Intuitive, Structured Process to Get You Organized
Information is organized into a structure that minimizes data entry by maximizing re-use of information. Management activities are grouped sensibly as types of
People: Artists, Patrons, Printers, Galleries; and types of
Artworks: Original Artworks, Editions and Inventory units.
Categories of Medium Types, Support Types, Edition Types etc. complete the information you need to maintain proper records about your art.
Consignments and Transactions are recorded using screens with pop-up lists where you pick the artwork out of Inventory and the patron and/or gallery involved. Printing and serial numbering COA certificates is automated.
If you are mounting Exhibitions you can process all of the consignment and inventory activity automatically. One Exhibition record can contain up to 10 re-useable Exhibit Lists. The Exhibit lists each contain 5 artworks, so an Exhibition of up to 50 artworks can be asembled, checked-out and checked-in in a matter of seconds.
Information is entered once and re-used often to minimize effort...
leaving you more time to create art.
Artwork Inventory on Consignment
A consignment happens when you take a work of art out of your studio inventory for any reason other than selling or gifting it. There are many different kinds of consignments, for example a trial loan to see how a piece looks in a location, an entry in an exhibition or even renting out your artworks. And you may be consigning works to any number of parties including prospective patron, art shows, galleries or businesses.
Consignment transactions are the way you can record artworks being checked in and out of your studio inventory. Setting up a consignment only takes seconds, because
there is almost no data entry involved. Pop-up lists on the
new consignment screen enable you to select the artwork edition and the consignee (patron, gallery), completing most of the transaction data without having to type in any information. The only information you have to enter is start and end dates for the loan, and you can pick them off a pop-up calendar. Check-out and check-in are recorded simply with check boxes.
If you are renting artworks out, there is a place to record the fees as well, so you can keep track of earnings as well as the dates when the art is due back in the studio.
All of this recordkeeping is achieved with
one simple screen and involves very little data entry. All of the Inventory tracking to check the artwork units out and back in is fully automated - you just tick "Delivered" and "Returned" check boxes on the Consignment record and your inventory is kept current.
With this information you can list outstanding consignments (those that are still checked-out) to help stay on top of your art lending program. You automatically keep track of where each piece of your inventory has been (and when) until it is sold. Tracking consignments lets you stay on top of what you've loaned out and your exhibition history efficiently.
Artwork Sold, Gifted, Donated and Certificates of Authenticity
When you sell or give a work of art to a patron you need to record the acquired artwork details, who acquired it, when it was acquired and which gallery (if any) was involved in the transaction.
The Artist-Patron Register records transactions for artwork sold, gifted and donated efficiently. To record a transaction, all you have to do is use choose the unit from available Inventory, the Gallery and Patron and record the date of issue and sale price.
Done.
As with Consignments, recording these transactions requires
just one input screen most of which is populated by selecting items from pop-ups. It really couldn't be any simpler.
You also have the option of creating
Certificate of Authenticity (COA) certificates automatically if you want to. Each Transaction in your Artist-Patron Register has a unique number that is printed on the COA and recorded in the database, permanently linking the printed Certificate to your records. This provides a high quality form of provenance documentation that you can give to your patrons.
Certificates of Authenticity are produced from the information in registration transactions so no re-entry is required. You can print a COA on demand right after a transaction is entered or as a batch of COAs by selecting them from the transaction register.
You can even customize the appearance and content of the COA itself using a menu driven process. You can customize the text components to your preferred wording and you can change the appearance of the certificate title and seal by selecting from a variety of choices of colours and fonts.
Fast, flexible, complete. This is the way keeping records of your artist business should be.
People: Artists, Patrons, Printers, Galleries
Each type of "person" has a profile that contains name, address and contact information like email address, telephone, website and mail address. These profiles provide you with a secure, backed-up and accessible contact lists for your art business. You can download the information to a spreadsheet at the push of a single button anytime you want to make a mailing list or update other files.
For Patrons many of the profile fields are optional to enable you to make transactions quickly at a show or to respect the fact that some patrons may not want to share all their contact information.
For Printers and Galleries there is room for the Company information along with the name of the Master Printer or Gallery Owner you deal with. Both of these name area are optional.
Artworks: Original Artworks, Editions and Inventory
Original artwork is created by an Artist, has a specific date, width and height and is created from media and support materials. When saved, your Original Artworks are automatically entered into Inventory.
An Edition is a master record for an artwork reproduction, consisting of one artwork, an edition type (e.g. Giclee on Canvas, Serigraph) and an Edition Unit Type (e.g. Limited Edition, Artists Proof). Each edition has an edition date, series size, list price and may have a printer associated with it.
When you create an Edition all units in the series are created in Inventory automatically, to maintin air-tight control over the integrity of the series. If you are printing the series over time, you can specify the Edition as Print-On-Demand and Inventory units will be set up as "Unprinted". When you print units, select them from the list of unprinted inventory and in one click you can update all the units you printed to "Avialable".
Categories: Mediums, Supports, Edition Types....
Categories in the Artist-Patron Register are simply lists of descriptive information. Categories appear in drop-down lists in the data entry screens throughout the system.
You can use the category lists to tailor the look and feel of the system in two ways:
- Customize the list contents
- Set default values for list items
Customizing category lists enables you to make each list relevant to your own situation. You can delete values that you will never use and you can
add new values that might not be included in the "starter kit" lists we included with your account. This is a powerful way to make the system more efficient.
The other thing you can do is set default values for most of the categories. When you set a default, that value will be
automaticaly filled in for you in data entry screens. For example if you set your Country as the default, it will be pre-selected every time you go to enter a new Patron, Printer, Artist or Gallery. Similarly if you are the only Artist using the system, setting your own profile as the default will automatically pre-select your profile as the Artist for every new Original Artwork,
making the system truly yours.
Re-using information: the key to efficient records management
That’s a lot of information ! And a lot of it is the same for many entries, making manual recordkeeping really tedious. Problems like this are what databases were invented for.
The Artist Patron Register system builds up these pieces of information through easy-to-use data entry tables and minimizes the need to repeatedly enter data that are common to many entries by using the power of relational database technology. It stores each transaction for an original or serial numbered reproduction and automatically produces Certificates of Authenticity on demand. It makes it easy and fast to keep track of your work professionally.
Get / Keep Organized