I will readily admit that an inventory system isn’t the most sexy-hip-glamourous thing to write about, but it is very essential for a working jewelry business. I’ve been through a couple ways of numbering the pieces I produce, and I’m on a continual process improvement. Ideally, you want to start with a good system, as changing it midstream is an invitation to confusion.

At first, everything was an experiment… I didn’t know if anything would sell, and if it didn’t, I’d need to find some other form of gainful activity. So I just numbered the necklaces N1, N2, etc, and the earrings E1, E2, etc. As it stands right now, I don’t make a lot of rings, bracelets, or anything else. So that method worked for awhile.

But my current gallery, the Irritable Pelican here on Tybee Island (more on that later) used a different system. They assign everyone an artist number- mine is 523- and then go up from there. So the first piece I placed there is #523-001. Currently, I’m somewhere around 523-055. I adopted their numbering system to use with my internal recordkeeping.

This system works fine- if I only want to have a single gallery. if I add a second gallery, that throws everything off. So I’ve developed a new numbering system, with an excel spreadsheet to match. My new number is just the date followed by a decimal point, and then a sequential number that matches the number of pieces that I’ve finished that day, for example, #091721.1 will go on the first piece that I finished on September 17th. I finished six pieces that day, so the last piece got #091721.6. I then take some quick pictures on the same day, and the metadata for the photos is automatically recorded at 09/17/21, so that helps me to figure out which photo file matches what inventory number based on the description. A detailed written description is recorded in the excel spreadsheet, that includes things like the size in millimeters, the stone or bead, stone size if applicable.

There is a space in the spreadsheet to add the gallery and the gallery number when I deliver a piece for sale. If a different gallery wants to use a different numbering system, that’s fine- my spreadsheet should accomodate that. There’s a column for the date placed on sale, a column for the date sold, and another for the number of days on sale. Right now I calculate that in my head, but I’m pretty sure that I can get Excel to calculate that for me. Over time- and given enough sales data- these columns might show sales trends to say if a particular design or price point outsells another. But the main reason the spreadsheet was designed is to tell at a glance what pieces are at which gallery and which ones have sold. We’ll see if it works- if not, we’ll try something else!