Pro tip: my inventory tracking spreadsheet collapsed last Tuesday

I run a small online candle business out of my garage in Phoenix, and last Tuesday I realized my whole inventory system was a mess. I had been using this clunky Google Sheet that I built myself, and it just stopped working when I hit about 200 different SKUs. The formulas broke, it started giving me negative stock numbers for some scents, and I shipped three orders of the wrong holiday candles. I spent the whole night going through my supply closet with a flashlight, counting by hand, and it took me like five hours. Then I found this free cloud-based inventory tool called Zoho Inventory that someone mentioned on a forum, and it saved my butt. It connects to my Shopify store automatically now, so no more manual updates. Has anyone else had their homemade tracking system crash on them during a busy season? I can't be the only one who thought a spreadsheet would be enough.

3 comments

3 Comments

robert_bell29d ago

@joel_hall17 is right, spreadsheets work fine if your candle business isn't a hot mess like yours clearly was.

joel_hall171mo ago

Hold on, spreadsheets were good enough for every business before 2010 and they still work fine for most people if you set them up right. You probably didn't lock your formulas or had too many manual entries that broke it. I've seen people use Excel for 5,000 SKUs without issues, just takes some discipline. A small candle shop with 200 SKUs, that's nothing, maybe just bad sheet design on your end. Cloud tools are great and all but now you're locked into their pricing and they can change terms whenever. Brick-and-mortar wisdom used to be keep it simple with paper and a calculator, and that never had a server crash.

jamie77029d ago

My cousin runs a little bakery and tried using a spreadsheet for about 150 products. It worked okay for like two months then one time she accidentally dragged a cell wrong and it messed up her whole ingredient ordering list. She ended up with way too much flour and not enough sugar. That was enough for her to switch to a cheap cloud tool. I get that spreadsheets can work if you're really careful but for most small shop owners who are already running around doing everything, one little mistake can cost you real money.