Every maker has a profit spreadsheet. Most of them are wrong. They track revenue and subtract the booth fee, then call the remainder "profit." But they forget the most expensive line item on the entire sheet: you.

We built a free Google Sheet template that fixes this. It doesn't just calculate profit — it calculates your Real Hourly Wage, the single number that tells you whether a show was actually worth your weekend.

Download it below, or keep reading to understand why this spreadsheet works differently than anything else you've tried.

How do you track craft show profitability?

To accurately track craft show profitability, you must subtract ALL costs (booth fee, COGS, mileage, lodging, meals, and transaction fees) from gross revenue, then divide the result by your total hours worked — including prep, travel, setup, selling, and teardown — to calculate your Real Hourly Wage.

Most free spreadsheets online skip that last step. They give you a profit number, but profit without context is meaningless. $500 profit from a 10-hour show ($50/hr) is a completely different business decision than $500 from a 40-hour weekend ($12.50/hr). This template captures both.

What makes this spreadsheet different?

This spreadsheet calculates your Real Hourly Wage, tracks hidden costs most templates miss (mileage, meals, transaction fees), and gives you a Keep / Maybe / Drop verdict for every show — so you can stop guessing and start making data-driven booking decisions.

Feature	Typical Free Spreadsheet	BoothKeeper Template
Tracks Sales	✅	✅
Subtracts Booth Fee	✅	✅
Tracks Mileage (IRS Rate)	❌	✅
Tracks Meals & Lodging	❌	✅
Transaction Fee Calculator	❌	✅
Tracks Hours (Prep + Travel + Selling)	❌	✅
Real Hourly Wage Calculation	❌	✅
Keep / Drop Verdict	❌	✅

How to use the spreadsheet

The template has three sections. Fill them out in order after every show.

Section 1: Revenue

Enter your total gross sales. If you had both cash and card, add them together. We don't care about individual transactions here — just the total top-line number from your Square/Stripe dashboard or cash box.

Section 2: All Expenses

This is where most spreadsheets fail. We break expenses into 7 categories — not just 2:

COGS (materials cost): Enter your total
Booth Fee: Flat fee from organizer
Mileage: Round-trip miles × $0.70/mi (2026 IRS rate)
Lodging: Hotel, Airbnb, camping fees
Meals: Food during show (pack your own to save!)
Transaction Fees: Auto-calculated at 2.6% + $0.10/swipe
Other Supplies: Packaging, labels, bags

Section 3: Hours Worked

This is the part nobody else tracks. Be honest:

Activity	Typical Hours
Packing & loading	1.5 – 3.0
Driving to show	0.5 – 4.0
Booth setup	1.0 – 2.5
Selling (per day)	6.0 – 10.0
Teardown & load-out	1.0 – 2.0
Drive home	0.5 – 4.0

The Formula Behind the Sheet

(Revenue − ALL Expenses) ÷ Total Hours = Real Hourly Wage

If your Real Hourly Wage exceeds your Target Rate → KEEP. If it's close → MAYBE. If it's below → DROP.

What expenses are tax deductible for craft shows?

Craft show booth fees, mileage, lodging, meals (50%), transaction fees, materials (COGS), and supplies are all tax-deductible business expenses that can be reported on your IRS Schedule C under categories like Commissions and Fees (Line 10), Car and Truck Expenses (Line 9), and Cost of Goods Sold (Line 4).

The spreadsheet marks which expenses map to which Schedule C line — but it can't file your taxes for you. If you want that math done automatically, that's where BoothKeeper picks up where the spreadsheet stops.

⚠️ The Spreadsheet's Limitation

A spreadsheet can crunch last weekend's numbers, but it can't remember your gas mileage, auto-calculate your COGS percentage across 20 shows, or generate your IRS Schedule C at tax time. When you're ready to stop copy-pasting rows, try BoothKeeper free — type '$14 gas' into the Magic Box and watch the expense categorize itself.

Worked Example: The Saturday Market

Let's walk through a real scenario using the spreadsheet.

Revenue: +$920
COGS (35%): -$322
Booth Fee: -$125
Mileage (60mi × $0.70): -$42
Meals: -$18
Transaction Fees: -$24
True Net Profit: $389

Now the critical step — hours:

Packing (1.5 hrs) + Drive (0.75 hrs) + Setup (1 hr) + Selling (8 hrs) + Teardown (1 hr) + Drive Home (0.75 hrs) = 13 hours

$389 ÷ 13 hours = $29.92 / hour

A solid MAYBE. If your target rate is $30/hr, this show almost makes the cut. Worth repeating if you can cut your COGS by even 5%, or negotiate a cheaper booth spot.

Ready to Stop Wrestling with Spreadsheets?

The spreadsheet works — but it's manual. BoothKeeper does everything this sheet does, plus automatic mileage tracking, IRS Schedule C mapping, weather risk analysis, and a Keep/Drop verdict engine that gets smarter with every show you log.

Type '$14 gas' into the Magic Box and watch BoothKeeper auto-categorize the expense, calculate your mileage deduction, and instantly update your Real Hourly Wage.

Try BoothKeeper Free →

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