How should small boutique owners track garment inventory without expensive software?

Effective inventory tracking prevents over-buying, dead stock, and lost sales from unknowingly stocking out. Here are practical methods for different scales:

Level 1 — Google Sheets (free, effective for up to 200 SKUs):

• One row per catalog set purchased — columns: catalog name, supplier, purchase date, pieces, cost per piece, total cost, pieces sold, remaining, selling price, revenue
• Update sold count weekly (or after each sale)
• Conditional formatting highlights stock below 2 pieces in red

Level 2 — WhatsApp Business catalog:

• Mark items as "out of stock" in the catalog when sold — customers stop asking for sold items

Level 3 — Simple inventory apps: Vyapar app (Indian accounting + inventory), Zoho Inventory (free up to 50 orders/month), or StockHero for basic tracking without POS investment.