What wine inventory app do you use?

[lleichtman]

I use CT and am looking forward to Eric’s upgrade although it is already very user friendly.

[Chris_Crutchfield]

I don’t really have an issue with CT’s web UI. It’s fairly utilitarian, but as far as CRUD functionality it’s pretty good.

I get frustrated with the mobile app UI, though. Transitions are slow, stack-based navigation is a pain, and functionality is nerfed compared to the web UI. But I tolerate it.

[Dan_A]

Thanks Eric for the update at CT.

[Adam_Noble]

I rarely post on these “inventory” threads. But seriously, CellarTracker is vastly superior and literally one of the best software programs I use (maybe second to Microsoft Office).

Hey I worked on that too for 13 years!

So when is CT going to implement something like Clippy? Maybe called Corky?

[brigcampbell]

I rarely post on these “inventory” threads. But seriously, CellarTracker is vastly superior and literally one of the best software programs I use (maybe second to Microsoft Office).

Hey I worked on that too for 13 years!

Excel is the greatest single PC app in history a personal computing, sure, they ripped off Lotus 1-2-3.

I use excel quite a bit, I’d say I know it better than 99% of the people on the planet that use it. What’s amazing? I might know less than 5% of the functionality. It’s insane what you can do with it.

[Yao_C]

I guess I am in the extreme minority here, been using VinoCell for 6+ years and it is solid.

Everyone not using CT is like oooof.

I use a Google spreadsheet and don’t regret it one bit

[JDavisRoby]

Yes, I love CellarTracker overall. Just can’t deal with the phone app. Looks like Eric understand s it’s not up to par, so we can hope.

Interesting. I greatly prefer using the mobile app over the web interface. I only use the web interface to print reports or export a custom list of some sort.

We actually have the restaurant style wine list printing in the mobile app too, so you can do a bit of printing from there.

Yes. And I have used it. I was referring to exporting into Excel. Being a banker (albeit quite country) my mind sees the lists in Excel better than a webpage or Word document.

[Colin_Haggerty]

I didn’t love Cellar Tracker’s interface although it does have a larger library of wines.

We know that we can do a LOT better than our current mobile app and are midstream on a major rewrite. I can’t promise a specific timeline yet though.

And our goal this year is to grow the team from 4 fulltime members to 10. (We have 3 folks coming on board fulltime in the next 2 weeks.) All that to say, after 18 years of working on CellarTracker, we know there is a lot more potential there and are taking that very seriously. At the same time, we also are not looking to make change for the sake of changes, since we know that a lot of people know and love us.

Eric, I speak (literally) for hundreds of thousands…we DO know and love you! CellarTracker is God’s gift to oenophiles. Thanks for being the disciple who has spread God’s computer code.

Colin

[Kirk.Grant]

I’m trying InVintory and I seem to be adding quite a bit of my wine manually that’s not already in the system. I suppose it’s more convenient than an excel sheet. I didn’t love Cellar Tracker’s interface although it does have a larger library of wines.

Cellartracker is the only one that makes sense, it’s the largest database, and is easy to use. Plus, Eric is an active member here so it’s also super easy to trouble shoot any challenges you have.

[Craig_G]

This is likely the consensus view, certainly my experience. In spite of that, it’s an awesome product.

Yes, I love CellarTracker overall. Just can’t deal with the phone app. Looks like Eric understand s it’s not up to par, so we can hope.

Correct. Something much cleaner, faster, and more fully featured is well underway.

That’s great. There are a number of things I can’t do in the mobile app and some that I can but I have a difficult time navigating to. But overall I use the mobile app for probably 90% of my CT work. I find it very functional for the things I do the most.

[Alan_Rath]

I use CT only for tasting notes, these days mostly from a tablet. One request I have is the ability to post that note to here from the mobile app, without having to go to the CT web page. If that’s possible now, I’ve missed it.

[JDavisRoby]

If there was one feature I wish CT could have it would be a way for winemakers to integrate into the system so you when you purchase wine it could auto add to your pending delivery.

The simple case would be pre-made packs or set club shipments. Maybe integration into the e-commerce/POS system that generated a QR code, scanned by the mobile app and that would add to your CT. Just thoughts from someone who occasionally gets behind on entering purchases and forgotten wine randomly shows up.

[Guillermo_M]

+1 on CellarTracker. Of all the decisions you have to make as a wine lover, this this by far the easiest, followed by buying a Pulltrap corkscrew and Huet of any kind.

