Hi,
So confused. Every time I do a search I come up with 2-3 suggestions for software for managing the art side of my business.
I would really appreciate opinions about art specific management software you use, and what you really like about it.
I have gone the QB route in the past, it was too limiting, and extremely difficult to undo anything entered accidentally, or found later on it needed to be some where else. And, I had extensive training on how to use it.
I am especially interested in the inventory, tracking hours, tracking shows, ability to do catalogues, etc.
Thank you in advance.
Carol
Replies
I largely use excel spreadsheets, but am considering switching to YNAB, which is an accounting software I have been using for home budgeting for over a year now.
It would be nice to have a software which ties everything together from inventory to time/cost to make a piece, to the customer who bought it, etc., but I've yet to find a good software that does all these things--and at an affordable cost for a small business owner.
I'm currently using the Apple iPhone 6 App HT Pro (HoursTracker Pro) to keep up with my hours on each painting/project and my total time in my studio. I use the Square App now to make all sales from my studio/gallery, and am planning to use this as well for my first outdoor art show in a few weeks. It automatically puts in the sales tax amount I set, and I can enter cash amounts and get exact change needed through the app as well. It helps me track inventory, especially for posters. It looks like I may be able to input customer data into the app/system as well, though I haven't explored this aspect yet.
I have used Bento software on the Mac with specifically crafted art templates to keep track of painting inventory, but as it can't be read or edited online, it's a bit clunky. Here is another art inventory system I considered but did not purchase: http://www.xanadugallery.com/arttracker/. Good luck!
I use Quick Books for quarterly report preparation: income statement and balance sheet. For everything else I have set up my own spread sheets in Excel as I found most commercial stuff was lacking for leather art. This includes: inventory (supplies, leather, hardware, and separate sheets for belts, art work, silver buckles and more), job costing, price lists, show schedules, show financial summaries, client quotes, payment tracking, tool and equipment inventories, bank reconciliation, sales tax calculation and more. In quick books I just enter deposits and checks to get the reports. I used Peach Tree for a long time but the same way as with QB. The commercial software just had so much stuff I did not need or use.