This is a description of the current order of operations to budget and purchase materials for the workshop: consumables and small tools, not capital purchases and not materials for classes. Used from January 2022 and still used as of this publication.
TeamShop works with two Google Drive spreadsheets, one to keep track of purchases and remaining budget and one to keep track of inventory, ordered materials and date they’re received:
- Balance sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CgGI-dgaoGYPkBrQLFpXZAzM_isjwwKtJ9hDeUiR7Ss/edit?usp=sharing
- Inventory and Expense List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/116asOt7ebG_JP-Cyum2516W4lIYa_TY9IN39r_mGfpQ/edit?usp=sharing
In the Inventory and Expense list there are two tabs, one for inventory stuff we need to check and restock regularly and another tab for things we’ve bought and might be a one-off. Both include columns with link, price last time it was ordered, whether it’s been received and location where it’s being stored/used. Anyone in TeamShop can receive deliveries from the incoming packages bins at 113 and update them on the spreadsheet, as we don’t always get notified when packages have been delivered.
In the Inventory / Common purchases tab, we keep track of materials that we might need to purchase more than once, in 3 categories:
- Materials that need to be checked / restocked regularly: checked monthly. Number in stock updated and more are reordered when below the ideal number in stock. e.g. blue tape, shopvac and blue filters…
- Other tools that wear out over time and we upgrade depending on how much money there is left that quarter: Quarterly check. e.g. driver and drill bits.
- Things that would be nice to have but we don’t really need: we use this section to add ideas of shiny new tools we’d love to have if budget at the end of the quarter allows it. We then vote and prioritize purchases.
In the Balance sheet we keep track of all expenses each quarter and whether they have been submitted on expensify. All expenses follow the regular ACE protocol for purchasing.