For independent instrument makers
Quarterseen holds your price list, build schedule, invoices, customer records and bookkeeping in one place. It was built by a guitar maker to run his own shop, and Padalka Guitars uses it every day.
Every build gets a start and a finish date. They are calculated from the order of your queue, how many builds you finish in a year, how long a build takes and the weeks the shop is closed. Move a build up the queue or book two weeks off in July and the dates after it change with it. One build can be set to take longer than the rest without changing the others. The dates ahead of today are worked out again every time you open the page, so a build that has not started when it should have moves back and takes everything queued behind it with it, instead of the delay piling up out of sight.
Your models, options and prices are kept in a list you edit yourself. Prices that depend on other choices — a single-piece body that adds 50% of the body wood's price, an option only offered on some models — are set up as rules, and each rule is written back to you as a sentence so you can check it. Each year's list is kept separately, so a build quoted last year keeps last year's prices. The same list can be embedded into any website, so a customer can configure an instrument and see your price for it.
Invoices use your own numbering and tax rate, and a build can be invoiced in full or one instalment at a time. Customers can pay by card through your own Stripe account, or by bank transfer, PayPal or Wise.
| Description | Qty | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit — 50% Model B, #012 | 1 | $2,990.00 |
Each customer gets a link to a page of their own, listing every build they have with you: where it has got to, what they ordered, when it is expected and what is left to pay. They approve the design there, or write down what is wrong with it, and that note is kept beside the build for as long as you have it. Invoices you have sent can be paid from the same page.
If you are paid in one currency and spend in another, each currency is kept as its own account and converted into the one you file your taxes in. Statements come in as a CSV file, or sync on their own if you bank with Wise, and rules you write once file each line under a category. Forward a receipt from your inbox and it becomes a line with the original attached, waiting for the statement to confirm it. The year gives you a balance per currency, a profit and loss, and a CSV for your accountant.
A parts list for each model that copies onto a new build. A shopping list of what still has to be ordered. Time tracking, with your own names for the kinds of work. Customer records and the enquiries that come in from your website.
If you build instruments and want to try this, send a message. Tell me what you build and roughly how many are on your list.