This is last post in my 4 part series about how I do my inventory lists. This last post is about tallying what I sold after a fair or show.

This series is 4 parts:
Part 1 - To Do List
Part 2 - Master Price List
Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep
Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair

This post uses the sample file that you can use for your own studio. Reminder, I recommend downloading and using Excel vs Google Sheets as some of the formulas may not work, or work differently, in Sheets.

As I'm at a show I keep the printed inventory list and a pen by my chair. As I make a sale I make a tick mark next to an item. I'll also make notes to myself. It might be that I want to change the price of something at the next show. Or it might be that I have an idea for a new item or that I need to make more of a particular item.


I go back to the tab for that fair in my workbook and I add how many I sold of each item in the sold column. This gives me a total sold for each individual item type as well as total sold for the show at the bottom.

The total sold should equal (or be really close) to the total of cash, credit card, and Venmo. I'm usually spot on, but when I have a really busy show I'm not concerned if I'm a few dollars off because I forgot to mark something when I was checking out a line of customers.

This is also when I look back over the last few fairs to see if there are items that aren't selling that I think should be or if something is selling really well. I start thinking about what price adjustments I might want to make up or down for particular items.

If I want to make an adjustment I would do so on the Master Price list. Since I want to keep a record of the actual dollars sold for each show, I don't want price changes to reflect in past shows. What I do once I've filled out the tally is copy all the rows in the table, right click, choose paste special - values. What this does is overwrite the formulas with the text that's in each cell. This means that if I change a price - it won't change the past. This step is optional, but it helps me when I look at the history.




That's it for this series on how I use Excel for my inventory lists. I do hope that it was useful.