Help with Vendor-Craft — from adding your first show to backups, reports and the numbers at the end of the season.
Start with Add Show. The guided setup walks you through the basics first, then gives you room for the details that matter — application status, booth information, hours, load-in, contacts and travel. Add what you know now; you can always come back and fill in the rest later.
If you already have the show schedule, add the hours while they’re handy. That gives Vendor-Craft a better starting point when you review the show later — and saves you from trying to remember everything after teardown.
How much is free?
Your first three shows are free. You can use the app, reports, backups and exports while you decide whether Vendor-Craft fits the way you work. A one-time $9.99 purchase unlocks unlimited shows. There is no subscription.
I paid, then reinstalled. How do I get the unlock back?
Settings → Purchase → Restore Purchases. The unlock is tied to your App Store or Google Play account, not to the device, so it comes back on any device signed in to the same store account.
How do I back up my records?
Settings → Backup & Restore → Back Up Now writes a single file containing everything — shows, expenses, mileage, hours, sales and any photos you have kept. Save it wherever you keep things: Files, a cloud drive, email, a drive in a desk. Restore from Backup reads it back.
Restoring replaces what is on the device rather than merging, and it tells you what the file contains before it does anything.
Can I use Vendor-Craft on my phone and my tablet?
Yes, and it lays out properly on both — a single column on a phone, two panes on a tablet. There is no automatic sync — move a backup file between them, and keep one device as the one you enter on during a show.
Can I get my numbers into a spreadsheet?
Yes. Every report has an Export CSV action, and the file opens in Numbers, Excel or Google Sheets. It is a one-way export for reading and sorting — it does not come back in. Use a backup file for that.
I don't collect sales tax / I don't drive to shows. Do I have to fill those in?
No. Leave a field blank or at zero and it stays out of every total — nothing is assumed. The one tracking switch in Settings today hides the screens for income and expenses outside of shows; turning it off never deletes anything and never changes the arithmetic on records you already have. A finer switch to hide the sales-tax, mileage, hours and foot-traffic fields as well is planned for a later version.
Why are there two different "net" figures?
Because they answer different questions. Cash net is what actually landed — revenue minus what you spent — and it is what drives net per hour and "was that show worth doing". Deductible total is a tax figure, and it depends on your mileage method: if you claim the standard mileage rate you cannot also deduct fuel, so fuel is left out of that total. Keeping them apart is the only honest way to show both.
Is sales tax I collected counted as income?
No. Sales figures are what hit the till, tax included, and every revenue and net number subtracts the sales tax you collected. It was never yours.
Which mileage rate does it use?
The IRS rate in effect on the date of the trip, stamped onto the trip when you enter it. Rates change mid-year sometimes, and prior years must not quietly re-value themselves after you have filed, so a trip keeps the rate it was recorded at.
In Settings you can choose the standard mileage rate or actual vehicle expenses. The choice changes which figures feed the deductible total, not what is stored.
Do I have to keep receipt photos?
No. Photographing a receipt is optional, and keeping the image afterwards is a separate choice — record the amount and drop the photo, per receipt or by default. Photos you keep are included in a backup file.
Where do the reports live?
Open the menu at the top right and tap Reports. Year-End Tax Report, Sales Tax Collected and Mileage Log for filing; Show Ranking, Year P&L, Apply Again? and around twenty more for deciding what to do next season. Each one can be read as a chart or as plain numbers, and each one exports.
I deleted a show by accident.
Deleting a show that has anything attached to it is refused outright, and anything that can be deleted asks first, by name and by count — "delete this show and its 12 expenses, 3 trips and 5 time entries". If something did go, restore your most recent backup.
Does Vendor-Craft send my numbers anywhere?
No. There is no account and no cloud service of ours — everything stays on your device unless you export it somewhere yourself. The one exception is an optional feature, Anonymous Usage Data in Settings, which is off by default and never includes anything from your records. The privacy policy has the detail.
If something isn’t working, or you have a question that isn’t answered here, get in touch. Vendor-Craft is built and supported by Stygian Darkness Studios, and we’d rather hear about the problem than leave you stuck.