Download an inventory sheet built on an Excel table: a category dropdown, total value worked out for every item, and rows that turn red when stock falls to the reorder level. Type a new item under the last row and the table, totals and formulas grow with it.
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This generator builds an inventory template for Excel: one Excel table of your stock with SKU, item, category, location, quantity and unit cost, a Total value for every row, and an optional reorder flag that turns a row red when stock runs low. It is for the workshop, storeroom or small shop that counts stock by hand at the end of the month and wants a sheet that shows the total value of the shelves and which items to reorder, without paying for inventory software.
The page builds the file in your browser. It's free, with no sign-up and no limit on how many you make.
The Inventory sheet holds a summary block and a real Excel table named Inventory, the kind Insert > Table makes, with banded rows, a filter button on every column header and 25 empty rows to start.
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| SKU | Your item code |
| Item | The item's name |
| Category | Picked from the dropdown, or typed freely if you removed the categories |
| Location | Where it's kept |
| Quantity | Units on hand |
| Unit cost | Cost per unit, in your currency |
| Total value | Calculated: Quantity x Unit cost |
| Reorder level | The quantity at which to reorder (with reorder tracking) |
| Reorder | Calculated: shows Reorder when stock is at or below the level |
Above the table sit four figures: Total stock value, Items, Units in stock and Items to reorder. The last one only appears with reorder tracking. With three sample rows typed in, Excel showed $172.00, 3 items, 945 units and 2 to reorder.
Empty rows show a dash in Total value instead of a column of $0.00. The header row is frozen, so it stays in view as you scroll 300 items down. For a printed count sheet, it prints landscape, one page wide, with the header repeated at the top of every page.
Type a new item directly under the last row and Excel grows the table to take it in. Total value and Reorder fill themselves in for the new row, along with the Category dropdown, the number formats and the red highlighting. We checked this in Excel for Mac: an item typed under the table at 5 units, $10 each and a reorder level of 8 showed $50.00 and Reorder and turned red.
That matters because most how-to guides for an inventory spreadsheet end with "drag the formula down with the fill handle". It works until the list outgrows the rows you dragged. Item 41 can then end up with no value and no flag, and a total that reads a fixed range like F2:F40 leaves it out. The count looks finished and is short.
This template avoids both halves of that. Total value and Reorder are calculated columns, so Excel fills them into every row the table gains. The summary formulas name the table instead of a range:
=SUM(Inventory[Total value]) // total stock value, however many rows
=COUNTIF(Inventory[Reorder],"Reorder") // items to reorderOne way to break it: leave a blank row. An item typed below a gap, instead of directly under the last row, stays outside the table and outside every total. If a table in Excel never grows at all, look under File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As You Type for the two options that control it: Include new rows and columns in table, and Fill formulas in tables to create calculated columns.
Reorder shows the word Reorder when Quantity is at or below Reorder level, and stays blank otherwise. The whole row turns light red at the same time. In Excel the formula reads:
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER([@Quantity]),ISNUMBER([@[Reorder level]]),[@Quantity]<=[@[Reorder level]]),"Reorder","")
// ISNUMBER checks no flag until both cells hold numbers
// <= at the level counts, so 8 units against a level of 8 is flaggedMany tutorials write =IF(B2<C2,"Reorder","OK"), which waits until stock drops below the level. Pick a level with "at or below" in mind.
To see only what needs ordering, open the filter button on the Reorder header and tick Reorder. The Items to reorder figure above the table tells you how many rows to expect.
The template doesn't calculate it. You type it. The usual formula is average daily usage times the supplier's lead time in days, plus safety stock:
reorder level = daily usage x lead time (days) + safety stock
// 20 units a day, a 15-day lead time, 200 units of safety stock
// 20 x 15 + 200 = 500Any time unit works if usage and lead time match: a workshop using 6 boxes of M6 bolts a week, from a supplier who takes 2 weeks, keeping 4 boxes spare, sets its level at 6 x 2 + 4 = 16. To work it out in the sheet, add Daily use, Lead time and Safety stock columns at the table's right edge (the table takes them in) and put the calculation in Reorder level.
The Category dropdown reads its options from a second table, CategoryList, on a sheet named Lists. Type a new category under the last one there and the table grows and the dropdown includes it. In our check, adding Tools took the list from 5 to 6.
The dropdown's source is =INDIRECT("CategoryList[Category]"), because Excel's Data Validation can't name a table directly. That text is a fixed string, so renaming the CategoryList table or its Category header breaks the dropdown. Leave both names alone.
Type a category that isn't on the list and Excel rejects it, with a message telling you to add it under the last category on the Lists sheet. That's what keeps "Packaging" and "Packing" from becoming two categories in a filter.
First put your old sheet's columns in the template's order: SKU, Item, Category, Location, Quantity, Unit cost. Then paste into the first table row with Paste Special > Values. A normal paste carries the source cells' settings with it and replaces the Category dropdown.
Paste in two blocks: SKU to Unit cost in one, Reorder level in another. Pasting over Total value or Reorder overwrites their formulas. If the table's corner marker stops short of your last pasted row, drag it down or use Table Design > Resize Table.
Pasted values skip the dropdown's check, so "Packing" gets in. Run Data > Data Validation > Circle Invalid Data to ring every off-list category, then fix each from the dropdown.
Watch SKUs with leading zeros. Type 00412 into a General cell, or double-click a CSV open, and Excel stores the number 412. Format the SKU column as Text before typing, or bring the list in with CSV to Excel, which keeps codes with leading zeros as text.
Excel 365 has its own inventory templates under File > New: search for inventory. "Inventory list with reorder highlighting" is one of them. Pick one of those if you'd rather start from Microsoft's layout, and check whether its totals read a table or a fixed range before you trust them past the last pre-filled row.
Building it yourself takes a range converted with Insert > Table, a Total value formula, a reorder formula, a conditional formatting rule under Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule, a categories table on its own sheet, Data > Data Validation set to List with the INDIRECT source above, and a summary block. The form above does all of it.
If you buy supplies on your own card and claim them back, the Expense Report Template builds the claim, with a category dropdown, a mileage table and signature lines.
Put your stock in an Excel table with columns for SKU, item, category, location, quantity and unit cost, and a formula column that multiplies quantity by unit cost. The generator above builds that table for you, with a reorder flag and a summary of total stock value on top. Download it, then type your items in.
Multiply how many units you use a day by the supplier's lead time in days, then add the safety stock you want in hand when the delivery arrives. At 20 units a day, a 15-day lead time and 200 units of safety stock, that is 20 x 15 + 200 = 500. This template doesn't work the number out for you; you type it into the Reorder level column.
At it. The Reorder column shows Reorder when Quantity is at or below Reorder level, so an item with a level of 8 is flagged at 8 units, not 7. The whole row turns light red at the same moment.
No. It is a snapshot of what is on the shelf now, with no transaction log, no dates and no history. You update Quantity when you count, receive or ship, and the value and reorder flag follow.
Usually because the sheet is a plain range, not a table. Excel's Extend data range formats and formulas option sometimes copies a formula into a new row at the bottom of a plain list, but not reliably. In a table with a calculated column, typing directly under the last row extends the table and fills the formula in. If a table still doesn't do it, check File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As You Type, where Include new rows and columns in table and Fill formulas in tables to create calculated columns must both be ticked.
Because the dropdown points at a fixed range, and the new category sits outside it. Pointing the list at a table column fixes that, but Data Validation won't accept a table reference typed directly, so this template uses =INDIRECT("CategoryList[Category]"). Type a new category under the last one on the Lists sheet and it appears in the dropdown.