An Excel inventory template is a simple, inexpensive way to keep track of your company’s inventory and assets. Whether you’re a small business that stocks medical equipment or a national distributor of marble countertops, using an inventory list template can help you understand what you’ve got, where it is, and how much of it you have on hand. Tracking assets using an Excel template can also save your business resources, time, and money.
Don’t have Excel? You can also manage inventory using Google Sheets, Smartsheets, or any similar program.
In this article, we’ll offer free inventory templates for Excel, then we’ll touch on the benefits and drawbacks of using Excel to manage your business inventory. We’ll also discuss how inventory management software and inventory apps can help even the smallest of businesses stress less and better allocate resources. Finally, we’ll offer tips on upgrading from a spreadsheet inventory to an inventory app, if and when you’re ready.
What is an inventory spreadsheet?
An Excel inventory template, like most other inventory spreadsheets, tracks the details of everything your company stocks and stores. Like pen-and-paper inventories and inventory management software, these templates help businesses track assets, control quantity on hand (and carrying costs), and keep good records for forecasting, tax, and insurance purposes.
Manual spreadsheet tracking can work well for new businesses or those just starting to manage inventory, but it has its limitations. Spreadsheets typically include static columns for core details like item name, SKU, cost, and vendor information. Other columns, such as quantity on hand, condition, and current location, require frequent manual updates.
For most businesses, however, inventory management software is a superior solution. It’s more efficient, convenient, and offers the flexibility of a mobile experience, which is something a static spreadsheet can’t provide. However, if your business is just getting off the ground or you’re just starting to track inventory, spreadsheets can be a good entry point.
Benefits of an Excel inventory template
There are a few main benefits of using a spreadsheet to track your stock:
Pro: They’re easy to use
The first benefit: ease-of-use. If your employees know how to operate a computer, they likely know how to complete basic tasks on Microsoft Excel. While creating spreadsheets with complex formulas may not be in the cards for your newest hire, most employees (even those with no prior knowledge of how to use Excel) will be able to maintain an inventory management template.
Pro: They’re affordable
Another benefit: affordability. If your computer already has Excel installed, maintaining an asset tracking template in spreadsheets should come at no additional cost to your business. If you don’t have Excel, you could use Apple’s Numbers or Google’s Sheets. Keep in mind that Sortly inventory software also offers a free plan, if you’re ready to move beyond spreadsheets.
Pro: They’re easy to print
A third benefit of spreadsheets? Simple printing for hands-on counts and audits. A properly formatted inventory control template can be quickly printed out for pen-to-paper inventory counts and audits.
Drawbacks of an Excel inventory template
Unfortunately, there are more cons to using Excel for inventory management than there are pros.
Con: Tracking complex information is impossible
From barcodes to photos to attachments of warranties and manuals, spreadsheets aren’t designed to track complex information. Sure, they can handle stock levels, but they aren’t a true inventory dashboard, and they’ll never boast the robust, automated functions of more sophisticated inventory management systems.
Con: They’re prone to human error
Another drawback: spreadsheets are notoriously prone to human error. Anytime a person must record data on a jam-packed sheet with tons of lookalike cells, there’s a chance key information could be jumbled. A business taking beverage inventory, for example, may stock dozens of products that sound alike and have many identical details, like supplier, purchase price, and location.
Both inventory photos and barcodes/QR codes help prevent human error, but these details are difficult to track on a spreadsheet, where data entry is half the job.
It’s also tough to keep Excel spreadsheets updated. If your whole team isn’t collaborating on a cloud-based, auto-syncing inventory sheet, an employee could very easily update or refer to an outdated list. Even if you do use a collaborative, automatically synced sheet, reviewing old versions and collecting information about your inventory history can be next to impossible.
Con: They become unwieldy as your business grows
A third negative: inventory spreadsheets don’t grow nicely alongside your business. The bigger your business gets, the larger that inventory spreadsheet gets, and there’s no meaningful way to streamline the process of manually counting and recording inventory data.
Con: They ultimately cost your business time and money
The above drawbacks all add up to one fatal flaw: wasted time and money. Whether you’re losing precious resources counting inventory or are paying the price for ordering inventory you didn’t actually need, using an inventory spreadsheet to track stock levels and manage inventory once your business has outgrown the system can come with a price tag.
