Are you still using an Excel sheet to track all of your inventory, sales, and contacts? It may work for some, but if you’re looking to take your art business to the next level you’ll very likely benefit from inventory software created especially for artists. The great thing is that there is a variety of both free and paid all-online software (which means you can access it from any device anywhere you can connect to the internet). We dug into a few of the top inventory management websites to give you the details.
- Inventory Tracker Free App
- Best Free Inventory Tracker
- Best Free Inventory Tracker App
- Best Free Inventory Tracking Software
- Stockpile Inventory is a free online inventory management system ideal for small business and individual users. It is simple and yet makes online inventory management simple, easy and quick. The software is a big time-saver. Users, locations, and managed products are not limited.
- The Intuit Quickbooks inventory management spreadsheet is free to use and comes with some great tips on managing your inventory using Excel. Track products, purchases, sales, and view all of your data in a beautifully designed report from the dashboard right inside the workbook. It’s also available in Google Sheets and Numbers for Mac.
- Best Free Asset Tracking Software Choosing a free asset tracking service comes with pros and cons. We let you know which ones to opt for, and those to avoid.
- Download your free inventory template for personal or business use. Use it to track personal, home, equipment, product, and asset inventories with ease. With an Excel inventory template, like a fixed asset depreciation calculator, warehouse inventory list, physical inventory count sheet, or home contents inventory list, you’ll have greater.
Features
Manage reordering: Tracking inventory will help you accurately identify when products need to be reordered as well as which items are discontinued. Create business statistics: View sales patterns, identify best-selling products, and track your top suppliers.
- Detailed artwork catalog with images, categorization, and tagging features.
- Hosted website with custom templates.
- Promotional materials such as info sheets, catalogues, and price lists. Can share private lightboxes to prospective clients.
- Contacts database to keep track of past and present clients and leads.
- Sales records, reporting, and invoice generation software.
- Software to create consignment records and gallery paperwork.
Price Range
£6-£12 monthly, slightly less for annual payment plan. A £250 express option provides professional assistance with set up of database and website.
The Takeaway
If you’re in the UK and looking for a well built-out option to manage your inventory of works, this is a reasonable option. The monthly price is low, and a website is included (you can use your own domain name, if you have one). The website stresses the flexibility of their platform- you can include as much or as little detail in your database as you need, with the option to track limited-edition print runs as well. If you are looking for a one-stop-shop, ArtLook gets you financial tools and a contact database as well.
Features
- Free cataloguing tool with globally unique ID numbers for each work and the option to group the works into collections.
- Custom reports
- Private and public sharing tools
- Mobile app to track works-in-progress with phone pictures
- Integration with Shopify
Price Range
Free, with upgrade options
The Takeaway
If all you need is a quick and easy way to track your inventory, ArtMoi is a great choice. The mobile app and cloud storage mean you can update your inventory from anywhere- this may be a good choice for artists that work in a studio outside of the home.
Features
- Detailed inventory to build a full history for each piece
- Reporting features including consignment reporting
- Invoicing tools
- Contact management
- Location tracking and show history
- Searching, sorting, and filtering tools
Inventory Tracker Free App
Price Range
$6-$19/month, all options come with a free 30-day trial
The Takeaway
We’ve written about Artwork Archive before and also featured one of the founders, Justin, on our podcast here. If you can spare a few dollars a month, you won’t find a better option out there than Artwork Archive. There is an abundance of features, with more added frequently.
Features
- Inventory management with printable tear sheets
- Ability to generate private view sites for clients.
- Mobile POS software and e-commerce shopping cart integration
- Invoicing and reporting tools
- Website integration
- Client tracking
Best Free Inventory Tracker
Price Range
Free-$49/month (Free option is inventory-only, no extra features)
The Takeaway
Best Free Inventory Tracker App
ArtCloud offers a good free option for those looking for an inventory platform but without the need for extra services. You can create sub-lists to track pieces in various locations, and there are some helpful features like batch-editing to make life easier. The paid upgrade is quite a bit spendier than other options out there.
Features
- Comprehensive inventory database with branded documents and reports
- Contact database
- Ability to generate private views for clients.
- Website integration
- Invoicing tools
- Marketing tools
Price Range
$80/month
The Takeaway
Similar to ArtCloud, ArtLogic has a high range of features, but also a much higher price point. The appeal here is the extreme level of detail and integration amongst the various things you can track with the software- the contact database isn’t just an email list, it’s a comprehensive list of all your contacts including past and present clients, what works are in their possession, their locations, all financial history with each person, etc.
With free options and trials available on several of these sites, there’s really no reason not to give inventory management software a try. You may find that the integrations and automation provided by inventory software frees you up to do more of the thing you love most: making art!
For more apps we recommend, try the top apps for previewing your art on a wall and the best time management apps for artists.
Best Free Inventory Tracking Software
Do you use inventory software right now? Love it or hate it? Is there a great website we missed? Let us know in the comments!