FB, my other site and gifts. The way LR works, is a collection is just a pointer to the original. I allow have folders that has a hierarchy Starting with Customers folder at the top, and customer/gallery name below this is also accessible through Lightroom. Some of the files names represent the sale, i.e bobjones550061716metal which means sold to Bob Jones for $550 on 06/17/16 Metal format. I also use a spreadsheet that calculated profit, using creations costs, shipping, gallery or show percentage, markup and resulting profit. Allows me to do "what ifs" These are mostly for things I do off FAA. I haven't sold much here, but I figure their database has enough info that I can use it as it is. Only thing missing is customer info. :(

Of course all my work is digital, which my way isn't much help to painters and sculptors that deal with physical presence ;)

 

Tim Wilson

6 Years Ago

Check these out...they may or may not fit your needs..I looked at them at one time, but they are all more weighted towards painters and the like. As a photographer, my needs arent exactly the same as other artists, so I ended up creating a Access db to track my work.

http://www.artpromotivate.com/2012/06/artist-management-software-for-art.html

 

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