Download our free Excel inventory template
Despite the cons associated with managing inventory with spreadsheets, we understand that many businesses will still choose to use spreadsheets while they look for a better long-term solution. With that in mind, we designed this easy, straightforward, and customizable Excel inventory template for businesses. This Microsoft Excel template is simple to use, especially if you’ve never tracked inventory before. Plus, you can use this template to load into Sortly when you’re ready to take your inventory tracking to the next level.
Download our free inventory template today! The template is pre-populated with common inventory examples and categories but is totally customizable–feel free to add your items along with custom details, rows, and columns specific to your business's inventory. Free Download: Inventory Template
While our downloadable template includes suggested categories, feel free to customize it to better suit your business needs. A beverage business and an IT firm, for example, will use the same inventory template in very different ways to track their unique assets.
Related: What’s the Best Way to Keep Track of Inventory?
Things to consider before choosing inventory spreadsheets
Before deciding whether spreadsheets are the right fit, consider how many items you’re tracking and how complex your inventory is. This three-step process can get you started:
Step 1: Assess the complexity and volume of your inventory
Every business’s inventory is different, and so, its inventory management needs are different too. For example:.
- Construction companies may need to track thousands of tools and consumables spread across multiple job sites. A spreadsheet can quickly become overwhelming when trying to account for tool check-in/check-out or material restocking across multiple job sites.
- Healthcare organizations often juggle large volumes of high-value equipment (ventilators, diagnostic tools, infusion pumps) that require detailed tracking for compliance and maintenance. Managing that in spreadsheets not only gets messy but also increases the risk of errors.
- Service providers like electricians or plumbers who use a limited set of parts and tools may be fine with a spreadsheet at first. But once they grow, and more remote inventory management is required, it may be difficult to scale without migrating to inventory software.
The bigger and more distributed your inventory, the harder spreadsheets are to manage accurately and efficiently. This goes for companies that track a lot of consumable inventory, too.
Step 2: Consider reporting requirements
Another factor is how you plan to use the data in your spreadsheets.
- Basic reporting often includes simple counts, stock levels, and reorder alerts. These are relatively easy to set up in a spreadsheet.
- Advanced reporting might include usage trends over time, depreciation of assets, employee checkout history, or audit trails. For example, a construction company may need monthly reports on tool losses or raw material losses by job site, or a healthcare organization may need detailed maintenance logs for compliance.
The more advanced the reporting needs, the harder it becomes to maintain accuracy or good records in a spreadsheet. Complex formulas and pivot tables can get cumbersome and increase the risk of broken links or incorrect data.
Step 3: Investigate spreadsheet complexity and user skill level
Even if you’re comfortable building and managing spreadsheets, consider who else needs to use them.
- Do other team members have the Excel/Google Sheets skills required? A warehouse manager might be comfortable with formulas and filters, but a field technician checking out tools on the fly may not.
- How much training will it take to onboard others? If your spreadsheet requires complex instructions just to update inventory, adoption will be slow and error-prone.
- Do you and your team have the time and skill to maintain it? As inventory grows, you may find yourself constantly troubleshooting formulas, updating dropdowns, or fixing duplicate entries.
For teams with varying skill levels, spreadsheets often create bottlenecks or errors that slow everyone down.
How to use an inventory spreadsheet
Like all inventory sheets, an Excel inventory template should be used to count, track, and audit everything your company stocks. Here’s how to use one:
1. Customize your inventory spreadsheet
An inventory sheet is a dynamic list. You should create a place to track every little piece of data that matters to you and your team. From serial number and product name to color and category, feel free to add columns to your spreadsheet for whatever you wish.
In Sortly inventory software, you’ll use custom fields rather than columns. There are tons of suggested fields for common categories like model number, size, product link, and expiry date. You can also create custom fields to track whatever you wish, in a way that makes sense to you.
One thing you may wish to track on your Excel inventory template, but really struggle to add: photos and attachments. It’s next to impossible to include vital images of your hard-to-reach products on a spreadsheet. Essential receipts and warranties? Keep them safe until you’re ready to upgrade to an app.
