Keeping track of your material costs can help you accurately price your artworks, as well as give you data on your profit margins.
You can track expenses connected to your artworks easily in your Artwork Archive account by attaching an expense directly to an artwork in your account.
Here is how to get started:
Go to Pieces on the left-hand menu.
Click the name of the artwork from your inventory
Scroll down to New Expense and click “add new expense."
You will be directed to a new page where you will be able to detail the expense associated with your artwork.
From here, you can add details about that expense. You are able to enter a description, amount, date, category, memo, and payee if applicable to your expense record. When you are done adding the details, click Save.
When you create this new record your expense will be tied to that artwork and will also appear under the Income section of your Artwork Archive account.
How can you benefit?
As you track more of your expenses, you will begin to see a more clear picture of your total production costs. Under expenses, you will see three figures: Total Production Costs, Sale Revenue, and Revenue - Costs. So, what can these numbers tell you?
Total Production Costs: This number is exactly what it sounds like. It is the sum of all the individual expenses tied directly to this particular artwork. Your canvas, framing costs, fabrication costs, and anything else will be added together in this sum.
Sale Revenue: Your sale revenue is strictly the amount that you made from the sale of that work (minus any commissions and discounts).
Revenue - Costs: This figure tells you the final profit that you made from the sale of the artwork minus the commissions, discounts, and material costs.
