Consignment splits and artist statements that match your inventory

Consignment is where gallery inventory meets gallery finance. A work can be perfectly catalogued and still produce an angry consignor if the split on the statement does not match the agreement signed two years ago, or if a fair discount never made it into the net calculation. The failure is almost never arithmetic in isolation. It is two systems that never shared the same split field.

Registrar-grade consignment means commercial terms live on the work, propagate to invoices, and roll up into statements without a shadow spreadsheet maintained by one person who might leave.

One consignor record, many works

Consignors are contacts with legal identity, tax context, and payment instructions. Link each consigned work to that record, not to a free-text name field that spells "Jonsson" three ways across fifty rows.

Agreement dates, renewal terms, and export restrictions belong on the consignment relationship or the work timeline. When renewal comes due, calendar it from the record, not from a partner's memory.

Splits on the work, visible by role

Retail price and split percentage should sit beside each other on the object. Associates see availability and list; partners and finance see net-to-consignor math; consignors see their slice when you grant portal access.

Multi-party splits (artist, estate, third-party lender) need explicit allocation that sums to 100 percent of the sale net of agreed charges. Hidden "gallery fee" lines discovered at payout time destroy relationships.

Discounts, charges, and what reduces net

Document which costs reduce consignor net: framing, shipping, fair fees, credit card processing. Different agreements treat them differently. Store the rule on the consignment or work so every sale applies the same logic.

Discounts within pre-agreed ceilings should flow automatically to statements. Discounts beyond ceiling require approval captured in notes before invoice issue.

Statements that reconcile to invoices

A consignor statement is a roll-up of invoiced sales minus returns, not a separate fiction. Each line should trace to an invoice tied to a work ID collectors could look up in inventory.

Period closes matter. Decide whether statements run calendar monthly, per show, or per fair. Consistent cadence beats perfect timing that never ships because someone is always "cleaning up Excel."

Unsold returns and inventory status

When consigned work returns unsold, update custody and availability the day it arrives. Consignors should not see "available" on a website while the physical work is still in transit back to the studio.

Condition changes on return belong on the object timeline with photos. Disputes about damage start with documentation, not with who remembers the crate looked fine.

Inviting consignors without losing control

Some galleries share read-only views: works on consignment, sales to date, upcoming renewals. Visibility is role-based; internal margin notes stay internal.

Self-service reduces "where is my statement?" email but only if the underlying data is live. PDFs emailed once a quarter go stale the moment a sale clears the day after send.

Art.industries models consignors as linked contacts with splits on works, Stripe-backed invoices that inherit object fields, and exports formatted for statements and tax review. When inventory, sales, and payouts read one graph, consignment stops being a quarterly reconciliation panic and becomes an operation you can audit any Tuesday.