2. Print it out for faster, hands-on auditing
While our Sortly team recommends getting organized with our inventory app from the get-go, we understand that a lot of people are more comfortable with a spreadsheet. If you choose to use one of our inventory templates, we recommend printing out the template, sticking it on a clipboard, and physically counting your inventory. You can record key item details, including quantity, right onto the printed sheet.
3. As you audit, consider how to organize better
As you take stock of what you’ve got, move thoughtfully through your storage areas. Remember, you may find inconsistencies and inefficiencies as you work. Tracking inventory isn’t something anyone can master in a day. Take note of these issues and think about how you can improve the way you stock, organize, and store your inventory and assets.
4. Maintain inventory history over time
To maintain inventory history, try creating a new tab for every count or audit you complete. If this process seems too labor-intensive, remember that an inventory app like Sortly can effortlessly track these changes for you.
While this may seem like an unnecessary step, it’s pretty much the only way to create a real inventory history. After all, if you want to practice inventory control, you’ll need to know how your inventory was used in the past. Plus, who wants to audit a stockroom while dragging around a laptop anyway?
Pro tip: Be very careful when transferring item details onto the template. This step is incredibly prone to human error, as your eyes can jumble numbers and cells easily. To avoid transferring altogether, try using an app like Sortly to track information about your products using your phone or tablet.
Benefits of inventory management software
Considering inventory management software over an inventory template? Here are five benefits to explore. With software, you can . . .
Track complex information with ease
Inventory software allows you to attach photos, manuals, receipts, and warranties to each item, making it easy to manage more than just text and numbers. This solves the spreadsheet limitation of handling only basic data types and gives teams a richer, more visual way to identify and organize inventory.
Reduce human error with automation
Manual data entry in spreadsheets often leads to mistakes, especially when dealing with similar-looking items or high volumes. Inventory software automates tasks like quantity updates, item check-ins and check-outs, and reorder alerts. Barcode scanning and visual verification help eliminate costly errors and improve accuracy.
Real-time updates and collaboration
Spreadsheets are static and prone to versioning issues, especially when shared across teams. Inventory software syncs in real time across all devices, ensuring that everyone—from warehouse staff to field teams—is working from the same up-to-date inventory. This eliminates confusion and prevents accidental overwrites.
Scales with your business
As inventory grows, spreadsheets become harder to manage and easier to break. Inventory software is built to scale, offering features like barcoding and QR coding for faster inventory updates, photos to add detail and improve accuracy, and customizable folders that actually mirror how your inventory moves across your organization. You won’t need to rebuild your system or worry about performance issues as your business expands.
Saves time and money
Inventory management software is designed to streamline processes and minimize human error, directly impacting your bottom line. By providing accurate, real-time data, it prevents common issues such as over-ordering, which ties up capital, and understocking, which leads to costly delays and lost revenue. The significant reduction in time spent on manual audits, inventory counts, and reporting allows your business to reallocate labor and resources more effectively, translating into tangible cost savings.
Thinking of an inventory spreadsheet? Try Sortly instead
Sortly is an easy inventory management software that helps you track, manage, and organize your inventory—from any device, in any location. Sortly builds inventory tracking seamlessly into your workday so you can save time and money, satisfy your customers, and help your business succeed. Can a spreadsheet do that?
With Sortly, you can track inventory, supplies, parts, tools, assets like equipment and machinery, and anything else that matters to your business. It comes equipped with smart features like barcoding & QR coding, low stock alerts, customizable folders, data-rich reporting, and much more. You can update inventory right from your smartphone, whether you’re on the job, in the warehouse, or on the go. Best of all, you can upload any existing inventory spreadsheets right into Sortly to populate your inventory instantly.
Whether you’re just getting started with inventory management or you’re an expert looking for a more efficient solution, we can transform how your company manages inventory—so you can focus on building your business. That’s why over 15,000 businesses globally trust us as their inventory management solution.
Ready to transform how your business manages inventory? Start your free 14-day trial of Sortly today.
How do I import my inventory spreadsheet into Sortly?
You can bulk import your spreadsheet into Sortly using any of the tabs provided in our download. You can also create a simple inventory list on Excel, with at least the item name and quantity on hand listed.
To get started, log in to your Sortly app and then follow these instructions. If you have any trouble at all, get in touch with Sortly’s customer support team for help with your bulk import. You can reach them at support@sortly.com.
