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Build an inventory tracking app
Record every delivery, packed order, move and write-off against a SKU and a location, so each stock figure has a history. Write product copy once per style, and count stock for each size and color.
Built around a purpose
Every shirt, every size, wherever it sits.
For anyone who keeps stock in a spreadsheet and sells or uses it in more than one place. That might be an online brand with a market stall, a shop that also sells online, or a school with supplies in several rooms.
For illustration: a two-person apparel brand in San Diego, California, sells screen-printed T-shirts and hoodies. It sells through its own online store, at a monthly weekend market and on one boutique's consignment rail. Bring its stock sheet: nine styles in up to three colors and five sizes, about 110 SKUs, with a tab rewritten after every market. Add the product descriptions, which live in a separate document.
A stock figure for every SKU in every place, each with the movements behind it, and one description per style to copy into the store listing. The studio figure shows what can ship today, each market is settled against what came home, and low sizes gather into print runs to reorder.
Saved movements, sign-in for whoever packs orders or runs the stall, and the access you describe for each collection are backend capabilities, so this is an app with data. Model and service usage is metered separately. Build and preview it on any plan. Putting it live needs Go or Pro. See pricing
Keep copy on the style, stock on the variant
Make each style one record holding its product title, description, care line and photos. Under it, add a variant for each color and size with its own SKU, such as FERN-TEE-SAGE-M. You write copy once per style, and you count and sell variants.
Mark which places can ship
List every place stock sits: studio shelves, the market kit, the boutique's rail and a returns bin for anything not yet inspected. All four hold stock you own. Only the studio shelves hold stock ready to ship, and that is the figure your online store should show.
Give each hand-off a form of its own
Ask Studio for one short form for each point where stock changes hands. Receiving a print run asks for the packing slip number and a count per size. Packing a web order asks for the order number and SKUs. A move to the market kit or the boutique asks where from, where to and how many of each SKU.
Settle the market kit when it comes home
Before a market, move what you pack into the kit. Afterward, count the kit by SKU. What went out minus what came back should match the stall's sales list. Record the matching quantity as sales and any gap as an adjustment with a reason. Settle the boutique's monthly sales report against its rail the same way.
Reorder by size, print by style
Sizes sell at different rates, so give every variant its own reorder point: roughly what it sells during the print shop's turnaround, plus a safety margin. When any size of a style reaches its point, list the whole style. Then you place one print run with a quantity for each size.
Scope the first version
What a first version includes.
Styles and their copy
The product title, description, care line and photos for each design, written once and shown on every variant. Record who last edited the copy and when, so you know which wording is current before pasting it into the store listing or the boutique's line sheet.
Variants by SKU
One per color and size, with a SKU no other variant shares, a photo of that color, a reorder point and a status of active or discontinued.
Locations that say whether they ship
Studio shelves, market kit, boutique rail and returns bin, each marked ready to ship or not. Stock you can't pack today stays out of the shippable figure.
Movement log
Every receipt, packed order, move, sale at the market or boutique, return and write-off. Each entry holds the SKU, the quantity, where it came from and went to, a reference, the person and the date.
Style grid
One screen per style with sizes across and colors down, showing the quantity in each location and in total. It answers a customer asking whether the sage hoodie comes in XL.
Market settlements
One record per market: what went out, what came back, the sales recorded and any gap with its reason.
Reorder list
Variants at or below their reorder point, grouped by style, with sold-out sizes first. A scheduled task you set can email you this list each Monday. Send yourself a test first; you still decide what to print.
Test it in the preview
Before you share it.
- With FERN-TEE-SAGE-M at zero, receive a print run of 24 against its packing slip, then pack three web orders, each for one of that SKU. The studio shelves should show 21, and the Fern style grid should show the same.
- Move 30 shirts into the market kit, then bring 22 back. Before you record any stall sales, the total across locations should be unchanged. After you record 8 sold, it should fall by exactly 8.
- Record a returned hoodie. It should land in the returns bin, outside the ready-to-ship figure, until someone shelves it or writes it off with a reason.
- At the packing bench, open the published app in a phone's browser and record one packed order. The form should ask for nothing beyond the order number, the SKUs and their quantities.
- Edit the description on one style, then open three of its variants. Each should show the new wording, because the copy belongs to the style, not to each size.
- Sign in as the person who runs the market stall and test the access you described for them. Counting the kit and settling a market should work; changing a reorder point or a style's copy should not. Then sign out and confirm the app's link shows no stock figures.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
Database
Keep data and context for apps and agents
Authentication
Give the right people access
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Email
Keep conversations moving
Shape the details
Make it work for your world.
- Pick one system to hold the true figure. In this example the online store sees web orders, not market sales or the boutique's rail. Keep the full record here, and after each print run or market, set the store's available quantity from the studio shelves figure.
- Retire a color rather than deleting it. Mark the variant discontinued so its sales and counts stay readable and it drops off the reorder list. Keep its SKU reserved so a new design doesn't reuse it by mistake.
- Consignment stock is still yours until the boutique sells it. Agree on a monthly date to count the rail with the boutique, and record their sales report before you compare, so a sale isn't mistaken for a loss.
- Whoever packs orders or runs the stall signs in to the published app as an app user, with the access you describe.
A little more context
Good questions.
Can images be part of an item record?
Yes. Keep product photos on the style and a photo of each color on its variant, so whoever packs can tell sage from olive before pulling a shirt. If you add a Vision model to suggest a SKU from a photo, test it on your closest colors. Design it so a person confirms the SKU before any quantity changes, and check that nothing moves until they do.
Is this inventory or asset management?
Inventory counts interchangeable units you sell or use up: 21 sage mediums, not which 21. Asset management follows individual things you keep, such as the market tent or the heat press, by who has each one and its condition. The asset management guide below covers that.
Can I start from my stock spreadsheet?
Yes. The Excel stock sheet link below covers bringing SKU, unit and location columns across. An upload is a snapshot, not a sync, so choose a switch day, count every location, and record every change in the app from then on. Bring the product descriptions too, and check each one lands on its style rather than on every size.
Will it update when my online store takes an order?
Don't assume it will. Plan to record each order at the packing bench, with the store's order number as the reference. Then check a day's packed orders against the store's order list. If you bring orders in from a store export instead, re-import it deliberately and compare the SKUs and quantities it adds with that list.
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