Beads inventory & jewelry pricing softwares
In an attempt to be more organized, I’m planning to use a software to keep track of my beads purchases and inventory. As usual, I started by dreaming what my ideal software looked like and then started to code from scratch. First with Delphi and later with Ruby on Rail (hey, old dog CAN learn new trick, right?). Wrong! Soonafter I realised that my programming skill is not as good as I believed it is and I gave up. I figured that I’d better spend the precious 4 hours each day doing something else and just pay for the software. So I began scouring the ‘net for more inventory softwares for the sake of comparison (another reason is I just LOVE searching for something on the ‘net. Yeah, geeky. I know. So what?).
Art Affair
Art Affair comes with inventory and finished product modules, as well as reporting tools and catalog generator. Priced at $139, they also offer installment plan and discount if you are switching from competitor’s produce. I’m currently using Art Organizer, a free lite version of Art Affair, and liking it so far.
Jewelry Designer Manager
There are 3 versions of this software, standard, pro, and deluxe with price ranges from $89.95 to $259.95. All 3 versions come with the standard inventory and pricing modules. Pro version allows you to print invoices and bills while Deluxe version also comes with reporting tools.
Mom and Pop Shoppe
This has the standard features of inventory and jewelry pricing. I’m a sucker for nice user interface and this one certainly doesn’t have it. Well, at least not to my liking. It reminds me of an old Windows 3.1 application with the ‘rough’ interface. I also had problem with some links and buttons not working when I was using the trial version.
Bead Manager Pro
The website does not give much information as compared to the others but they do provide 10-day fully functional trial version. Interface is ok, quite user friendly and the features are simpler than Art Affair or Jewelry Designer Manager. This can be good or bad since too much details can be confusing as well when all you really want to do after bead shopping is to work on your jewerly rather than doing data entry the whole day.
Jewelry Pricing Calculator @ Pasternak Findings
This is an online jewelry price calculator that works similarly to the PC-based softwares but with very limited features. Pasternak Findings sells gold and silver jewelry supplies so the price of the metal & wire components are pre-defined to their merchandise price. You can set your own price for the beads though. I’d say it’s useful if you only need a rough price estimate or if you are buying from them.
Eni Oken’s pricing calculator
This is not really a software but rather an Excel spreadsheet to help you calculate the recommended selling price based on the component and labor cost. You can also insert a picture of your finish jewelry. Although it doesn’t have inventory feature (that will be asking too much for $5), it certainly helps to take the guilt off pricing your own creations and avoid underpricing. I have not personally used the Excel but may do so in the future just because I’m curious to see the “price scenarios based on well-known real-life artisan-used formula” as stated on her website.
Well, after comparing the above it looks like I will settle with Art Organizer for the time being and upgrade to Art Affair later when I have more time to do this hobby seriously. Besides the above softwares, here are other inventory and pricing softwares that cater for more general crafts such as painting, handicraft, etc.
Updated Sept 30, 2007
Looking closer at Art Affair, I realized their pricing formula is different than the common formula of (material x markup) + labour. Instead, their formula is (material + labour) x markup. Well, one workaround is to adjust the labour cost but that is less ideal. Jewelry Designer Manager, on the other hand, is using the common formula but lots of functionality only come with the Pro edition which is very expensive. Hmm … I was about to buy Art Affair but will have to think it through again because of this.
Mom and Pop Shoppe website seems to have disappeared. Can’t find the software on the ‘net either. Are they pulling out?
You’re a real treasure trove of information!! Plus all in an organized manner. Really helpful! Thank you very much!!
Glad you like it.
I agree with Dawne, I’ve only looked at a few posts (came for the bead spinner) and I’ve learned a lot. Love the info on the inventory software. Thanks!