Hi Orchid folks,
I’m a long-time lurker (and occasional poster) and I hope this falls
within the intent of orchid! I want to put a mention out to the list
about BenchWorks, which is an online inventory management tool that
I’m really, really happy to have and I wanted to share it with anyone
who has had the same nightmares I’ve had with keeping track of
inventory, both in the studio and then when it leaves as either
wholesale or consignment (I do both which gets extra confusing).
I’ve been one of the testers from the beginning and have given the
founder, Robert Bryant, a ton of feedback and requested dozens of
features, and have had a really great experience with both the
software and working with him. He’s the husband of a San Francisco
jeweler (and friend of mine, which is why I was part of the test
group) and he realized there was an incredible demand for some kind
of sane way to manage the hundreds of tiny things coming out of our
studios.
It’s very clean and simple and I find it very easy to use, and he’s
absolutely amazing about getting back to me when I have questions.
The basic feature of keeping track of consignments and wholesale
orders is great, and then there are all kinds of other features like
line sheets and reports which are also really useful. I think it
could also be great for a studio that does custom work, though I
haven’t been using it that way- it’s very flexible and there are
lots of different ways to handle your info so I think it could be
adapted to a lot of different kinds of studios. I believe it also
integrates with Etsy and some other sites.
There’s a free trial period, and then it’s $10 a month. He’s a friend
but I’m not financially connected to it in any way- just want to
share after all the struggles I’ve had with this stuff!
All the info is at BenchWorks as I said,
he’s great about responding to questions.
cheers from San Francisco!
Julia Turner