I am looking for an app or software that allows me to inventory my artwork. I have 2 Mac computers and an I phone so I am looking for something that will interface with all and sinc. I probably have about 300 items to inventory, including my frames, etc. Many I have found are geared for art galleries. Does anyone have any that they use for single artists.
Believe it or not, I use an old software called Bento 4 by Filemaker. It’s a simple basic database program that I found works for me rather well. I do Filemaker programming & always thought I’d write an artists database with it, but the Bento just seems to work for me so I never wrote a new one.
Bento is is out of date & no longer manufactured or supported by Filemaker, but I did find it on Amazon for $12.99. I haven’t sync’d it with my iPhone but I believe it has the capability (I really should look into this!). It’s rather easy to setup, comes with some templates that you can modify somewhat. It is very visually easy to use. I currently have 667 paintings in it, with thumbnail images & data, and I track inventory along with sales & showings. I run Bento 4 on my iMac using OS 10.10.5 - I’d be glad to answer any questions about it, just let me know.
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Hi @livingsouthern,
A lot of artists don’t realize that DPW is more than just a great place to buy and sell art and interact with other artists. We also offer many art tracking (inventory) features.
These Art Tracking features include:
- show and sell - you get a clean, attractive, and easy to maintain artist website
- secure and available - your art data is secure, in the cloud (online), always backed up, and always available from any device - computer, tablet, or smartphone
- unlimited - there are no incremental fees, ever, for $12.95 a month you can upload and manage unlimited artwork
- always there - you can cancel at anytime, however if you chose to return, you will find all your art and data just as you left it!
- artwork data - primary and optional images, date created, title, media, genre, size and units, price, keywords, description, notes, and more…
- status tracking - available, sold, on hold, not for sale, gifted, donated
- buyer tracking - manual entry and auto pulling in of transaction and buyer information for auctions and PayPal links
- print invoices and packing slips
- sales reports - constrain by date range, group and sort by date sold or buyer, includes any PayPal fees, shipping, sales tax, and auction commissions, easy to print and export
- easy posting to Facebook - this will be expanded soon into a Social Media Manager, to allow easy posting to not just Facebook, but Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter
- venue tracking - coming soon! Venue tracking will let you track Galleries, Shows, Contests, Fairs - wherever you have shown and sold your work
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YESSS!! With the venue tracker, I can get rid of my spiral notebooks and Post-its on the desktop! It’ll make my keeping track of it all complete. Also looking forward to posting to IG through DPW since that’ll help us both let potential buyers know where to go in a more direct way than looking for a link in bio.
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I actually tried out other art inventory programs. What I realized is DPW is my favorite and easiest way to keep track of my paintings and stats. If a painting is on hold being in a gallery…I put this information for myself in the notes section. I am so impressed with the workability of DPW!
I really look forward to the Social Media Manager! Can’t wait!
I never had enough art to need such a thing other than the total for the year’s taxes but am glad DPW has it and I plan on doing much more art and will make use of it for sure!
I use Artwork Archive and am very happy with it. It has a possibility to keep a really good customer database, create invoices, tracking of paintings at exhibitions etc. I think there is a free trial.
Long, long ago I created art databases in FileMaker Pro that I still use today. However, when I bought another Mac this year I thought FileMaker Pro wasn’t compatible so I set up a database in Artwork Archive. It is probably the answer for most artists but I love my good, old FileMaker Pro.
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I have tried other apps and programs too in the past. None is as user friendly or complete as DPW. The interface is great, and David keeps making improvements. In the notes section you can add any relevant info, such as framing or anything. I love the “status” tracking on DPW, the customer data base, accessible by mobile or computer. All of the up to the minute totals, how many sales per month or year or what ever I need. Makes taxes A BREEZE. I am excited for the Venue Tracking.
Cathleen
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Thanks I will take a look at it
I have used this method for keeping track of art. It is a bit labor intensive, but I
have older works that I won’t be adding to DPW, and will use it to inventory
those pieces.
DPW just keeps getting better and better! Venue tracking will be an excellent feature. Thanks so much to the whole DPW team for designing — and constantly improving — this outstanding resource for artists!
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Wow cool. Thanks for this info.