A craft fair inventory sheet is one page you fill in twice: before you leave, how many of each item you're bringing, and when you pack up, how many are coming home. The difference is what sold, item by item, and with each item's price and cost beside it, the sheet tells you what the show really left after the booth fee and card fees, which items sold through and which just traveled, and what to make before the next one. It's more reliable than adding up receipts, because it counts what's actually gone, including the earring that sold for cash while you were wrapping a necklace. In the example below, a jewelry maker brings 102 pieces to a holiday fair, sells 45 for $1,566, and after a $150 booth, card fees and the cost of what sold, takes home $921, about $92 an hour for the day. Below is how to use the sheet, the example, what sell-through tells you, and the free printable template.
The short version
- Before you leave: write down how many of each item you're bringing.
- When you pack up: count what's coming home. Brought minus home is what sold.
- Price and cost per item turn the counts into sales and the cost of what sold.
- Subtract the booth fee and card fees to see what the show really left.
- Sell-through, sold ÷ brought, shows which items earn their table space.
- Restock what sold before the next show, and bring less of what didn't.
- TaroStack treats a market stall as a site, moved to and counted back with no signal. More below.
What goes on the sheet
| Column | When you fill it in | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Item | Before the season | One row per thing you sell |
| Price | Before the season | What the customer pays |
| Cost each | Before the season | Materials, packaging and your time |
| Brought | Before you leave | What went in the car |
| Came home | When you pack up | Counted, not guessed |
| Sold | Works itself out | Brought − came home |
| Sales | Works itself out | Sold × price |
| Sell-through | Works itself out | Sold ÷ brought |
How to work out what one piece costs, with your time in it, is in how to price handmade jewelry.
A holiday craft fair
Sea Glass Lane, a made-up jewelry maker I use in these examples, takes five designs to a holiday fair on December 6:
| Item | Price | Brought | Came home | Sold | Sales | Sell-through |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea glass stud earrings | $28 | 30 | 12 | 18 | $504 | 60% |
| Drop earrings | $34 | 24 | 15 | 9 | $306 | 38% |
| Pendant necklace | $48 | 20 | 11 | 9 | $432 | 45% |
| Bangle bracelet | $38 | 16 | 10 | 6 | $228 | 38% |
| Stacking ring | $32 | 12 | 9 | 3 | $96 | 25% |
| Total | 102 | 57 | 45 | $1,566 | 44% |
And what the day really left:
| The show | |
|---|---|
| Sales | $1,566.00 |
| Booth fee | −$150.00 |
| Card fees, 3% | −$46.98 |
| Cost of what sold | −$447.90 |
| Left | $921.12 |
| Hours at the show, setup to pack-up | 10 |
| Left per hour | $92.11 |
The cost of what sold already includes the hours spent making it, so the $92 an hour is for the day at the show on top. A fair that left $20 an hour would be worth thinking twice about next year, however busy it felt.
What sell-through tells you
The studs sold 60% of what came; the rings 25%. That doesn't make the rings a bad product, but it does mean 12 rings took table space and came home. For the next fair: bring more studs, the same necklaces, and fewer rings, and see whether the rings sell better on a different display. Over three or four shows, sell-through by item is better than any guess at what to make; how to plan quantities from it is in how much inventory to bring to a craft fair, and what a whole season of stalls costs is in cost to sell at a farmers market.
Get the template
Download the craft fair inventory sheet. The Show inventory sheet prints on one page: fill in Brought before you leave and Came home when you pack up, and it works out sold, sales, sell-through and what to restock. The Show result sheet takes the booth fee, your card fee rate and your hours, and works out what the show really left. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
One show on one sheet is easy. A season of shows, markets and an online shop, with the same pieces moving between them, isn't. The stock at home goes down when a box goes to a fair and up when it comes back, the online shop sells a necklace that's sitting in the fair box, and the sheets from twelve shows never get added up to tell you which designs to keep making.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the stock where it actually is.
The stall as a site. A market stall is a kind of site, so the fair's stock is moved there before you leave, and counted back when you pack up, on a phone, with no signal needed in a hall or a field. What sold is what left, recorded with the day.
One stock across shows and shop. Your fairs and your online store draw on one record, by site, so what's in the fair box is counted at the fair, not at home; your Shopify store connects, and we set it up with you.
And what each design earns. Each piece is a recipe of its materials, so making it takes them off stock, and margins are reported by product, on what things actually cost, so a season of shows tells you which designs to keep.
| The job | Paper sheets | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What went to the fair | Written on the way out | Moved to the stall site |
| What came home | Counted into a notebook | Counted back on a phone, no signal |
| The necklace in the fair box | Still counted at home | Counted at the stall site |
| Which designs to keep | Twelve sheets to add up | Margins by product |
Counting, recipes and margins by product are on every plan, from $49 a month; the stall as its own site, beside your studio, is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.