Why start with Google Sheets
When you're starting an online shop, a Google Sheets inventory tracker is a perfectly reasonable tool. It's free, you already have access to it, it works across devices, and it can be shared with a partner, assistant, or bookkeeper without any additional software costs.
More importantly, building a spreadsheet forces you to think clearly about what information matters for your business. What do you need to track per product? What does low stock mean for your shop? What information do you need to reorder? Answering these questions in a spreadsheet is good preparation for eventually using more sophisticated tools.
This guide walks you through setting up a practical inventory tracker -- not a template you'll download and never understand, but a spreadsheet you build yourself so you know exactly how it works.
How to structure your spreadsheet
A well-structured inventory spreadsheet typically has several interconnected sheets (tabs) rather than one massive sheet. Here's a recommended structure:
- Inventory -- Your master product list with current stock levels
- Sales Log -- A running record of every sale across all channels
- Receiving Log -- A record of every inventory receipt (new stock, returns)
- Reorder List -- Automatically populated list of items below reorder threshold
Keeping these as separate tabs connected by formulas is cleaner than trying to do everything in one sheet. You'll thank yourself later.
Essential columns to include
Inventory tab
| Column | What to Put Here |
|---|---|
| SKU | Your unique product code. Create a consistent format (e.g., RING-SILVER-SZ7). This is the glue that holds everything together. |
| Product Name | Plain language name for the product. Make it specific enough that you can identify it at a glance. |
| Category | Grouping for reporting. Jewelry, Home Decor, Prints, etc. |
| Description | Brief. Enough to identify the specific item without pulling photos. |
| Unit Cost | What this item costs you to make or purchase. Essential for profitability. |
| Selling Price | Your price. If you have different prices per platform, add a column per platform. |
| Current Stock | How many you have right now. This cell is updated when sales and receipts are logged. |
| Reorder Point | The stock level at which you need to reorder. When Current Stock falls below this, it appears on your Reorder List. |
| Reorder Quantity | How many you typically order or make in a batch when restocking. |
| Location | Where this item is stored. Shelf, bin, box number. Critical once you have more than 20 SKUs. |
| Notes | Anything important. Supplier notes, quality issues, seasonal notes. |
Sales Log tab
| Column | What to Put Here |
|---|---|
| Date | Date of sale |
| Platform | Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, In Person, etc. |
| Order ID | Platform order number for reference |
| SKU | Must match exactly to your Inventory tab SKU |
| Quantity | Units sold |
| Sale Price | What the customer paid |
| Platform Fees | What the platform took |
| Net Revenue | What you actually received |
Receiving Log tab
| Column | What to Put Here |
|---|---|
| Date | Date received |
| SKU | Must match Inventory tab SKU |
| Quantity Received | Units received |
| Source | Supplier name, or "made" for handmade |
| Unit Cost | What you paid per unit this batch |
| Total Cost | Calculated: Quantity Received x Unit Cost |
| Notes | Quality notes, batch number, etc. |
Useful formulas for inventory tracking
A few formulas transform a static list into an actual tracking system.
Current stock calculation
Instead of manually updating your current stock number every time there's a sale or receipt, use SUMIF to calculate it automatically from your logs:
This adds up all received quantities for this SKU, then subtracts all sold quantities. Adjust column letters to match your actual layout.
Reorder alert
Highlight cells in the Current Stock column where stock has fallen below the reorder point using conditional formatting, or use an IF formula:
Where G2 is Current Stock and H2 is Reorder Point. Use conditional formatting to highlight the "REORDER" rows in red.
Inventory value
Where G2 is Current Stock and E2 is Unit Cost. Sum this column for total inventory value.
Profit per item
Where H2 is Net Revenue from this sale, and the VLOOKUP pulls the Unit Cost from your Inventory tab by matching SKU.
Sales by platform
Swap "Etsy" for any platform name. Column B is Platform, Column G is Net Revenue in this example.
Tracking orders and sales
The Sales Log is only useful if you update it consistently. The hardest part of a manual inventory system is the discipline to log every sale in a timely manner.
