Tracking Pattern Sales in Excel or Google Sheets (How To)

Tracking pattern sales in Excel or Google Sheets can help you so you can figure out where to focus your knit or crochet pattern designing efforts. This tip provides you with step-by-step instructions for creating two different spreadsheets for tracking your pattern sales.

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Have you ever wondered:

• Which of your crochet or knitting patterns is an absolute customer favorite?
• How many of pattern “X” you’ve sold, since you released it?
• Or, which platform that you sell on consistently generates the most revenue?

You don’t know, what you don’t know – and if you don’t have a way to keep track of information like this, you’ll never really know.

These things are important pieces of information, because this information will:

• help you to know where to focus your pattern designing efforts
• tell you which platform you should focus your marketing efforts on
• let you know when that pattern has actually become profitable

Sure, you can log into Etsy, Ravelry or wherever you sell and see the information for just that platform…….but what about the other platforms? Sure you can log into those as well – but that’s where it gets icky. You might not have any way to keep track of this information.

Let’s face it – we need insight about our customers purchasing habits.

If I were a pattern designer, I would want to know what my best selling patterns were, so I would know where to focus my design efforts.

I’d also want to know which platform I sell on brings in the most revenue – so I would know where to focus my marketing efforts.

And, if I spent 10 hours, $20 on materials, and paid to have the pattern tech edited, I’d want to know how many of that specific pattern I had to sell in order for it to be profitable.

If you feel this information is important to you as well but are wondering how to track of your pattern sales if you use Excel or Google Sheets for your bookkeeping system you’ve come to the right place! (This is just one of the things I talked about in the Owning your Sales module in the Hobby to Business Bookkeeping Challenge.)

Yes, honestly – tracking pattern sales is really part of our bookkeeping system. Oh, snap!

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered when it comes to tracking pattern sales in Excel or Google Sheets!

In this post I’m going to teach you two different ways to track your pattern sales on a monthly basis and then YOU get to choose which method works best for you. PLUS, I’ll show you how to create those spreadsheets.

Let’s take a look at how this can be done!

Tracking Pattern Sales in Excel or Google Sheets – A How To

Both methods start with a simple sales tracker or sales tracking spreadsheet that you can create yourself by following these step-by-step instructions.

Did you realize how many patterns you’ve designed? Are you surprised, now that you have a complete list?

Now it’s decision making time.

Do you want a monthly sales tracker:

• where you just see the total number of sales for each pattern on all platforms – by month and then the total for the year, or
• do you want to see the total number of patterns sold on each platform – by month with a yearly total for each platform

The choice is yours – this is how you OWN your business, your sales information, and your handmade business bookkeeping!

Because, seriously – is it enough to just enter your total monthly sales amount without any real way of keeping track of how many of WHAT you sold?

Have you made a decision yet?

No, still kind of on the fence about how you’re going to track your pattern sales? That’s ok.

Just follow the instructions below and then you can decide how you want to track your pattern sales.

This helps you to see which of your patterns are your best sellers – so you can focus your design efforts on creating similar items.

Now it’s time to add some headings. (If you need more help, watch the video tutorial below)

• Starting in Row 1, type in Pattern Sales
• Then in Row 2, create column headings for Pattern Name, each month, and Total
• Now it’s time to create formulas for:
  • monthly totals for each column
  • yearly totals for each row

Ta-da! You’ve just created the template for your monthly sales tracking spreadsheet!

But before you start entering the totals – there are still some more decisions to be made!

Do you want to have to recreate this spreadsheet every year? The answer is likely NO! So:

• Rename this tab to Master
• Copy the sheet to another tab and then rename it to the current year

There are still more decisions to be made.

Do you want to do a yearly comparison? So you can track the number of sales for each pattern over multiple years? If so:

• Copy the Master Sheet to another tab and then rename it to something like By Year
• Change the Month names in Row 2, to the years – 2022, 2023, etc.

As you add new patterns, you’ll need to add that pattern name to Column A in the:

• Master tab
• By Year tab
• and, the current year tab

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This helps you to see which of your patterns are your best sellers – so you can focus your design efforts on creating similar items. PLUS it shows you which platform (Etsy, Ravelry, etc.) is bringing in the most sales – so you can focus your marketing efforts better.

After you’ve created a list of all of your patterns, now it’s time to add some headings. (If you need more help, watch the video tutorial below).

• Starting in Row 1, type in Monthly Pattern Sales by Platform
• Then in Row 2, create column headings for Pattern Name, each platform that you sell on, and Total
• Now it’s time to create formulas for:
  • monthly totals for each column
  • monthly totals for each row

Ta-da! You’ve just created the template for your monthly sales tracking spreadsheet by platform!

But before you start entering the totals – there are still some more decisions to be made!

Do you want to have to recreate this spreadsheet every month? The answer is likely NO! So:

• Rename this tab to Master
• Copy the sheet to another tab and then rename it to the current month

But wait, there are still some more decisions to be made!

Do you want to see a yearly total? So you can track the number of sales for each pattern over the course of the year? If so:

• Copy the Master Sheet to another tab and then rename it to something like Yearly Sales
• On the Yearly Sales tab, you’ll need to create more complex formulas that will add up the totals for each of the 12 months OR you can simply copy & paste the totals from each months tab.

As you add new patterns, you’ll need to add that pattern name to Column A in the:

• Master tab
• Yearly Sales tab
• Current Month tab

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Here’s that video tutorial for creating a pattern sales tracking spreadsheet in Excel or Google Sheets

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Conclusion: Why Tracking Pattern Sales in Excel or Google Sheets is important.

Is it enough to just enter your total sales each month from Etsy, Ravelry, your website, etc. without knowing which of your patterns you’ve sold the most of – OR – which platform consistently brings in the most sales?

In this post I talked about the importance of “owning your sales information” so you can focus your pattern design and marketing efforts on patterns and platforms that generate the most revenue for you by tracking your pattern sales in spreadsheets.

I also included step-by-step written instructions and video’s for creating two different types of pattern sales tracking spreadsheets that you can incorporate into your bookkeeping system:

• a simple pattern sales tracking spreadsheet so you can see total pattern sales by month across all platforms for each knit or crochet pattern you’ve designed and sell
• a more complex pattern sales tracking spreadsheet so you can see total pattern sales by month on each platform you sell on

Without keeping track of this important information you could be wasting your valuable time and effort.

If you liked this tip and the thought of Owning Your Bookkeeping System (So it doesn’t own you) – sign up for the Hobby to Business Bookkeeping Challenge course.