Comparison
BoothInventory vs Square Point of Sale
Square Point of Sale suits any seller who needs to take a card and hand over a receipt, while BoothInventory suits a maker who needs to know which fairs on the circuit are worth reapplying to.
Comparison
BoothInventory vs Google Sheets: Tabs or Per Show Counts
Google Sheets suits a maker doing a handful of shows a year with a setup they enjoy maintaining, while BoothInventory suits a maker whose tab count has outgrown the season.
The short answer
Google Sheets is free, flexible and already open on your laptop, and a well built sheet has carried many makers through a full season. It stays the honest answer when you do four or five shows and like tending your own columns. The problems arrive with volume: a tab per show, a formula that broke in July, counts typed from a photo of a clipboard, and no straight answer about which fair earned its fee. BoothInventory fixes the structure rather than the arithmetic, giving every show the same fields so the season compares without rebuilding.
BoothInventory and Google Sheets side by side
| What you are deciding | BoothInventory | Google Sheets |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | A fixed per show record that compares across a season | A blank grid that becomes whatever you build in it |
| Structure | Same fields at every show, so nothing is missing in February | Whatever last year's tab happened to include |
| Cost | A monthly subscription starting at the Weekend Maker tier | Free with an account most makers already have |
| Setup | List your lines and shows once, then count in and count out | You design the columns, formulas and totals yourself |
| Season comparison | Shows ranked on the same footing without new formulas | Depends entirely on how consistent the tabs stayed |
| Restock list | Generated from the counts you entered at teardown | Another sheet you write by hand after the show |
| Failure mode | A show you forgot to close out shows up as incomplete | A quietly broken formula that nobody notices until year end |
| Flexibility | Shaped for booth selling, so odd cases need a note field | Total, which is the reason people love it |
On the right is the kind of tool Google Sheets is and the job it is shaped around, rather than a list of what it includes at any given price. None of it stands still, so take the current position from them rather than from here. BoothInventory is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose BoothInventory when
- You are past ten shows a year and the tabs have stopped agreeing with each other.
- Applications are due and you cannot rank last season without an afternoon of work.
- Two people work the booth and both need to enter counts without wrecking a formula.
- You want the restock list to fall out of the counts rather than be retyped.
Choose Google Sheets when
- You do four or five shows a year and your sheet already answers your questions.
- You enjoy building your own columns and want total control of the layout.
- Money is tight this season and free with some manual work is the right trade.
Where a season spreadsheet actually breaks
The sheet rarely fails at the first show. It fails around show six, when the spring street fair tab has a column for jury fee, the summer market tab does not, and the holiday show tab has an extra row for gift wrap that shifted the total. Every tab is defensible on its own and the season no longer adds up, so February arrives and you cannot rank anything.
The other break is the count itself. Teardown is loud, cold and rushed, and the number that gets written on a scrap of receipt paper is not always the number that reaches the laptop on Tuesday. Once a couple of lines are off, the restock list is off, and you make forty of something that was never selling.
What structure buys you
A fixed shape is not a small thing when the work happens in a parking lot at seven in the morning. Every show asks the same questions in the same order: what went in, what fees were paid, how far you drove, who worked the booth, what came home. Nothing needs designing on the day, and nothing is silently missing when you look back.
That consistency is what makes the season comparison possible at all. A show is only comparable to another show if both were measured the same way, and the honest truth about a spreadsheet season is that they usually were not. BoothInventory is opinionated about those fields precisely so the February decision takes twenty minutes instead of a weekend.
Keeping the sheet you like
None of this means throwing out a spreadsheet you have refined over three seasons. Plenty of makers keep a sheet for the things a tracker should not own: a materials price list, a display wish list, a running note of which shows have shade on the west row, the jury photo history for each application.
The split that works is simple. Anything you want to compare across shows belongs in the structured record. Anything you want to think in, sketch in or reorganize belongs in the sheet. That way you stop asking one grid to be both a calculator and a filing cabinet for a whole season of fairs.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can I bring my existing show data in?
Yes. Most makers enter last season by hand from their sheet, which takes an evening for a dozen shows and gives you a ranked history immediately. Lines, prices and unit costs go in first, then each show with its fees and totals.
Is a spreadsheet really enough for a small season?
Often, yes. If you do four or five local markets, carry a handful of lines and your sheet answers what to make next, that is a working system and you should keep it. The case for a tracker gets strong once shows and lines multiply.
What happens when two of us work the booth?
Shared entry is where sheets get fragile, because one person sorting a column can break someone else's totals. A structured record gives each person the same short form to fill in, and the Maker Team tier is built for a booth run by more than one pair of hands.
Other comparisons on boothinventory.com
Comparison
BoothInventory vs Craftybase
Craftybase suits a maker whose hardest number is what a finished piece costs to make, while BoothInventory suits a maker whose hardest number is what a weekend at a given fair returns.
Settle this one with a fair you know
A head to head reads cleanly on a page and differently at teardown with cold hands and a half packed van. Ask for a demo and we will run this exact comparison against one show you have worked twice, using your counts and your booth fee. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to see which side of the split your circuit sits on.