A line sheet is the page a shop buyer orders from: every product you'll sell them, with its photo, SKU, size, how many come in a case, the wholesale price and the suggested retail price, and your terms at the top. It's shorter than a catalog and more specific than a sell sheet, and it's what a buyer asks for after they like what they've seen at a show or in your email. Below is what goes on one, a filled-in example for a candle maker, how the shop's margin is worked out, and a free template with an order form that totals the cases and checks your minimum.
The short version
- Your terms first: opening minimum, reorder minimum, payment, lead time, shipping, contact.
- One row for each product: photo, name, SKU, size, case pack, wholesale price, suggested retail.
- Case pack: shops order by the case, so say how many are in one.
- Show the shop's margin: wholesale at half the retail price leaves them 50%.
- Keep it to what you can ship in your lead time.
- Date it; prices change, and the buyer should know which sheet they're ordering from.
- TaroStack keeps every SKU counted and turns a shop's order into a picking list. More below.
What goes on a line sheet
| Part | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Header | Your business, the season or date, how to order |
| Terms | Opening order minimum, reorder minimum, payment terms, lead time, who pays shipping |
| Each product | Photo, name, SKU, size or weight, case pack, wholesale price each, suggested retail price |
| Worked out | Case price, and the shop's margin at the suggested retail price |
| Notes | Anything a buyer needs to know: burn time, display box, ingredients |
A sell sheet is one product or one line on a page, made to start the conversation; how to build one is in sell sheet template. A line sheet is the whole range, made to take the order. The SKUs on it should be the ones you pick and invoice by, so the buyer's order matches your shelves.
A filled-in example: a candle maker's line sheet
Lehua Glow, a made-up candle maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, sends this to gift shops for the fall:
| Product | SKU | Size | Case pack | Wholesale | Suggested retail | Case price | Shop's margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumeria candle, amber jar | JAR09-PLU | 9 oz | 6 | $13.00 | $26.00 | $78.00 | 50% |
| Pikake candle, amber jar | JAR09-PIK | 9 oz | 6 | $13.00 | $26.00 | $78.00 | 50% |
| Coconut lime candle, amber jar | JAR09-CLM | 9 oz | 6 | $13.00 | $26.00 | $78.00 | 50% |
| Plumeria travel tin | TIN04-PLU | 4 oz | 12 | $7.00 | $14.00 | $84.00 | 50% |
| Plumeria two-wick candle | JAR16-PLU | 16 oz | 4 | $22.00 | $44.00 | $88.00 | 50% |
| Ginger lei reed diffuser | DIF-GNG | 4 oz | 6 | $15.00 | $30.00 | $90.00 | 50% |
Terms: a $150 opening order, $100 to reorder, the first order paid when it's placed and net 30 after that, shipping in five business days, paid by the shop. A shop ordering two cases of plumeria jars, one of pikake, one of tins and one of diffusers orders $408, well over the minimum. Whether net 30 suits you is in net 30 terms, and how minimums work on both sides is in minimum order quantity.
The shop's margin, and your price
A shop's margin is the suggested retail price minus what it pays you, divided by the retail price: ($26 − $13) ÷ $26 = 50%. Most gift shops expect about that, which is why a wholesale price is generally half the retail price. The question for you is whether half still pays: in the example, a 9 oz jar costs $6.41 to make in full, so $13 leaves $6.59; a candle that cost $11 to make would leave almost nothing. How to set a wholesale price that still pays is in how to price handmade items for wholesale, and what a distributor would take on top is in distributor margin.
Get the template
Download the line sheet template. Two sheets: a line sheet with your terms at the top and a row for each product, where the case price and the shop's margin fill in; and an order form, where a shop types SKUs and cases, the product, case price, units and line totals fill in, and the check says whether the order meets your opening minimum. Add your photos in the photo column. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
A line sheet promises a price and a lead time, but it doesn't know whether the 9 oz plumeria jars are on the shelf, and an order of twelve cases from a new shop arrives the same week as the holiday market. The order form's totals are right; whether you can ship them in five days is another question.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps every SKU counted and turns a shop's order into a picking list.
The same SKUs. Each product on the line sheet is an item with the same SKU, counted on a phone or with a scanner, so what you offer and what's on the shelf are the same list.
Orders by the case. A shop's order is a sales order in cases of six or twelve, stocked by the each; TaroStack does the unit math, and the order shows whether there's enough on hand while you're typing it.
Picking and delivery. The day's orders become one picking list, and each shipment gets a delivery note, so a shop's order goes out as it was written.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Is the stock there for this order? | Go and count | Shown as you type the order |
| Cases and units | Multiply by hand | The unit math is done |
| The day's orders | A pile of order forms | One picking list |
| What shipped to each shop | Copies of invoices | Delivery notes on each order |
Counting, sales orders, picking lists and delivery notes are on every plan, from $49 a month. 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.