MadeKeeper is inventory and pricing software for woodworkers.
You buy walnut by the board foot and leave a good share of it in the offcut bin. A piece gets costed from the boards you paid for, not the part that survived, with the glue and finish on top.
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.
Woodworking, specifically
Same books underneath — the numbers below are the ones that change.
Cutting boards
Boards are the production line of a woodshop — batched for fall markets, priced against every other maker at the fair, and hungrier for lumber than they look. An end-grain board loses a third of its stock to kerf and squaring before the first glue-up cures. MadeKeeper prices each board from the lumber it actually consumed, not the blank that survived.
Say you glue up a maple-and-walnut end-grain board:
- 5 bf hard maple @ $7.80/bf, +30% waste$50.70
- 1.5 bf walnut accent @ $12.50/bf, +30% waste$24.38
- Waterproof glue$2.60
- Mineral oil and board wax$1.90
- Rubber feet$1.10
At $185 you keep $104.32 before fees — and now the maker two tables over selling end grain at $95 is a fact you can price around calmly, because you know what his lumber bill has to be.
Epoxy river tables
River tables are the high-stakes end of the craft world: a bookmatched slab pair, gallons of deep-pour epoxy, and days of cure time — hundreds of dollars committed before you know if the pour behaved. Commissions carry deposits for a reason. MadeKeeper tracks the slab inventory, the pour costs, and the balance due, one build at a time.
Say you build a walnut coffee table commission:
- Bookmatched walnut slab pair$240.00
- 2.5 gal deep-pour epoxy @ $89/gal$222.50
- Pigment$6.50
- Mold board, tape, and release$28.00
- Abrasives through the grits$14.00
- Hairpin legs (set)$46.00
At $1,450 you keep $893.00 before your hours — and with $557 committed up front, the deposit isn't a formality, it's the build's oxygen. MadeKeeper shows exactly how much of every quote is already spent at the mill.
Wooden toys
Toys are the most paperwork-shaped thing a woodshop can make: batches of cars and stackers, wheels and axle pegs by the hundred, food-grade finishes — and a buyer who is, in the end, a toddler. The records matter here more than anywhere else on the fair table. MadeKeeper batches the costs and keeps the paper trail in the same motion.
Say you batch 12 toy cars in maple:
- 4 bf hard maple @ $7.80/bf, +25% waste$39.00
- 48 wheels and axle pegs (per-100 bags)$8.60
- Food-grade finish$2.20
At $18 each you keep $13.85 a car before fees — and the whole batch carries one clean record of what went into it, which is worth more than the margin the first time anyone asks.
You buy lumber in board feet — 4/4 here, 8/4 there — at prices that swing five-fold by species, then lose a fifth of it to kerf, checks, and cutoffs. If your cost-per-piece doesn't know about the waste, it isn't your cost. MadeKeeper prices from the board you bought, not the blank that survived.
How MadeKeeper maps to your lumber rack
MadeKeeper stocks lumber by the board foot and the species
Walnut at $12.50/bf and poplar at $3.20/bf are different materials with different stakes. Log each purchase at its real price and every project pulls from the right stack.MadeKeeper puts offcut waste in the math
Put a waste factor on a recipe — 20%, 25%, whatever your shop runs — and the board's cost covers the sawdust too. Offcuts you actually reuse can go back on the books.MadeKeeper charges finish and abrasives to the piece
Mineral oil, poly, glue, and sandpaper are the costs nobody writes down. Log them per piece or per batch and stop donating them to every sale.MadeKeeper splits fair, commission and gallery sales apart
Market-day boards, a commissioned dining table, and pieces on consignment at the gallery each track in their own channel, with the event math ranking your Saturdays.One charcuterie board, to the penny
Say you glue up a walnut serving board:
- 3 bf of 8/4 walnut @ $12.50/bf, +25% waste$46.88
- Mineral oil and board wax$1.40
- Abrasives$2.25
Sell it at $145 and you kept $94.47 before fees. Multiply by a fair-day table of twelve boards and the booth fee math finally has something honest to work with.
If you sell cutting boards and food-contact pieces, MadeKeeper keeps your finish and materials records per piece — so what went on each board is written down, in the app instead of a shop notebook.
Market Saturday, for woodworkers
The bench is one half of it. MadeKeeper follows woodworkers 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. Woodworkers 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 woodworkers ask
How does board-foot tracking work?
Lumber logs in board feet at what you paid, per species and thickness, on nominal thickness the way the yard bills it. Recipes pull board feet with waste factors you set — the defect loss that belongs to the species and grade, and the process loss that belongs to the job — so the price of each piece reflects the whole board rather than the finished parts. The kerf lives on the board foot calculator, where it decides how many strips a board actually yields.
Can I track slabs and live edge stock?
Yes — a slab can log as a single piece at its own price, then be consumed by the project it becomes. One-of-a-kind pieces can carry a one-off cost basis instead of a recipe.
What about offcuts I turn into small products?
Log offcut-based pieces with a zero or salvage-rate material cost — your call. Either way the sales land on the books, and you find out whether the bottle-opener bin actually earns its bench time.
Why does end grain cost so much more than edge grain?
The crosscut-and-reglue step multiplies both labor and waste — a 30% loss factor is normal where an edge-grain board might run 20%. Cost both styles honestly in MadeKeeper and price the difference instead of absorbing it.
How do batches work for market season?
Glue up twelve boards, log the batch, and each board carries its share of lumber, glue, and finish. Load-out and count-back after each market show what sold — and the event math says whether the booth fee earned its keep.
What about offcut boards and seconds?
Small boards from offcuts can log their lumber at zero or salvage rate — your call, honestly either way. The board with the check you filled sells from a seconds tier, so it doesn't drag your first-quality margins down.
How should I price a commission before I buy the slab?
Quote from the last build's real numbers — slab market price, gallons at your measured river width, legs, and hours. MadeKeeper keeps each build's history, so the next quote starts from evidence instead of a squint.
What about failed pours?
Log the loss honestly — the epoxy and time are spent whether the pour fisheyed or not. A season's numbers with the failures included is the only version that tells you your real margin per build.
Can I track smaller epoxy work alongside tables?
Yes — charcuterie rivers, tray pours, and offcut art run as their own products with their own recipes. The small pours often carry the shop between table commissions, and the ledger will show whether yours do.
What records should a toy batch keep?
What it was made from — lumber, hardware bag, finish — plus quantities and dates. MadeKeeper keeps that per batch automatically as a side effect of costing it, so the paperwork half of CPSIA-style tracking is already done.
How do finishes factor in?
Food-grade oils and beeswax log as materials on the batch, so every toy's record says exactly what touched it. That's the question parents actually ask at the table, and you'll have the written answer.
Can I sell toys and regular woodwork together?
Yes — cars and cutting boards share the lumber rack and the ledger, but each product keeps its own records and margins. You'll also learn which side of the table actually pays for the fair.
Ready to see your real numbers?
The app is live. $19/mo, kept for as long as you stay.