All about Inventory

What it is and why we need it

Each year Just a Few Friends hosts numerous local and regional artists at its annual show, MOMart. This year, more than 80 artists will feature more than 2,000 items for sale. It’s a lot to keep up with. Because we are fundraising for a local community service organization and because we are managing so many sales over a very short period of time, we handle checkout, unlike many shows and festivals, which ask artists to handle their own sales and then pay out the sponsoring organization at the end.

Our model offers artists the flexibility to come and go from—or, occasionally, not attend—the show, and it helps us be accountable as a 501(c)3 to the money we raise for organizations and local artists.

We account for every item brought into the show, whether it sells or not. That way, when you leave with your remaining inventory, you know and we know what you sold, what percentage is donated to the organization we are fundraising for, and how much we owe you.

Checking in your inventory

We use the software program Microsoft Excel to manage all of the inventory. Each of you is assigned a unique artist number, which is correlated to your inventory. This is where you come in. Once you have your artist number, you have two choices: you can click the link below and use the Excel template to type up your inventory and then email it as an attachment to us at justafewfriends@earthlink.net; or, you can type up your inventory in the body of an email following the format outlined below. We would, of course, prefer that you use the Excel template. It makes our job MUCH easier. But if you do not have Excel (which you must have to use the template), then feel free to follow the instructions below to type it into an email.

Excel instructions and download

Click here to download the Inventory Excel Template.
Here’s how typing in your inventory to the Excel template works. For the first row only, in column A, type in your artist number, your last name, and your first name. Tab to column B. Type in your artist number followed by a period, followed by two zeros and the number one (so, if your artist number is 22 and this is your first inventory item, then you would type in 22.001). Tab to column C and type in the item description (the name of your painting; bowl; necklace; etc.). Tab to column D and enter the price. Tab to column E and type in the quantity you have of this item. THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM HOW WE HANDLED IT LAST YEAR! Last year, we asked you to create a separate entry for every single item in your inventory. For those of you with more than one of an item that is the same description and same price (cards, for example, or necklaces), this was quite cumbersome. This year, just enter the number you have of this item (so, if you have 10 necklaces priced at $45, then just enter 10 in this column. When you put your price tags on these items, each will have the same number on it (in our example, 22.001). If this doesn’t make sense, please call Tammi (308-4910) and talk this through. Your inventory and price tags will be checked when you set up and if they aren’t done correctly, you will have to fix it before the show. After you enter the quantity, tab to column F and enter the percentage you will donate to Just a Few Friends for our fundraiser (minimum 25 %).

Hit return and tab past column A for all subsequent entries (you only need to enter your artist number and name in the first entry. Your artist number will be in the “Piece” column (column B) for every entry.

When you are finished, save the document in this format: Yourname_MOMart2006.xls. Attach it to an email and send it to justafewfriends@earthlink.net.

Click here to download the Excel sheet

If you are unable to use Excel, then please type your inventory into the body of an email in the following format:

artistID,pieceID,description,price,qty,percentToJaff

(So, for example, if you are artist 27, then your first entry might look like this:

27,27.001,notecard,3.50,30,25)

Do not put spaces after the commas. Do not use dollar signs or percentage signs.

Once you’ve entered all of your inventory in this style, send the email to us at justafewfriends@earthlink.net.

Your price tags

Now that you’ve typed in your inventory, you must label each piece of art with this same information. On your price tag, please include the following: your artist number followed by a period followed by the item number. Also include the price and the percentage you are donating (so it might look like this: 27.022 $45 30%). If you need help with this, please feel free to contact us: justafewfreinds@earthlink.net or 308-4910.