Reseller inventory spreadsheet: the layout that works, and when an app makes more sense

What should you record for each item?

Good stock tracking answers two questions: what did this piece cost you, and what did it actually make you. Every item needs the same fields, filled in when you buy it and completed when it sells.

• Purchase date: tells you how long the piece has been waiting.
• Source: charity shop, car boot sale, bundle from Facebook Marketplace, Vinted buy. Shows you which sources pay off.
• Cost: what you paid. For a bundle, divide the total by the number of pieces.
• Platform: Vinted, eBay, Depop. Useful once you cross-list.
• Listed price: your first asking price, so you can see how many drops it took.
• Sold price: what the buyer actually paid for the item.
• Fees: on Vinted the seller pays no commission, the buyer covers buyer protection and postage. On eBay and Depop there are seller fees, and sometimes postage on you. Check the current rates in each help center.
• Packaging: mailers, tape, boxes. Pennies per parcel that add up.
• Status: in stock, listed, sold, shipped.

What columns should a reseller inventory spreadsheet have?

Here's a simple layout that works in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. One row per item, never one row per bundle. The last two columns calculate themselves.

For the age of an unsold piece, =TODAY()-C2 gives the days since purchase (column C as a date, result as a number). For cash tied up, =SUMIF(F:F,"In stock",E:E)+SUMIF(F:F,"Listed",E:E) adds up the cost of everything not yet sold. The £4.10 in the example is illustrative: your real fees depend on the platform and category.

How do you label and store resale items?

At 150 pieces the problem isn't recording them, it's finding the right one when a sale drops. The fix is one unique SKU, written on the item and in your sheet.

1. Pick a short SKU format: purchase month plus a number, like 2609-014 for the 14th piece bought in September 2026.
2. Write it on a swing tag, a sticky note in the bag, or masking tape. Nothing that marks the garment.
3. Store by numbered bin (B1, B2, B3) and put the bin in your sheet. You go straight to the right box.
4. When it sells, search the SKU, pack it, switch the row to sold.

Which statuses to use: in stock, listed, sold, shipped

Four statuses cover it. In stock: the piece is at home but not photographed or listed yet. Listed: it's live. Sold: the buyer paid, it needs to go out. Shipped: the parcel is gone and you're waiting for the buyer to confirm.

The status column earns its place in two ways. Filter for sold items to see what has to ship today, so no parcel gets forgotten. And spot pieces sitting in stock with no listing, usually a Saturday haul that never got photographed. Add a returned status if you get returns, so the same item isn't counted twice.

How do you measure dead stock and cash tied up?

A piece that's been sitting for 90 days isn't just taking up space, it's your money stuck inside it. The number to watch is simple: the total cost of everything unsold. That's your cash tied up in stock.

• Cash tied up: total cost of every piece in stock or listed.
• Dead stock: pieces in stock for more than 90 days. The cutoff is yours, 60 or 120 works too, just keep it the same.
• Dead stock share: cost of dead pieces divided by total cash tied up.
• Monthly sell-through: pieces sold in the month divided by pieces available at the start of the month plus pieces bought during it.

Example: 180 pieces in stock that cost £1,350, of which 40 pieces older than 90 days cost £420. Almost a third of your money is asleep. That number should drive your next round of price drops, not gut feeling.

A 20-minute monthly review

A spreadsheet only helps if you look at it. Block 20 minutes on the last Sunday of the month.

1. Check every sale this month is marked sold, with the real sold price.
2. Add up the month's profit and compare it with last month.
3. Sort by days in stock and look at the 10 oldest pieces: drop the price, reshoot, bundle or donate.
4. Work out your cash tied up. If it grows faster than your sales, slow down buying.
5. Check which source gives the best profit per piece, and go back there first.

Spreadsheet or app: which one should you use?

Spreadsheets have real strengths. They're free, fully flexible, and you can add any column you want. The limits show up with volume: you type on a laptop while you buy in a charity shop, one bad paste breaks a formula, there's no photo to recognise a piece, and the file is clunky on a phone.

An inventory app flips those points. You add the item from your phone when you buy it, margin and stock maths are done for you, and weekly, monthly and yearly stats are ready. The trade-offs: you're limited to the fields the app offers, advanced features usually need a subscription, and entry stays manual, because Vinted has no official API to pull your sales from.

ResellStats is one example, on iPhone: you add a piece by taking a photo, net profit accounts for fees, packaging and postage, and you can export everything to CSV or PDF so your data stays yours. A simple rule: under 50 active pieces, a tidy spreadsheet is enough. Beyond that, or if you mostly buy on the go, the time saved on entry matters more than anything else.

Keeping records that work for tax

Selling your own unwanted stuff usually isn't taxable. Buying to resell is trading. In the UK, HMRC says you need to tell them if your trading income goes over the £1,000 trading allowance in a tax year.

Once you trade, HMRC expects records of all sales and business expenses, backed by receipts and bank statements, kept for at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline. Your stock sheet already holds most of it: add photos of receipts, charity shop ones included. Outside the UK, check what your own tax authority asks for. This guide is general information, not personal tax advice.