Craftybase Reviews

Pros

I love this software because the developers understand how a small manufacturing business works. They don't load you down with confusing features - just what you need when you need it. It has helped me get completely organized with raw materials, track all production, determine pricing and just basically keep everything straight. If you're a maker and you're not using it, you need to be.

Cons

I sometimes feel the software tries to be all things to all people. I really don't see why the accounting aspects are necessary and feel they are sometimes lacking.

Pros

It's powerful and flexible. I've created some custom categories, and it enables me to search for things by color, style, etc. A really great way to keep track of inventory of materials on-hand.

I can sort things by date, supplies purchased from a specific vendor, view only certain categories, etc.

It integrates with Etsy, which is nice.

Cons

Some things I wish I could change preferences on (e.g. when/how sales tax is counted or not).

Not really a con, but I'd love to be able to create custom fields (e.g. color, fiber content) rather than putting those things in the notes box.

Pros

For small manufactures. The price. Pricing help

Cons

Cumbersome to use. Few reports. Not customizable reports.

Pros

I love how I can keep track of all my inventory on hand, everything that has been sold, my profits, pull needed reports, automatic uploads and so much more.

Cons

It is a little confusing in the beginning but within 2 weeks, I was majorly loving this program.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

It was a lot more time consuming and confusing keeping track of everything on my own using excel especially when some inventory is quite large. This program does all the thinking for me when everything is entered in correctly. It's awesome! and the customer service is exceptional when help is needed.

Pros

It keeps me organized and I love that I can refer to my recipes easily. My favorite part is the automatic cost analysis and recommendations for pricing new products.

Cons

Probably the price. It does get a little pricey, so I’ve had to say no to some of the features I really wish I could utilize, like the batch # feature.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

Probably the promise of organization... and really it is very easy to use and store data. I just wish I could be more consistent with it. It took me forever to begin because I worried I’d set it up wrong and have to do everything all over again.

Pros

I love how crafty base to make everything so much easier with managing my supplies and my cost of good sold automatically based on the supplies I enter. It integrates with Etsy it makes it seamless and super easy to manage my business .

Cons

I have yet to find a reason to be disappointed

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

Is for the creative entrepreneur QuickBooks is less about creativity which makes it hard when you’re dealing with custom made products. Ways to manipulate your inventory and your products on crafty base which is absolutely necessary for the business I run .

Pros

For a handmade business, it is great to keep track of materials, recipes, components.

Cons

The storefront integration isn’t quite what I would prefer. If it was a true all in one solution that would be really helpful.
It was well worth it at the promotional price but iffy at regular price.

Pros

This is a great way to keep track of all my inventory, batches and packaging. I love how I can make a full product and craftybase will actually account for everything right down to the time used, cap and stickers. It really keeps my business profitable and professional.
Good customer service! intergrades with so many options. Very cost effective.

Cons

It’s needs a Canadian tax/paperwork section.

Would love for it to automatically recognize an invoice and copy it in.

menu set up

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

Because it does batches and I need that style of pricing and it’s one of only a couple that work with Mac.

Pros

Unique format that provides solutions to small business owners who are trying to expand their company.
Provides a place and format for information that is confusing and complicated to organize.

Cons

Some things are stuck the way they are and dont apply to what Im doing or if things change in the way we create products it is hard to apply the changes.
Syncing products from multiple sales channels instead of them showing as unique products over and over again can be frustrating.

Alternatives Considered

Airtable, A2X and Quickbooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

None of these programs offered the functionality with affordable pricing.

Pros

I found the software very fun and easy to use. It’s flexible for different industries, and scales nicely for maker businesses of just about any size. Although the software is designed with US tax preparation in mind, it can be adapted fairly easily for Canadian users as well.

Cons

I wish it was adapted officially for Canadian use in the future. I’d also love to have integration with QuickBooks Online. But these are minor quibbles.

Alternatives Considered

Quickbooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Craftybase

The functionality and price of Craftybase was far more suitable to my needs.

Pros

It's absolutely perfect for my needs of running a small jewelry business. It keeps track of my supply inventory and how each material relates to finished products, to customer sales and production of those finished products. It's cloud based, which means I can check my orders and inventory from anywhere, and each section is intuitively linked to other sections, making it the only software I need to fully track my inventory and orders.

Cons

Nothing, honestly. It does everything I wanted it to, and intuitively.

