Invoice Flow app icon Invoice Flow management Get the app
EN

When the Boutique Said Yes and I Had No Invoice

By Fiona Walsh, Handmade Crafts Seller — Burlington, VT

I make ceramic vessels. Mugs, bowls, vases, small sculptural pieces. I’ve been throwing pottery since 2014 — first as a hobby in a shared studio, then as a side income selling at Vermont craft fairs, then as a full-time practice starting in 2019.

The craft fair model has a ceiling. You can only do so many weekends, and weekend sales are weather-dependent, traffic-dependent, and exhausting. I was making about $2,400/month at my peak fair season — good for late summer and fall, slow from January to April.

The shift came when a home goods boutique in downtown Burlington reached out. A customer had photographed my mug at a fair and tagged the boutique on Instagram. The boutique owner wanted to carry my work.

I was thrilled. Then she asked: “Do you do wholesale or consignment?”

I had never thought about either. I didn’t know the difference.

Wholesale vs. Consignment: The Billing Difference

Wholesale: the retailer buys your products outright at a wholesale discount (typically 40–50% off retail). They own the inventory. They pay you regardless of whether the items sell.

Consignment: your products sit in the retailer’s shop; you get paid only when items sell, at a percentage of the sale (typically 50–60% to you, 40–50% to the shop). The retailer owns nothing until sale.

Both have billing implications.

The Burlington boutique wanted to start with consignment — she wasn’t sure how my work would sell in her store and didn’t want to commit to a wholesale buy. I agreed.

Within three months, everything I’d consigned had sold. She reordered on consignment again. By month five, she offered to switch to wholesale.

The consignment billing was the part that took work to get right.

Consignment Settlement — [Retailer Name] — [Month]:

The inventory log attached to the settlement invoice — tracking what’s in the shop at any time — is essential for consignment. Without it, you’re relying entirely on the retailer’s honesty about what sold.

The Wholesale Invoice (After She Converted)

Invoice Flow app invoice editor of a candle maker — soy candles and a reed diffuser at wholesale unit pricing with SKUs and the buyer's PO in custom fields
SKUs, unit pricing, the buyer's PO — the boutique's system accepts it like any vendor's.

Once the boutique converted to wholesale, billing became simpler and more predictable.

Wholesale Order — [Retailer Name] — [Date]:

Items:

The MAP (minimum advertised price) note on the invoice protects my retail pricing. If a wholesale account sells my mugs at $18 (below what I sell them for direct), it undercuts my own store. MAP policy prevents this.

Custom Commission Invoices

A portion of my revenue comes from custom commissions — wedding gifts, memorial pieces, interior design projects.

Custom Commission — [Client Name] — [Date]:

The cancellation note about offering the piece for general sale matters for pottery specifically. A custom glaze combination I developed for one client might not sell easily elsewhere — but a commission for a standard glaze I use regularly can absolutely be sold. Clients who understand this cancel less often.

Craft Fair Retail Receipts

Invoice Flow app documents of a handmade seller — a wholesale candle order, a custom wedding-favor order on deposit, a paid corporate gift order and a draft
Wholesale, a custom order on deposit, a corporate gift run — the hobby is a business now.

Craft fair sales are cash and card. But some customers — particularly interior designers and corporate buyers — need a receipt for expense purposes.

Retail Receipt — [Studio Name] — [Date]:

InvoiceFlow generates these on the spot from a mobile template. I send them to the customer’s email before they leave the booth.

Online Sales and Etsy/Platform Invoices

Invoice Flow app products screen of a candle business — candles, tins, wax melts, diffusers and gift sets with SKUs and tracked stock
Every line with its own SKU and stock count — the studio shelf, digitized.

Most online marketplace sales don’t require a separate invoice — the platform provides confirmation. But for buyers who need a formal invoice (international buyers with customs requirements, business buyers), InvoiceFlow generates one quickly.

Online Sale Invoice — [Customer Name] — [Date]:

The Business Six Years In

Current revenue breakdown:

When I was doing craft fairs only, I was making $2,400/month in peak season and much less in winter. The wholesale accounts gave me income regardless of season.

What InvoiceFlow Does for Handmade Craft Sellers

Handmade craft seller billing spans consignment settlement invoices with inventory tracking, wholesale orders with MAP policy and net-30, custom commission deposits with cancellation terms, craft fair retail receipts, and online platform supplemental invoices. InvoiceFlow handles all of these from one Android app — separate templates for each billing type, deposit tracking for commissions, and the professional format that retail buyers and corporate clients expect.

Download InvoiceFlow. Build the consignment settlement template with the inventory log reference. Build the wholesale template with MAP policy note and net-30 terms. Add the deposit and cancellation policy to custom commission invoices. The boutique account that reorders wholesale every quarter is the income that gets you through slow fair seasons.

Fiona Walsh is the owner of Walsh Ceramics in Burlington, Vermont, selling handmade ceramic work at craft fairs, online, through wholesale retail accounts, and by custom commission.