Do You Need Tool Tracking Software for a Shop of One?
When my planer needed a blade change last spring, I couldn't tell you the last time I'd done it. So I went shopping for tool tracking software — and every option I found was built for a company managing a crew: check a tool out to a person, a manager approves it, it comes back when the job's done. That's worth paying for when tools leave on trucks with people you didn't hand them to. In a shop of one, "who has it" is never the question.
What a solo maker actually needs to know is different: when a machine was last serviced and what's due, how many hours it has run, proof of what you own if there's a theft or a flood, and whether a tool is still worth keeping. None of that needs logins or approval steps. It needs a record simple enough that you'll still be updating it in month three.
You can start this weekend for free: one clear photo of each major tool plus its serial plate, four facts per tool (purchase date, price, serial number, where you bought it), a label that matches a spreadsheet row, and a line in the log every time you service something.
The full post compares the spreadsheet, a one-person app and a fleet system — what each really costs, and where the line sits when a crew system starts earning its fee: Tool Tracking for a One-Person Shop: Why the Enterprise Options Don't Fit on the CraftedTracker blog.
No daily flood — I'm in the shop too.
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