Get started with Craftybase

Learn how to get your stock in place, and begin managing your inventory for your small business.

Starting out with Craftybase

Craftybase helps you manage your inventory, check stock levels, record expenses, and more. Start tracking your inventory with clarity and accuracy for your small business.

We'll Cover:

Sign up for a Craftybase account

We offer a fully-featured, no-strings-attached free 14-day trial for all new Craftybase customers. To sign up for your free trial, head over to our Pricing page. 

Choose your account start date

This is the date you began inventory tracking in Craftybase. If you’ve just created your account, your start date is automatically set to the date you signed up, however you can change this to any date you wish. 

You'll want to keep in mind that as we are a real-time inventory system, for whatever date you choose to start from, you'll need to accurately recreate any stock changes made between this date and the current date. We strongly recommend setting your start date to either the date you signed up or the start of the current month as this will minimize your initial data entry.

In the next steps, you'll be adding your in-stock quantities for all materials and products you had on hand on this date - these are known as your "starting adjustments".

Tip: Set your account start date to either the date you signed up or the start of the current month to minimize your initial data entry.

Learn how to change your account start date →

Connect your sales channels

Craftybase integrates with a number of popular marketplaces and storefronts, such as Etsy or Shopify: these are called "Sales Channels". Connecting your channels will import your products, variations and orders automatically on a daily basis.

Integrate your online store with Craftybase →

Count your on-hand materials

Create a list of all materials on hand, and add these to Craftybase (use our printable template or spreadsheet).

Count how many of each material you have, then enter the quantity and unit cost for each material. This is your starting adjustment and what you'll be tracking from your account start date. 

Tip: Switching to COGS? Your unit costs will most likely be $0 as you will have already fully claimed all usage costs in a prior year.

Learn how to add materials →

Count your on-hand products

Create a list of all products on hand, and add these to Craftybase (use our printable template or spreadsheet). Any products you have made and not yet sold should be included in this tally. 

Count each product you have on your shelf, and enter the quantity and unit cost for each. Your unit cost is how much it cost you to make a single unit of your product, not including labor.

Tip: Switching to COGS? Your unit costs will most likely be $0 as you will have already fully claimed all usage costs in a prior year.

Learn how to add products →

Add recipes

If you make batches of your products, create recipes for each to speed up your future manufactures. Recipes are also useful to see if you have enough materials to make your products, and also find out how much it will cost to produce a batch. Based on these costs, you'll be able to see pricing guidance information to help you decide on the best price for your product.

Learn how to add a recipe →

Compare your stock levels

The final step to getting your current stock levels in place is to review your stock levels in Craftybase with your original list of stock-on-hand to ensure that they match. If you are not starting your tracking on the current date, you'll now want to add all manufactures, orders, and expenses to account for any stock changes between the start date and today (we'll cover how to do this below).

Want a printable list of the steps above to work through? Download our checklist.

Working forward with Craftybase

With your current inventory now in place in Craftybase, it's time to start working forward with your tracking - in real-time. 

We'll do that by making sure all stock changes are entered into Craftybase when they occur. Some of these will happen automatically for you (like orders) and others you'll need to do manually. Here's a quick rundown on how to handle purchasing new materials, making new products, and fulfilling orders.

Manufactures

Made a batch of new product? Create a manufacture. This will decrease your material stock and increase your product stock.

Learn how to add a manufacture →

Expenses

Purchased some materials? Create a Material Expense. With each recorded expense, your materials stock increases and you can automatically track how much a single unit of a material costs.

Learn how to add an expense →

Orders

Sold a product to a customer? Create an Order. When a customer places an order on your website, Craftybase automatically imports the order to your account through your integrated sales channels. You can also manually add the order to your account if the sale is made via an unsupported channel or offline. Orders decrease your available product stock, and when shipped will calculate your material cost (which is factored into your COGS calculations).

Learn how to add an order →