Hello everyone!
I hope you’re doing well. I run a tailoring shop in Uganda, mainly creating custom clothing for schools and other institutions. Because we actually make each piece from scratch—rather than reselling pre-made items—I’m a bit stuck on the right way to set up my retail management system. I’d love some advice on:
- Setting up “products” (like school uniforms or corporate wear) when they’re made-to-order instead of kept in stock.
- Managing raw materials—fabric, buttons, zippers, etc. Should I list these as “products” in the system or track them differently?
- Structuring my workflow—from taking an order to production and finally delivery.
Specific Questions:
- For shops that produce goods, how would you suggest structuring inventory?
- Do you typically include raw materials in your retail system, and if so, how?
- Any tips on tracking costs (materials, labor) to price finished items profitably?
A little background: we serve schools, businesses, and sometimes individual clients. I’m currently using spreadsheets, but I’m ready to move to dedicated software. If anyone has experience with tailoring, custom manufacturing, or small-business retail—especially in Uganda—I’d be grateful for your insights and suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Hey there,
I love that you’re making custom clothes instead of reselling pre-made items. Since you’re manufacturing from scratch, your retail system needs to be set up a little differently. Here’s a simple way to track everything properly in Ficos.
1. Setting Up Your Products
Think about the final products you sell—school uniforms, corporate shirts, dresses, etc. These should be added as products in the system, but since you make them yourself, don’t enter a cost price (or set it to 0). Instead, we’ll track fabric and other materials separately as expenses so your profit is calculated correctly.
Steps:
- Create product categories like "School Uniforms," "Corporate Wear," or "Casual Clothing."
- Add specific products under those categories, such as "White Short-Sleeved Shirt - Medium" or "Blue School Skirt - Size 12."
Here’s a guide on setting up products.
And one for setting up product categories.
2. Managing Raw Materials as Expenses
Since you’re making clothes from scratch, you need to track fabric, zippers, buttons, and thread separately. These should not be added as products—instead, you record them as expenses whenever you buy them.
Example:
If you purchase 10 meters of cotton fabric, you don’t list it as a product. Instead, you record it as an expense under "Fabric." The same goes for zippers, thread, lining, and other materials.
Here’s how to set up expense categories.
And how to add an expense.
3. Updating Stock When You Make New Clothes
Since your products are made-to-order, they won’t automatically appear in stock. Each time you finish making a batch of clothes, manually increase the stock count in Ficos.
Example:
You finish sewing five blue school skirts. You go into the system and update the stock for "Blue School Skirt - Size 12" by adding five units. This keeps your inventory accurate.
Here’s how to manually adjust stock.
4. Selling Clothes & Tracking Profit
Once your setup is ready, you can start creating sales orders whenever customers place orders. The system will:
- Deduct sold items from stock automatically.
- Track total revenue from sales.
- Show your actual profit, based on the expenses recorded for materials.
Since product cost is set to 0 and material costs are tracked separately, your financial reports will correctly reflect your expenses and profit.
Here’s how to create a sales order.
Recap:
- Add the clothes you sell as products (but don’t enter a cost price).
- Track fabric, zippers, and other materials as expenses, not products.
- Manually update stock when you finish sewing new items.
- Use sales orders to track sales and profit properly.
This setup helps you keep track of raw materials, finished stock, and profit without overcomplicating things. Let me know if you have any questions!
Okay that makes sense, since its hard to know how much the finished school uniform really took (cost price) like the size of fabric used etc. It was also going to be hard to do this for all our shirts, shorts etc. Thank you for the good work