How to track inventory for a small shop without monthly fees

Decide what you need to track first

Inventory software gets expensive because it tries to do everything: purchase orders, barcodes, multiple locations, syncing with every sales channel. A small shop usually needs three answers: what do I have, what is running low, and what should I order. Start there and ignore the rest until you feel the gap.

Next, decide what counts as an item. If you sell finished goods, an item might be a product in a given size or color. If you make things, you may also track raw materials like flour, fabric, or lumber. Track those on a separate list, because they run out in different ways and get counted in different units.

• Item name and a short code you will actually use
• Quantity on hand
• Reorder level: the count where you should order more
• Supplier and usual order quantity
• Cost per unit, if you want to know what your stock is worth
• Date of the last physical count

Set up a spreadsheet that does the work

Google Sheets is free and works on a phone, which matters when you are standing in the stockroom. Make one tab for items and one tab for a log of changes. Add conditional formatting so any row where quantity on hand is at or below the reorder level turns red. That one rule is most of what a basic stock system does.

On the log tab, record the date, the item, the change (plus or minus), and a reason such as received, sold, damaged, or recount. Then calculate quantity on hand from the log with a SUMIF formula. It takes a little more effort to enter, but you get history, and you can see where stock actually went.

Two habits make it work. Update the sheet at fixed moments, such as when a delivery arrives and when you close. And do a physical count on a schedule, weekly for fast movers and monthly for the rest, so small errors do not pile up.

Free plans and open-source tools: read the fine print

Some inventory and point-of-sale tools have free plans, and some open-source inventory systems cost nothing to license. Free plans change over time and often cap items, users, or locations, so the cost can show up later as an upgrade. Open-source tools are free to license, but you host, update, and fix them yourself, which costs time.

If you already sell through an online store or a register system, check whether it includes basic stock counts. Counts that update automatically when something sells are the one thing a spreadsheet cannot easily do. Also check how it handles items you make from raw materials, since many tools only track finished products.

• Check the item, user, and location limits before you load in your catalog
• Make sure you can export everything to a spreadsheet
• Find out what happens to your data if you leave the free plan

Signs the spreadsheet is holding you back

A spreadsheet is fine until more than one person edits it, or until mistakes start costing you sales. Watch for these signs.

Before you pay for anything, try the free fixes first: protect the formula cells, let staff submit stock changes through a Google Form that feeds the log tab, and set up a notification rule in Sheets. Those cover a surprising amount of ground.

• Two people update the sheet and the counts disagree
• Someone overwrote a formula or deleted a row
• You want an email when an item runs low, not a color you have to notice
• Staff should enter counts from a phone without seeing costs or other tabs
• Customers or wholesale buyers need to see what is in stock

Where a fixed-price build fits

If you have outgrown the sheet but do not want another subscription, our Tool tier is built for this. It costs $749, takes 5 business days, and includes a multi-step tool with saved data, up to 5 screens, one integration (email, Google Sheets, Stripe, or a webhook), a hosted link, full source code, and two rounds of tweaks. The closest example is our simple stock tracker with low-stock alerts for a small shop.

Hosting is included for 12 months, then $9.00 per month, or you can self-host since you get the source code. You see a working preview within one business day of the brief. If you need staff logins with different roles, that moves up to our Mini-app tier at $1999. We offer a full refund if we decline the project before work starts, and none after delivery. If one person tracks a few dozen items, a spreadsheet is probably enough and you should keep it.