Build a daily habit
The simplest approach: every morning, log the previous day's sales from each platform into your Sales Log. This takes 5-10 minutes when done daily. Skip two days and it becomes a 30-minute catch-up. Skip a week and you're guessing.
One row per SKU per order
If a single order contains three different products, enter three rows in the Sales Log -- one per SKU. This keeps your SUMIF calculations accurate and lets you analyze sales at the product level, not just the order level.
Platform-specific exports
Most platforms let you export order history as CSV. Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, and eBay all have this. For batch imports, you can paste CSV data directly into your Sales Log sheet if your column structure matches. This is faster than entering each order manually, especially during busy periods.
When you'll outgrow a spreadsheet
A Google Sheets inventory tracker is a good starting point, but it has real limitations. Here's how to recognize when you've hit them:
You're selling on more than one platform
A spreadsheet tracks your actual physical stock, but it can't update Etsy and Shopify listings automatically. When you sell something on Etsy, you have to manually update your Shopify listing. This is manageable with one or two products but breaks down quickly with more. The gap between the sale and your manual update is a window for overselling.
You're selling more than 20-30 orders per week
At low volume, manual logging is fine. Past 30 orders per week, the logging burden grows to the point where it starts pulling you away from actually running your business. Errors creep in. Updates get skipped. The spreadsheet becomes unreliable exactly when accuracy matters most.
You have more than 50 active SKUs
A 50-row spreadsheet is manageable. A 300-row spreadsheet with multiple variants per product becomes hard to navigate, error-prone to update, and slow to load. At this scale, the spreadsheet is solving a 200-row problem it wasn't designed for.
You've had a double-sell
If you've already had to cancel an order because you sold something you didn't have, that's a clear signal that manual tracking has already failed. One oversell is a warning. Two is a pattern. At that point, the cost of a better solution is justified by what you're losing in refunds, negative reviews, and damaged customer relationships.
You're spending more than 30 minutes a day on inventory admin
If inventory management is consuming a meaningful chunk of your day, that time has a cost. At the point where an automated tool would cost less than the value of the time you're spending manually, the automation is worth it.
What to use when spreadsheets aren't enough
When you hit the limits of a Google Sheets tracker, the next step depends on what your specific bottleneck is.
Single platform with growing catalog
If you're only on one platform (Etsy or Shopify), use that platform's native inventory management tools more fully. Shopify has solid inventory tracking built in, including low stock alerts and location-based inventory. Etsy's inventory tools are more limited but still better than a separate spreadsheet for Etsy-only sellers.
Multiple platforms
If you're selling on two or more platforms, you need a tool that syncs inventory across all of them in real-time. This is what Commerce Kitty does. You connect your Etsy shop, your Shopify store, and any other channels you sell on. When a sale happens on any platform, inventory counts update everywhere within seconds. No spreadsheet, no manual updates, no risk of double-selling.
The free plan handles up to 50 orders per month across all channels -- which is the right entry point for sellers who've been managing a spreadsheet and are ready to automate. See how shared inventory across Etsy and Shopify works, or learn whether you need separate inventory per platform.
High-volume single-channel
If you're doing high volume on Amazon only, Amazon's Seller Central inventory management plus FBA reporting is comprehensive. If you're high volume on Shopify, Shopify's native tools handle most needs and there are many third-party inventory apps in the Shopify App Store for specific use cases.
What to keep in your spreadsheet even after upgrading
Even when you've moved to dedicated inventory software, a spreadsheet is still useful for things software doesn't handle well: tracking your supply costs and material purchases, doing custom profitability analysis, maintaining a record of supplier contacts and reorder information, or modeling "what if I change my pricing" scenarios. The spreadsheet moves from being your inventory system to being your financial analysis tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use the same spreadsheet for multiple platforms?
How do I track inventory with variations (size, color, etc.)?
Should I track inventory in units or by value?
What's the best way to do a physical inventory count?
Once you're ready to go beyond a spreadsheet, read our guides on selling on Etsy and Shopify with shared inventory and whether you need separate inventory per platform.