Eric takes care of the ever multiplying dupes and triples that users can’t seem to stop entering. Thank you for all your work Eric

Wishlist (since others are saying theirs), some of which I realize may not be easy:

• Publicly entering wine profile stats and winemaker notes by vintage (specific mix of grapes, RS, TA, pH) (winemaker notes are technically copyrighted but it’s reasonable to assume copying them isn’t a concern)
  
  
  
• Allow distributor info (and territory) in the wine description
  
  
  
• Showing wines whose style has fundamentally changed as different wines, even if they have the same name, or at least allowing a type change by vintage (this is especially important for German Pradikat Rieslings)
  
  
  
• Adding a Fruity style between Off-dry and Sweet whites, and maybe a different icon for each, and separating Sweet from Dessert wines (the classic here is Yquem which is sweet but is not meant to be a dessert wine)
  
  
  
• Allowing wine name changes (with the same style) to appear as different vintages of the same wine (I know it’s done for producer name changes especially family ones) - For example: Château Haut-Bages Averous is the same wine as 2008+ Echo de Lynch-Bages
  
  
  
• Allowing users to conspicuously note changes in winemaker or producer ownership (especially useful for situations in which the quality or style changes)
  
  
  
• For consistency in determining value - Asking people to enter the price they actually paid for the wine, including taxes and shipping. Having a retail vs producer price button. And breaking down community average values by location as well: producer’s country, producer’s continent, user’s country, globally (and whatever else makes sense).
  
  
  
• Integrating a note translator to the mobile app, or allowing easy copy/paste from it.
  
  
  
• Easily look up the vintage list of a wine from a wine’s page in the app (it’s easy to do on the website)
  
  
  
• +1 on Alan’s request.
  
  
  
• Allowing the community to complain about a user’s outlier rating (especially unexplained ones) enough times that it stops counting for the average. I’m talking those 60 point, 70 point and 100 point ratings that seem to pop up in some wines.

OK I’m ready for the disagreements.

But seriously, if anyone wants to improve on these, please do.

[Rodrigo_B]

If we’re doing CT wishlist items here are mine:

-The ability to select multiple items in filtering. Sometimes I want to look at what’s available at two different cellars I keep at once, or looking at at everything except what’s at offsite. Maybe look at what wines I have from both Portugal and Spain, or look at all sweet wines, both reds and whites and sweet and fortified.

-Location history. Can come in handy in a variety of different situations. If you move wine from one location to another or stand it up, it’d be nice to have a date associated with the move to track time and see if it’s been enough to get over travel shock or to allow sediment to settle, etc. It’d also help in fixing typos and accidental moves. Sometimes the wrong bin is accidentally entered and retracing the steps could prove useful. It’d also further add to the provenance history of a wine, how many times it has moved, etc.

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

• For consistency in determining value - Asking people to enter the price they actually paid for the wine, including taxes and shipping…

No way. People have very strong feelings about whether it’s more useful to enter prices with extras like tax and shipping or simply list price. Forcing either group to do it the other’s way would be stupid. Plus, I don’t think it would truly normalize anything, since taxes and shipping can vary so widely, or might not apply at all. Valuation will always be fuzzy no matter what, there’s nothing CT can, or should, do about it.

[Guillermo_M]

• For consistency in determining value - Asking people to enter the price they actually paid for the wine, including taxes and shipping…

No way. People have very strong feelings about whether it’s more useful to enter prices with extras like tax and shipping or simply list price. Forcing either group to do it the other’s way would be stupid. Plus, I don’t think it would truly normalize anything, since taxes and shipping can vary so widely, or might not apply at all. Valuation will always be fuzzy no matter what, there’s nothing CT can, or should, do about it.

Nothing is a rather absolute term. Maybe they can allow and ask users to enter tax and shipping separately, and total it out. The users who don’t want to use that info for their own use can ignore it because it would return separately as well, and those of us who want the full info (for a better, more consistent average community value) can have it. That way, everyone’s happy.

Additional reasoning:
A separate sales tax is another of those almost uniquely American things. People living in VAT countries are already entering it with VAT anyway unless they have some sort of rare exemption.

[JDavisRoby]

Having a field for shipping and a separate field for tax that totals would be good. That way you know what the cost of the bottles is and you know what your total investment in the wine is.

But, then the banker in me says do you then add storage cost?

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

Having a field for shipping and a separate field for tax that totals would be good. That way you know what the cost of the bottles is and you know what your total investment in the wine is.

But, then the banker in me says do you then add storage cost?

And the trader in me doesn’t want the commissions everyone else paid on their APPL stock obfuscating the value of my holdings.

[J_D_Antonio]

Interesting. I greatly prefer using the mobile app over the web interface. I only use the web interface to print reports or export a custom list of some sort.

We actually have the restaurant style wine list printing in the mobile app too, so you can do a bit of printing from there.

Yes. And I have used it. I was referring to exporting into Excel. Being a banker (albeit quite country) my mind sees the lists in Excel better than a webpage or Word document.

Or just use CT in Classic Mode and have that spreadsheet-eske look.

(Eric, please don’t ever decomm Classic Mode! Thanks!)

[brigcampbell]

Yes, I love CellarTracker overall. Just can’t deal with the phone app. Looks like Eric understand s it’s not up to par, so we can hope.

Correct. Something much cleaner, faster, and more fully featured is well underway.

That’s great. There are a number of things I can’t do in the mobile app and some that I can but I have a difficult time navigating to. But overall I use the mobile app for probably 90% of my CT work. I find it very functional for the things I do the most.

Ping Eric and get added to the mobile beta testers for Dan.