Inventory and costing software for makers

Why it fits

The number tax season asks for, without the spreadsheet

Every maker eventually gets asked what one of these costs to make. Most have a rough number in their head; very few have one they could defend. This is how Intakes gets you one.

One run, start to finish

Materials become finished goods without losing their cost history.

Materials arrive with quantities and costs, bought through the same intake as everything else.
A recipe says what one batch takes; a work order runs it and records what actually came off the line.
Each finished item carries its share of the materials and the run’s own costs.
Reprice the material’s purchase later and every finished item reprices with it.

Recipe

Yield 3 sweaters

Dog sweater — olive / L

Fleece, olive 2.4 yd × $8.96 / yd: $21.50
Thread, olive 90 m × $0.024 / m: $2.16
Materials per batch: $23.66

Materials bought through an ordinary intake, freight included — 238.75 yd of fleece and 2,000 m of thread in stock.

× 2 batches

Work order 38

6 of 6 made

Closed

Fleece, olive · 4.8 yd: $43.01
Thread, olive · 180 m: $4.32
Sewing time · 2 batches: $30.00
Cost of the run: $77.33

✓

Each of the six sweaters cost $12.89 — $7.89 in fleece and thread, $5.00 in sewing time. Reprice the fleece intake later, and the sweaters reprice with it.

Recipe

Dog sweater — olive / L

Yield 3

Fleece, olive: 2.4 yd
Thread, olive: 90 m

× 2 batches

Work order 38

2 batches · makes 6

Open

4 of 6 made fleece 4.8 yd reserved

The 4 recorded sweaters are real stock already — preppable and sellable before the run closes.

Recipes and work orders

Recipes define, work orders execute

The recipe holds the standing formula — what one batch is made from and how much it yields — and pre-fills the run. What actually happens on the bench is what gets costed: the materials you really used, the batches you really made.

Record output as it comes off the line — three today, four tomorrow, sellable straight away.
A run that ends short is finished where it stands, and the plan stays beside it so the yield is readable a year later.
A whole family of variants gets its recipes from one grid — fifty sweaters, one construction, a few substitutions.

Materials and products

Fabric by the yard, sweaters by the piece — together

Materials are measured — yards, grams, metres — and the things you make are counted. Intakes tracks both on the same purchase and in the same stock, and a bulk lot can be split, merged and transferred without losing a cent of its cost history.

Sizes, colours and grades as your own attributes, with a matrix that mints a whole range at once.
A low-stock watch on the materials you restock, with an email when they run out.
Packaging is stock too, and its cost lands on the sale it shipped in.

A piece

Leather jacket, black — M

Serial JKT-0117 Shelf A-4 Available

Cost $23.50

A bulk lot

Fleece, olive

Lot cost $2,138.81 $8.96 / yd

238.75 yd Bin C-2

Split Cost history preserved to the cent

Fleece, olive · 238.75 yd $2,138.81

200 yd · to the bench $1,791.66

38.75 yd · stays in C-2 $347.15

Profit & Loss — August

Revenue: $948.52
Cost of goods sold: −$598.90
Packaging & labels: −$13.50
Gross profit: $336.12
Selling fees: −$58.22
Profit: $277.90
Returns · refunds out: −$50.00
Returns · goods back to stock: +$18.75
Write-offs · damage, 2 items: −$24.00
Write-offs · loss, 1 item: −$9.50

Dashboard · this month

Seller profit

$277.90

✓ Matches the P&L exactly

Write-offs sit on their own lines, per item — damaged stock was never sold, so it never hides inside profit.

Profit you can defend

Per finished product, per channel, per size

Because every finished piece carries its true cost, profit is real at every grain — and the profit & loss statement matches the dashboard to the cent, with write-offs and returns on their own lines below it.

A report of what your runs were charged beside the materials — labor, kiln time, a subcontracted step — by the name you gave each.
A sales rollup on every product family, variant by variant.
Bestsellers ranked by money, with what never sold at the bottom.

Questions

What makers ask first

Do I need a recipe for everything I make?: No. A recipe is a standing formula that pre-fills a run — what one batch takes and how much it yields — and it is worth writing for anything you make more than once. A one-off run without a recipe is perfectly valid: you say what it made and what it used, and it is costed the same way.
What about my time, or the kiln, or a subcontracted step?: Cost a run in your own words. Labor and overhead are there from day one; add machine time, kiln firing, dyeing, a courier between stages — whatever your workshop actually pays for — and each is spread across what the run made and reported on by that name.
I make things in stages. Does that work?: Yes. Each stage is its own run, and the goods between stages are ordinary items in stock — doors, then trimmed doors, then stained doors. Cost rolls forward through each one, so the finished piece carries every stage’s materials and costs without any extra bookkeeping.
My fabric came from a purchase I have not finished pricing. Can I still run?: Yes. The run closes, the goods are made and sellable, and their cost reads as not costed yet rather than a made-up number. The moment that purchase closes, the cost lands on the finished goods on its own — through the run, and on through any later run that used what it made.

Buy the materials. Make the goods. Know what each one cost.

Intake → Prepare → Sell → Know, in a maker’s terms

Intake

Prepare

Sell