Pros

We used to use spreadsheets to keep track of our inventory and raw materials until I discovered CraftyBase. It was one of the best investments we've made. Software is super easy to use, provides many tools and features to keep track of not only inventory and materials but also orders, different locations where our products are sold. It's all-in-one type of software that any business should have.

Cons

Ability to sync to regular Amazon inventory/order system.

Pros

I like this this is a cloud-based application. It works well for a jewelry business to track inventory, expenses and sales. It integrates with a few of the more popular e-commerce handmade platforms.

Cons

Some of the bugs are frustrating. For example, some of the Etsy fees do not auto associate with sales/products. So when trying to associate these fees, the fields in the Associate dialog do not keep focus. I can click in the field and then start to enter the product or order just to find focus was lost and nothing is being entered. There are lots of associations that need to be made, so it's very frustrating to select the field and then lose focus most every time.

Pros

I LOVE that it allows multiple different parts of the business to be tracked. Expenses, products, materials used, and labor all in one place. I also appreciate the ability to download csv files of the data to easily sort out information.

Cons

There are a lot of buttons to press to complete one task, so it is easy to accidentally click the the wrong button and archive materials and/or change the pricing without meaning.

Pros

The best thing about working with Craftybase is the customer support. At first trying to figure the program out was rather daunting but the two owners were so very approachable and helpful in their aid they gave. They are also just two incredibly kind people who have designed great software for those of us who make things.

But maybe the thing I like most is the sheer scope of the program. It just seems to accommodate all of my needs.

Or maybe it its calculation of my COGs. I especially like that.

Get the picture? There's lots to like here.

Cons

There was one aspect of my business I was having trouble setting up in Craftybase. But then when I thought of it I had to concede that the aspect I was trying to accommodate had nothing really to do with any kind of production and therefore Craftybase wasnt even set up to accommodate this.

Pros

I like that I have live time inventory data. I load in new items, can run reports on hand qtys. And see how many orders are pending for what.

Cons

I think it could be designed with a little more click and play.

Pros

It simplifies the process of figuring out how much to charge on a manufactured item, it basically does my taxes for me and it allows me to know what I need to restock (products or materials) with just a click or two.

Cons

It should integrate more. You have all my user data, why can't I automatically Import it into mailchimp? Why can't I create a shopping list and export it to my local online diy shop? I also can't collate my inventory on the other platforms when something sells on another - access is read only. You could do more with what you've built. Its great - it could be amazing.

Pros

Craftybase is an easy to access, straightforward platform that keeps tabs on my 100s of items (materials & finished products) in inventory.

Cons

There are some small details that could be improved upon, and Craftybase seems to be very responsive to user input to improve these details.

Pros

I love how it keeps track of costs for every material and tracks material batches.

Cons

I wish it had more options for keeping track of extra things on orders like gift boxes or add ons. I would also like to see a bundling option for products after orders are placed.

Pros

It does everything I need as far as inventory, taxes, expenses, recipes, prices. I don't know how I would live without it!

Cons

some things are not as efficient as they could be - like doing things in batches or bulk changes. And I wish it integrated better with bigcommerce.

Pros

I love how Craftybase helps me to track inventory and allows me to set reorder triggers when I approach minimums for stock on hand. It's easy to track manufactures, identify ingredient batches, set pricing for different customer categories, and price/create new, bespoke products using ingredients in the system.

Cons

Since I leverage less popular outside software, I sometimes have to wait a little longer for integrations that are relevant to me--but there hasn't been anything I've pined for that didn't show up as an option as they continually expand their offerings.

Pros

It’s easy to use
It’s much better than an excel
It’s very visual when planning inventory

Cons

Could be cheaper (says anyone with cogs)

Pros

Lots of options to track items
Management of recipes

Cons

Would be nice if it were better set up for wholesale item options and did not create duplicate listing for the same product coming from a different channel.

Pros

We like how it is structured. Logical, easy to use and powerful. Perfect for fast growing startups in the food and beverage industry, particularly those that manufacture.

Cons

The contacts side of the database is basic, with limited functionality, which is a shame because it has the potential to also be a powerful CRM.

Pros

Keeps track of large amounts of complicated inventory amounts for beads. It is invaluable to us especially for the cost.

Cons

Sometimes when I make changes to an entry later it doesn’t update the entry so I have to delete and re entry.