FAQ
Questions and answers
Jump to
Before you install
Why not just use a Google Sheet directly?
You are: that’s the design. What the app adds is a camera, a global product database, a folder view with a count per shelf, a quantity stepper you can hit with a thumb, and columns that arrive already named and formatted. Try typing a 13-digit barcode into a cell on a phone. That is the part we removed.
Do I need a Google account? Can I sign up with an email address?
Yes, and it is the only sign-in the app uses. The upside is that signing up takes one tap: there is no form to fill in and no password to invent, and your first spreadsheet exists before you reach the home screen.
Why does an inventory app need access to my Google Drive?
It asks for drive.file, the narrowest Drive permission Google offers. An app holding it can touch only the files it created itself, so 1inventory can open the spreadsheet and photo folder it made for you and nothing besides. Google enforces that boundary. Gmail, Calendar and the rest of your account stay out of reach.
Will the scanner recognise my things?
Shop-bought goods with retail barcodes come back with a name, description and photo: tins, jars, medicine, ISBN books, board games, Lego, DVDs, batteries. Own-brand and warehouse labels scan fine too, the lookup simply has nothing to fill in, so you type the name. Twelve barcode formats are supported, and scanning itself is unlimited; only the database lookups are capped, at 5 a day on Free and 200 on Premium.
Is there a web app? Does it work on an iPad?
Your data is fully usable on a laptop: the spreadsheet opens in Google Sheets like any other file, where you can sort, filter, chart and print it. The app itself is a portrait phone app for iOS 15.6 and later and Android 7.0 and later, so there is no tablet layout or browser client today.
What about the list you already keep?
I already have a list. Do I have to retype it?
No. Import a CSV and your column headers are matched to fields by meaning, so a sheet headed Item / Qty / Where lands in the right columns with no setup. Limits: CSV only, 5 MB, 60 columns, a name column required. The mapping runs in one pass and is shown to you afterwards. Duplicates are skipped.
How many products can I have?
Up to 100 in each inventory on the free plan, and up to 10,000 on Premium. If a subscription ends, nothing over 100 is removed: the inventory simply takes no new products until it is back under 100.
Limits, and what we’re working on
Does it work offline?
Not yet, and it’s on the way. Every action is a network call today, so you need a connection to add or change something. Offline is coming in a future release, and it matters most in cellars, garages, lock-ups and vans, which is exactly where an inventory tends to live.
Will it tell me when I’m running low?
Yes. Set a floor on the quantity, or on a number field of your own, and the app tells you by push or email when the value drops below it: olive oil below 2, say. Date alerts sit alongside, so an expiry, a warranty end or a service date gets you a push notification or an email a set number of days before or after it. Free includes one alert rule and Premium up to 50, and both kinds share that allowance. The quantity still changes only when someone changes it, so the alert is as current as your last count.
When will alerts reach me, and how often?
Around the time you choose in the app’s notification settings, once a day and in your own time zone. Everything that needs attention in an inventory arrives together, as one email or push notification rather than one per product, and the email lists each rule with the products it caught, most urgent first. A product is reported once and then stays quiet: it comes back only if its value changes again, or if it recovers and later drops below the floor. Everyone who shares the inventory gets alerts too, each at their own time, by email, push or both.
Which fields can an alert watch?
The quantity, or a field of your own whose type is Number, Decimal, Date or Date/Time. A number field takes a floor, below 10 say; a date field takes a number of days before or after the date. Text fields can’t be watched. A rule can also be kept to certain places, so a floor applies in the pantry but not the garage. Every alert is kept in the app under Alerts, and in the Alerts tab of your spreadsheet.
What if I need more than five people?
Five people is what the app is built around: a household, a workshop, or a small crew. Places are not capped on Premium, but they sit side by side rather than nesting, and everyone you invite gets the same level of access. If you need warehouse zones inside zones, per-location permissions or a read-only role, a larger system will serve you better.
Letting someone else in
Is it safe to let my partner or a colleague in?
Yes. They sign in with their own Google account, and where the inventory has a History tab every change lands there with their name on it. Worth knowing: there are two roles rather than a read-only option, so anyone you invite can edit and delete. Inviting needs Premium, the cap is five people including you, and the spreadsheet stays in your Drive alone.
Will their changes appear on my phone straight away?
Changes reach your Google Sheet as soon as they are saved. On another phone they appear when the list is pulled down to refresh, rather than updating live while you are looking at it. If two people count the same shelf at the same moment, the last one saved wins.
What it costs
What does Premium cost?
€0.99 a month or €9.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial on either. The yearly plan costs less than twelve months at the monthly price, which come to €11.88. There is no bundle and no second tier. The subscription is handled by the App Store or Google Play, so you cancel it there, and the app shows the price in your own currency.
What happens if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. Extra inventories, locations, custom fields and the people you invited are locked, and all of it comes back in one pass if you resubscribe. Your products are untouched, because they live in your Google Sheet. While an inventory is locked it is hidden in the app, and the people you invited lose access until you subscribe again.
Is it worth paying for?
Start free and find out. Catalogue a room on the free plan, and within a fortnight you will know whether you want a second inventory, a second place, a second person, room for more than 100 products, more alert rules, or a change history. Those six things are what Premium adds, and €0.99 a month, or €9.99 a year, is the whole price.
Most of what follows has the same answer: the file is already in your Drive.
If we disappear
Can I export my data?
There is no export button, because there is nothing to export. Your inventory is already a Google Sheet in your own Drive, and Google will save it out as CSV, Excel or PDF whenever you like. One caveat: the file lives in the inventory owner’s Drive, so this is something owners can do and invited people cannot.
What if I delete something by accident?
Your inventory is a Google Sheet, so it inherits Google Drive’s version history. The app’s Backups screen lists the revisions and walks you through restoring one; the restore itself happens in Google Sheets rather than in the app. One thing to note: deleting a custom field removes that whole column from your spreadsheet, values included.
What happens if 1inventory shuts down?
The spreadsheet, its history tab and the photo folder are in your Google Drive and stay there, readable by anything that opens a spreadsheet. What you would lose is the scanner, the barcode lookup and the folder view. We can promise continuity of data, not continuity of service.
Who makes this?
Sparkybit GmbH, a company in Paderborn, Germany. The registration details are on our Impressum, and the same publisher name appears on the App Store and Google Play listings, so you can check that the app you are installing comes from the people whose name is on this page.
Do you show ads?
No, on either plan. There is no advertising SDK in the app, and it has never asked for a tracking identifier or shown you an App Tracking Transparency prompt. The free plan is paid for by the people who upgrade, which is the whole of the business model.
What languages is it in?
English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese: the whole app, and also the alert emails and the barcode lookup results, which come back in your language. Your language setting belongs to your account, so it follows you when you change phones.
A question that isn’t here is worth sending to us. The support form in the app sorts messages into feature requests, bug reports, billing and everything else, and the same address works from a laptop.
Start with one shelf.
Sign in with Google, scan ten things, and open the spreadsheet on your laptop. If it isn’t for you, the file is still yours.
Free plan, no cardiPhone and Android