Free Inventory Management Template for Excel (2026)

I ran my product business on spreadsheets for longer than I'd like to admit. They're free, familiar, and flexible — until they're not. But they're also where most small businesses start, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So here's a properly built inventory spreadsheet. Not a stripped-down teaser designed to upsell you. An actual, functional template you can use to manage your inventory today.

What's Inside

It comes pre-loaded with 10 sample products so you can see exactly how everything works before adding your own data.

Get the Template

Subscribe to our newsletter and we'll send you the download link straight to your inbox — plus occasional tips on inventory management, supply chain, and growing a product business.

Feature Breakdown

Product Catalog

The first sheet is your product master list. Every SKU in your business lives here.

Columns:

• SKU — Your unique product identifier
• Product Name — What it is
• Category & Brand — For filtering and reporting
• Unit Cost — What you pay your supplier
• Sale Price — What your customer pays
• Margin % — Auto-calculated: (Sale Price - Cost) / Sale Price
• Reorder Point — When stock hits this number, it's time to reorder
• Supplier & Lead Time — Who supplies it and how long it takes

The margin formula runs automatically. Just enter cost and price, and you'll instantly see your margins across every product.

Stock Levels

This is where you track what you actually have on hand.

Three location columns (Warehouse A, Warehouse B, Store) that sum into a Total Stock column. The Status column auto-detects:

• ✅ OK — Stock is above the reorder point
• ⚠️ LOW STOCK — Stock is below the reorder point (time to reorder!)
• 🔴 OUT OF STOCK — Zero units (you're losing sales)

The Stock Value column multiplies total stock by unit cost, so you always know how much capital is tied up in inventory.

Purchase Orders

Track every order you place with suppliers:

• PO number, date, supplier
• SKU and product per line
• Qty ordered, unit cost, auto-calculated line total
• Expected delivery date
• Status dropdown: Draft → Confirmed → Partly Received → Received
• Qty received (update as goods arrive)

Sales Orders

Same structure for customer orders:

• Order number, date, customer
• Line items with qty, price, auto-calculated totals
• Status tracking

Dashboard

The dashboard pulls live data from all other sheets:

• Total Products — How many SKUs you're managing
• Total Stock Units — Sum of all inventory across all locations
• Total Stock Value — What your inventory is worth at cost
• Low Stock Items — How many products need reordering
• Out of Stock Items — How many products have zero stock
• Open POs — How many purchase orders are confirmed but not yet received

Everything updates automatically when you change data in the other sheets.

How to Get Started

1. Download the template (subscribe above to get it)
2. Delete the sample data — it's just there to show you how things work
3. Add your products to the Product Catalog sheet first
4. Enter your current stock in the Stock Levels sheet
5. Start tracking orders as they come in
6. Check the Dashboard weekly to catch low stock early

When You'll Outgrow This Spreadsheet

I'll be honest — this template has limits. It works great when:

• You have fewer than ~50 active products
• 1-2 people manage inventory
• You have 1-3 locations
• You don't need real-time visibility

You'll start feeling the pain when:

• Multiple people need to update inventory at the same time (hello, version conflicts)
• Stock and orders don't sync — you sell something on Shopify but forget to update the sheet
• You need forecasting — spreadsheets show you where you've been, not where you're going
• Mistakes creep in — one wrong formula or deleted row and your stock numbers are fiction

That's not a failure. It's growth. And when you get there, that's exactly the problem VNDLY was built to solve.

From the Founder

I built this template because I genuinely believe good tools should meet you where you are. If a spreadsheet is what you need right now, use it well. I did for years.

But I also know the moment it stops working — that sinking feeling when you realize your stock numbers are wrong and you don't know which version of the file is correct. That's when I switched to dedicated software, and eventually, that's why I built VNDLY.

This template is my way of giving you a head start. Use it freely, share it with your team, modify it however you like. And if the day comes when you need more, we'll be here.

— Henrik

This template is free to use, modify, and share. Made by VNDLY — inventory management software for small businesses.