Every commission from quote to parcel
When custom work lives in message threads and a notebook, a deposit goes unchased or a personalised piece leaves a day late. I built one workbook for makers who take commissions, and it follows each piece from the first enquiry to the parcel going out, with the money still owed and every due date where you can see it.
The question
this build answers
How do I keep track of custom order quotes, deposits and due dates when they are spread across my Etsy messages?
From the first trigger
to the finished job.
The working version, step by step.
Log every enquiry
Each request gets one line on Enquiries: where it came from, what they asked for, the date they need it by, and your quote with the day you sent it. I set the valid-until date to fill itself from a 14-day default you can change, and a quote that runs out unanswered is flagged EXPIRED.
Send the same questions every time
My Order form tab is one printable page asking for name, contact, item, size, colours, personalisation text, deadline, budget and notes. Etsy's Seller Handbook suggests a standard questionnaire for custom work, so print it or copy the questions into your reply.
Move each order through its stages
Once a quote is accepted, the piece gets a line on Orders with its agreed price, its due date and the hours still to do. As you move the stage from brief towards delivered, my sheet counts the days to the due date and flags LATE work with the number of days.
Keep track of what you are owed
Record a deposit on the order line if you take one, and mark each payment as received when it comes in. I made the Still owed column take those payments off the agreed price, and a deposit you asked for and have yet to receive shows as still to come in.
Check the hours before you say yes
Capacity sets the making hours you have in each of the next 13 weeks against the hours your open orders need, spread up to each order's due week. Etsy's handbook tells sellers to check an order fits their workload before committing, so I flag any week that holds more hours than you have as OVER-BOOKED.
Start the week on the dashboard
The Dashboard counts your open orders, what is due this week and what is overdue, then totals the deposits still to come in and everything you are owed. I added your quote acceptance rate too, so you can see how many of your quotes turn into orders.
The commission tracker, instant download
Custom order and commission tracker: quotes, deposits, due dates, 13 weeks of capacity and a printable order form
You get one Excel workbook that also imports into Google Sheets, plus a README and a sources file, as an instant download with nothing to install. If a flag or a total looks wrong, message me from your order and I will check it.
Open the commission tracker on EtsyChecked by recalculating it
Before listing it, I recalculated all 4,307 formulas across the seven tabs with a formula engine outside Excel, and neither the sample nor the empty file showed an error cell.
My sample shop had five enquiries in every state, three orders with one late and one waiting on its deposit, and a short week. All 96 values I worked out by hand matched, the total still owed and the 33.3% acceptance rate among them, and the LATE flag and the over-booked week came out where I expected.
How custom orders work on Etsy
I read Etsy's Help Centre page on custom items on 18 September 2026, before I built the order flow. The buyer presses Request Custom Order and describes the piece and the date they need it by, and once you agree the details and the price you make a private listing from that message thread that only they can see.
Etsy's House Rules on off-platform transactions, updated on 9 June 2026, say a sale that starts on Etsy has to finish on Etsy. I built the workbook to record what has been paid and what is still owed, because the buyer pays through Etsy itself.
What it leaves out
Ready-made stock and its dispatch dates live in my Etsy order and inventory tracker, and fees and profit per order are in my pricing and profit calculator.
The file sets no hourly rate or deposit rule of its own, because your prices, deposits and hours are yours to type, and I kept it to custom work so it stays quick to fill in.
Before you spend anything
The fit matters.
Who should not buy this
If most of your sales are ready-made stock, my order and inventory tracker will suit you better than this one.
If you sell digital files, Etsy's Help Centre says a private listing cannot be made for a digital item, so the order flow here will not match how you sell.
Yours to keep
What lands
on your desk.
- A seven-tab Excel workbook that opens in Numbers and LibreOffice and imports into Google Sheets
- A quote log with expiry flags, an order list with late flags and money still owed, and 13 weeks of capacity
- A one-page printable order form and a dashboard with your quote acceptance rate
- A README and a sources file naming the Etsy pages behind the order flow and when I read them
See the work
Open the proof.
Published case studies of running systems. Each links to the thing itself.
A few useful
answers.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Import it through File, Import, Upload. Every formula in it uses a function Google Sheets supports, and I checked the results on a filled sample copy before I listed it.
Does it take payments?
The sheet only records what you have been paid and what is still owed, while the buyer pays through the private listing you make on Etsy.
How long can a custom order take on Etsy?
Etsy's page on custom items gives a maximum processing time of 6 to 8 weeks, so I would keep the due dates you agree inside that.
Where do I find the custom requests?
Etsy puts them in a Custom Requests folder, and my Enquiries tab gives each one its own line with your quote and the date you sent it.
A little further down
the same path.
Related builds for the rest of your business.
Make this work for you
Your tools.
Your working version.
Want this built and handed over working? Tell me what your version needs to do. One line is enough to start.
Start a brief