Managing orders for a woodworking business

[Xaldin_Lancer]

So here’s where I’m stuck. I run a small woodworking setup at home and the orders are stacking up.... 50 chairs from one customer, 20 desks from another. I need something where I can actually click into a customer profile, see chairs > cost > expenses, same for tables, same for shipping. Basically a way to track orders without having to shuffle through spreadsheets at 1AM.

I’ve tried QuickBooks, FreshBooks, even a few “craft business” app... they all feel overbuilt for accounting firms or too basic for someone actually making stuff. What I need is project tracking + invoicing + expenses in one place. Something that doesn’t treat “50 chairs” as a line item but as a whole job with material and labor cost attached. Anyone here found a tool that works for small shops like ours? Or are we all stuck building spreadsheets until someone makes an app for makers?

 

[j0hn-th0ugh]

So here’s where I’m stuck. I run a small woodworking setup at home and the orders are stacking up.... 50 chairs from one customer, 20 desks from another. I need something where I can actually click into a customer profile, see chairs > cost > expenses, same for tables, same for shipping. Basically a way to track orders without having to shuffle through spreadsheets at 1AM.

I’ve tried QuickBooks, FreshBooks, even a few “craft business” app... they all feel overbuilt for accounting firms or too basic for someone actually making stuff. What I need is project tracking + invoicing + expenses in one place. Something that doesn’t treat “50 chairs” as a line item but as a whole job with material and labor cost attached. Anyone here found a tool that works for small shops like ours? Or are we all stuck building spreadsheets until someone makes an app for makers?

I’ve been in your shoes, back when I was running custom cabinet orders and what helped was switching to a job-based system instead of line item billing. Tools like Jobber are designed for tradespeople and enable you to consolidate labor, materials and shipping into a single project view, rather than using a spreadsheet. Do you also need it to handle payroll for helpers or is it primarily for tracking jobs and expenses associated with each customer?

 

[Jeff Woodard]

Honestly, most accounting software is either way too bloated or just not built for the way small shops work. Tradify and Invoice Ninja can work too if you build out each project as a job and keep well with logging costs. None of them are perfect, but they’re closer to what you need