Boutique management software for shops that make their own stock

Stand in the doorway between your workroom and your shop floor. Nearly every stock argument in a making boutique starts here. The workroom says the pieces went out. The shop says they never arrived. The owner counts the rail and gets a third answer.

Software helps if it follows a piece through that doorway. So before you compare systems, write down how pieces should move in your own shop. The sums below are examples, so swap in your own.

Tag at the end of the line

A piece should get its tag when it has passed its final check, and at no point before. A tagged piece counts as stock. If you tag on the cutting table, you count garments that may still fail on a stain or a crooked hem.

The tag needs to answer four things without anyone opening a file: style, size, length if you sell by length, and a number that belongs to that piece. For a batch of abayas or kaftans, length matters as much as size. A medium at 54 inches and a medium at 58 inches are two different items to the customer holding one up.

Agree one person who tags. When everybody tags, nobody is sure which pieces have been done.

Treat a transfer like a delivery from a supplier

Many boutiques carry finished pieces through the door and call that a transfer. It works until a piece goes missing, and then nobody can say when. The fix is a simple rule: the sender counts, and a different person receives.

Example only: the workroom sends 24 kaftans. The shop counts 23. The transfer should stay open as short by 1 until someone finds the piece or writes it off. That takes a minute on the day. A month later, it takes an afternoon and ends in a guess.

This matters more with two shops. A van run between sites adds a stretch of time when the stock belongs to neither place, so give it a name: in transit.

Count four places, and keep them apart

"How many do we have?" is the wrong question at the rail. A customer wants to know whether her size can be in her hands today. Hold each style by location.

Example style, all sizes	Pieces	Can she have it today?
On the rack	6	Yes
In the back room	10	Yes, if the size is there
In transit	3	Depends on the delivery
In the workshop	5	No
Total	24

The total of 24 looks healthy. The honest answer for today is 16, and fewer once you check sizes.

Set a house rule for moving pieces from back room to rack. One example: one of every size and length of each current style stays on the rail, and the closing shift refills what sold. A rule like this makes the rack count mean something, and it tells new staff what a full rail looks like.

Plan the next batch from what sold

A boutique that makes its own stock has a freedom a reseller lacks. You can decide the size split of the next batch, so let the sales set it.

Example only: a style sold 20 pieces last month: 4 small, 8 medium, 6 large and 2 extra large. For a batch of 30, multiply each by 1.5. That gives 6 small, 12 medium, 9 large and 3 extra large, which adds up to 30.

Then take off what you already hold and what is already running in the workroom. If 4 mediums are in the back room, you may cut 8. Check the season too. Last month's sales describe last month, so a style near the end of its run does not need the same treatment.

Keep the till connected to the workroom

A customer buys a dress from the rail and wants it taken up an inch. The sale happens at the front. The work happens at the back. If a sticky note is all that links them, the garment waits on a hook while the note falls behind the cutting table.

The same goes for a customer who pays a deposit for a piece being made. The shop needs to see the balance, and the workroom needs to see the date. We go through the counter side in our guide to choosing a POS system for a clothing boutique.

Questions to ask before you choose

Take these to any demo. Ask the person to show you each one on screen, using a real style of yours.

• When a batch finishes, how do the pieces become stock, and in which sizes and lengths?
• If 24 leave the workroom and 23 arrive, what does the screen show the next day?
• Can I see rack, back room, workshop and in transit for one style at a glance?
• Can I tell what a piece cost to make, including the outside embroidery?
• If a piece is sold and needs shortening, how does the workroom find out?
• Where do the size split and the quantity for the next batch come from?

A retail system may do well on the till questions and have nothing for the rest. A workshop system may do the reverse. If a piece spends weeks with you before it reaches the rail, follow it through the production stages as carefully as you follow it through the shop.

Tailoq was built for the shop with a workroom behind it. Finished batches enter stock, transfers carry a received check, and each shop shows rack, back room, workshop and in transit. See how it fits boutiques that make what they sell.