onFORMAT — Manual

Sample tracking for the studio. This manual covers how onFORMAT works, screen by screen, plus how to print barcode tags and what labels to buy.

What onFORMAT does

onFORMAT tracks every physical sample through a shoot — from the moment it arrives, through the shoot day, to where it ends up. At any moment, anyone on your team can answer the question that used to cause chaos: where is this product, and has it been shot?

The workflow follows the tabs from left to right: Intake → Inventory → Shoot → Scan → Account.

Intake — bringing products in

This is where products enter the system. Each product gets a product page — created here, which gathers information over time as it is scanned, shot, and logged.

Two ways to add products:

Manual entry — Create one product at a time. Enter a description (the only required field), and optionally brand, SKU, colorway, and size. A barcode is generated automatically — you never type or import it; onFORMAT assigns its own internal barcode. Add an optional reference image (snap one on your phone or upload from any source).

CSV import — Bring in many products at once from a spreadsheet (a linesheet, a Shopify export, or any CSV). onFORMAT walks you through five steps: upload, preview the parsed rows, map your spreadsheet's columns to onFORMAT's fields, review which rows will import (and which rows are skipped and why), then confirm. You can save a column mapping template for each source, so future imports from that spreadsheet format are pre-filled automatically.

You can create products before the physical items arrive — import the data, print the tags, and apply them as the boxes come in. Mark an item "received" when it physically shows up.

Inventory — where everything is

Your full standing inventory. Two views, one toggle:

Ledger — A dense, searchable table. Search by barcode, SKU, garment, or brand; filter by state. This is your lookup view: "where is SKU 40281?"
Board — A board grouped by state (On Set, Hold, Out of Studio, Released), scoped to the active shoot. This is your at-a-glance view: "what's the shape of the day?"

Selecting items: Check the boxes on items to select them, then use the floating action bar to: - Print tags — Generate a barcode tag sheet for the selected items (see Printing below). - Add to shoot — Pull the selected items into a shoot day.

Product Pages: Click on any barcode or description to open the item's individual Product Page. This view displays the item's details, reference image, active shoot notes, and its complete chronological custody timeline.

Inventory updates live — when someone scans an item on set, everyone watching sees the state change without refreshing.

Shoot — planning the day and wrapping it

Living Dashboard & Shot Planning — Create the shoot and run the day. Every shoot opens on the Living Dashboard command center featuring a persistent LIVE mode indicator, live progress bar ("12 of 34 shot"), NOW / NEXT set highlights, and real-time custody tracking.
Production / Editorial: Organizes around standalone Shots with advisory target times, location tags, and attached inventory items. The ordered shot list IS the schedule.
E-Commerce: Organizes around a unified Product Burn-Down List with check-in status and "Unshot first" sort.
Call Sheet & Wrap Report: Generate clean Call Sheet PDFs (schedule times sourced from shot advisory times with no product IP) and Wrap Report PDFs.

Scan — the on-set station

The high-frequency screen. As each product comes up to be shot, scan it. The scan is the record that it's being shot — no extra step. Scanning:

Moves the item to On Set.
Generates the Capture One paste-ready name (your day token + the barcode), ready to copy into Capture One Pro, which adds the shot number automatically.

Ways to scan:

Dedicated Mobile Scanner PWA — Scan the Mobile Scan Link QR code on the Scan tab using your iPhone or Android phone. This logs your device in instantly without typing passwords. Your phone becomes a dedicated scanning utility with:
Glanceable lights — The entire screen flashes green for successful check-ins, amber if already checked in, and red for unknown barcodes.
Undo button — Instantly reverse a scan if you make a mistake.
Hardware Bluetooth scanner — Pair a handheld barcode scanner to your laptop. It types the code and the app captures it instantly. (Faster on a busy set — see the note in Printing about scanners.)
Device Camera — Use your phone or laptop camera fallback directly inside the app browser to read the barcode.

Works offline. Studio WiFi is unreliable, so scans are saved on your device instantly and sync up when the connection returns. A badge shows how many scans are waiting to sync. You can close the app, lock your phone, lose signal — your scans are safe and will upload when you're back online.

States — the lifecycle of a sample

Inventory — Resting in the closet, not on any shoot.
On Set — Scanned to shoot (this is also the "it's been shot" record).
Hold — Shot, awaiting creative-director approval. An item here can be flagged for reshoot, which sends it back to set next session.
Out of Studio — Left the building (to a stylist, influencer, editorial). Records who's responsible for it.
Released — Done: detagged, donated, or sample sale. This is the end of the line.

Printing barcode tags

onFORMAT generates its own internal barcodes — you don't use the manufacturer's UPC or your SKU as the tag. Each product gets a unique, scannable Code 128 barcode that follows it through its whole life.

How to print: - After Intake (single item or after a CSV import), print the tag(s) for what you just created. - From Inventory, select any items and choose Print tags to print a batch as one sheet.

This generates a PDF you print on a regular office printer (laser or inkjet).

What labels to buy

Recommended: Avery 22806 — 2" x 2" square white labels, 12 per sheet, on standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. Why this one: - It's optimized for barcodes, with print-to-the-edge and TrueBlock backing (blocks out anything underneath so the barcode scans cleanly even when applied over existing packaging). - 2" x 2" is a good size for a sample tag — room for the barcode plus the ID, brand, and a short description, without being bulky. - Cheap and easy to find (Staples, Office Depot, Avery.com), in packs from 12 up to thousands.

Print the onFORMAT tag sheet onto a pack of 22806, peel, and apply. The PDF is laid out to line up with that label grid, so what prints lands on the labels.

What's on each tag - The Code 128 barcode (scannable) - The barcode ID (readable by eye) - Brand - Short description

About barcode scanners You can scan with just a phone or laptop camera — no special hardware needed. For a busy intake bench or a fast-moving set, a cheap Bluetooth barcode scanner (the kind that pairs like a keyboard, ~$25–40) makes scanning near-instant: point, click, done. onFORMAT treats a Bluetooth scanner and the camera the same way, so either works anywhere you scan.

(A dedicated roll-style label printer — Brother QL or DYMO — is not supported yet; it's planned for a later version. For now, the Avery sheet method works on any printer you already have.)

Accounts & access

14-Day Free Trial — Every new studio account starts with a 14-day free trial. You will see a trial tracker badge in the header showing the remaining days. When the trial expires, the account is restricted to the Billing Dashboard until you subscribe.
Billing Management — The studio OWNER can subscribe to the $99/mo plan or manage invoices via the Stripe customer portal inside the billing dashboard. Teammates have read-only access to billing settings.
Teammate Invitations — One owner per studio account, plus up to 5 invited team members (total of 6 seats).
Team members can be anywhere — they see the live inventory and can work remotely (your retoucher overseas sees the same data as the producer on set).
Crew listed on a shoot are for the call sheet and the record only — they do not get logins.

Quick tips

You do not need WiFi to scan on set — scan freely, it syncs later.
Create products and print tags before product arrives, then just apply tags at receiving.
The scan on set is the "shot" record — don't double-handle it.
The Wrap Report is your end-of-day truth for everyone; export it as a PDF to share.