MadeKeeper is inventory and pricing software for metalsmiths.
Sterling does not forgive much, and the scrap jar is money. Cost a piece off the sheet and gauge it came from, solder and findings in, then see what it left you after a market day or an online sale.
Free tools, no signup: the fair profit calculator.
free to start, and no card to start. No order-line meters, ever.
$19/mo for the whole back office, kept for as long as you stay. No card to start — MadeKeeper asks for one when you subscribe, not before. The shop stays free for cost a piece and one fair — no product cap. The tax packet, Etsy and Square, and more fairs are the $19.
Metalsmith jewelry, specifically
Same books underneath — the numbers below are the ones that change.
Permanent jewelry
Permanent jewelry is a by-the-inch business run out of a rolling kit: spools of gold-filled and sterling chain, a pulse-arc welder, and pop-up days where fourteen wrists in four hours is a good afternoon. Your inventory is inches; your P&L is the event. MadeKeeper tracks both the spool and the Saturday.
Say a Saturday pop-up closes 14 bracelets:
- 98 inches of gold-filled chain @ 58¢/inch$56.84
- Jump rings and electrode wear$3.30
- 5 charms sold-on @ $2.40 cost$12.00
Fourteen bracelets averaging $52 plus five charms at $10 grossed $778.00 — you keep $705.86 before the venue's cut. That's the number to hold against a $150 pop-up fee when the next venue calls.
Your raw material trades on a commodities market. Sheet and wire bought in January cost different money than the same gauge bought in June, MadeKeeper tracks metal by the gram at what you actually paid, stones by the piece, and puts today's true cost into every bezel you set.
How MadeKeeper maps to your bench
MadeKeeper weighs metal in grams at what you paid
Sterling sheet, round wire by gauge, bezel strip — each buy logs at its real per-gram cost. When spot moves, your new stock costs what it costs, and old stock stays honest.MadeKeeper counts stones by the piece or the carat
A $14 turquoise cab and a parcel of faceted garnets log the way you bought them. Every setting pulls its stone at its actual price.MadeKeeper costs a piece from the metal it actually used
Sheet bought in March and sheet bought in June are different money. Each buy is its own lot at its own per-gram cost, so a piece costs what the metal in it cost — and a later price rise changes your next piece, never your finished ones.MadeKeeper reports show, gallery and commission money apart
Art-fair weekends, gallery consignment splits, and custom commissions each track their own channel — with hallmarked one-of-a-kind pieces carried at their own cost basis.One ring, to the penny
Say you fabricate a sterling ring with a turquoise cab:
- 6.2 g sterling @ $1.42/g$8.80
- 2 g bezel wire @ $1.55/g$3.10
- Turquoise cab$14.00
- Solder and flux$0.40
At $95 you kept $68.70 before fees. When silver jumps, your next sheet order reprices every ring after it, automatically.
MadeKeeper keeps your metal-content records per piece — which stock went into what — the paperwork side of quality stamping; what you stamp and how you mark stays your call under the stamping rules.
Market Saturday, for metalsmiths
The bench is one half of it. MadeKeeper follows metalsmiths out to the booth as well: it opens on one bar of signal, rings a sale in taps and files it against that day's event, holds that sale on the phone if the signal quits and puts it through when the bars come back, reads the tag you printed, and prints a market-day sheet before you load the truck.
None of that is a card reader. Metalsmiths take payment however they already take it; MadeKeeper only keeps the count honest while you sell. Everything it does at the booth →
Straight about what's live
Materials and true cost per piece, batch "makes" with your labor amortized in, the suggested-price coach, product variants, sales that drain stock, the market-day quick-sale screen, lot tracking, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, money-insight reports, multi-location consignment, the cure/best-by heads-up engine, mileage, expenses, and the Schedule C tax packet are all in the app today, with guided setup and a full Craftybase history migration to get you started. So are Etsy order sync, Square card sync, your own shop page, a Buy button on your own Square account, and custom-order requests off a piece you already sold. On the $24 MadeKeeper AI plan you also get receipts, shelves and recipe cards read from a photo — photo reads are on that plan; hand entry is how the $19 shop starts. Still building: your own books answered in plain words, buying a shipping label inside the app, and a best-customers report. MadeKeeper does not send marketing email to your buyers and is not going to: every maker here sends from one shared reputation, and a quote that has to arrive matters more than a mailing list. Nothing above is dressed up as done when it is not. See the full live-vs-building list →
Questions metalsmiths ask
How does MadeKeeper handle changing silver prices?
Each metal purchase logs at its own per-gram price. Pieces cost from the stock they actually used, so a spot spike changes your future costs without rewriting your history.
Can I track scrap?
Not yet, and we would rather say so. There is no scrap ledger and no refiner settlement in MadeKeeper today. What the free ring and casting calculators do show is how much metal a job puts in the jar — the kerf and filings you will never get back as metal, and the button that goes straight back to stock — so you can see the two apart. What a refiner pays for a lot is your own paperwork, and we will not guess at it.
Does it work for one-of-a-kind pieces?
Yes. An OOAK piece carries its own cost basis and shows in portfolio mode — inventory and showcase in the same place, with commissions traceable from deposit to delivery.
How do I track chain across different styles?
Each spool logs as its own material by the inch at its real cost — the $58-a-foot solid gold and the gold-filled paperclip never blur. A weld pulls inches from the spool it used, plus your standard jump ring.
What does a pop-up really cost to work?
Fee, miles, and your hours — logged per event against the day's welds. After a season, the report ranks your venues, and the farmers market that outsells the boutique stops being a hunch.
How should I price against the chain cost?
Most artists price per style with a per-inch mental model; MadeKeeper gives you the real per-inch number including findings and electrode wear, so the anklet premium and the solid-gold tier both stand on arithmetic.
Ready to see your real numbers?
The app is live. $19/mo, kept for as long as you stay.