What is a line sheet?
A line sheet is the document a wholesale buyer orders from. It lists every product you sell to stores with a photo, a style number, the wholesale price, the suggested retail price (MSRP) and the details a buyer needs to place an order: colors, sizes, minimums and your terms. Where a lookbook sells the mood of a collection, the line sheet does the arithmetic. Boutique owners keep it open next to their open-to-buy budget and write quantities straight onto it.
That is why a good line sheet is dense, consistent and boring in the best way. Every product block has the same fields in the same order, prices are easy to compare, and nothing important is hidden in a paragraph. CatalogKite's line sheet template is built around that idea: one tidy block per style, a clear price pair, and a terms block at the foot of every sheet.
What to put on your line sheet
Before you start, gather the following for every style. If it is already in a spreadsheet, you can import it in one step.
- Brand name, collection or season, and the date the sheet was issued
- One clear photo per style, on a consistent background
- Style number or SKU, exactly as it appears on your invoices
- Wholesale price and MSRP, side by side
- Colors, sizes or other variants
- Minimum order quantity per style (and case packs if you use them)
- Opening order minimum, reorder minimum and payment terms
- Ship window or lead time, and how to place an order
If you are unsure what any of those terms should be, our guide to wholesale terms explains MOQs, opening orders, net 30 and lead times with typical numbers by category.
How to make a line sheet with CatalogKite
- Open the maker and choose the Line Sheet template. No account is needed; your work saves in the browser as you go.
- Add your products. Type them in, paste rows copied from Excel or Google Sheets, or upload a CSV or XLSX file. CatalogKite matches columns such as Style, Wholesale and MSRP automatically, and you confirm the mapping before anything is imported.
- Add photos. Drop in product images from your computer or phone. They are resized and compressed so your PDF stays small enough to email.
- Set your brand and terms. Add your logo, contact details and wholesale terms. Choose your brand colors and one of six typefaces, then decide which fields show: style number, colors, sizes, MOQ.
- Pick a layout. Two, three or four products per row, portrait or landscape, A4 or US Letter, with or without a cover page and category grouping.
- Download or share. Export a print-ready PDF, or publish an online version so buyers can browse on a phone and send you an order by WhatsApp or email.
It takes about ten minutes for a first sheet of 20 styles, and you can reuse it every season.
Open the line sheet makerLine sheet best practices
Put the margin in plain sight
Buyers decide in seconds whether your product works for their store, and the first question is margin. Showing wholesale and MSRP next to each other answers it before they have to ask. Most independent retailers expect at least a 2x markup (keystone pricing); if you are unsure how to set your numbers, the wholesale price calculator works backwards from cost or from retail.
Keep style numbers identical everywhere
The style number on your line sheet must match your invoices, your order form, your lookbook and your inventory system. A buyer reordering in six months will quote the number, not the name, and mismatches cause wrong shipments.
Group the way buyers plan
Fashion buyers plan by delivery and category, gift buyers by theme or price point, food buyers by category and shelf life. Use category grouping to build the sheet in that order, and put bestsellers first in each group.
Show options without repeating photos
One photo per style with colorways listed underneath is easier to read than a separate block for every color. If a color changes the price, give it its own SKU.
Make the terms impossible to miss
Opening minimum, reorder minimum, payment terms and ship window belong on every line sheet, not in a separate email. CatalogKite prints your terms block on the sheet automatically.
Date every version
Prices and availability change. An issue date in the header (or a season name) stops a buyer from ordering off last year's sheet. If you share an online catalog link instead of a file, buyers always see the current version.
Line sheet maker vs a spreadsheet or design tool
| Feature | Spreadsheet | Design tool | CatalogKite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first sheet | Fast, but looks like a spreadsheet | Slow: layout by hand | Minutes, from your product list |
| Adding 20 more styles | Easy | Rebuild pages manually | Paste or import, pages reflow |
| Consistent product blocks | Hard to style | Manual | Automatic |
| PDF and online link | PDF only | PDF only | Both, from one document |
| Buyers can order from it | Email back and forth | Email back and forth | WhatsApp or email order list |
Spreadsheets are great for managing product data but poor at presenting it, and general design tools make every page a manual layout job. A line sheet maker keeps the data and the layout separate, so updating a price or adding a style is a single edit.
When to send your line sheet
Send it with every wholesale enquiry, before and after trade shows, with your lookbook at the start of each selling season, and whenever prices change. Many brands also keep a password-protected or unlisted online version for approved stockists so reorders do not need an email at all.
For a deeper explanation with examples by industry, read what is a line sheet, or browse line sheet templates by industry.