Features

Built for the bench,
not the boardroom.

Every feature in StringsTheory was designed around how real repair shops, luthiers, and small manufacturers actually work — from intake to invoice. Native macOS, iPad, and iPhone app with web companion.

What's new in v1.6
The headline upgrades shipped in this release — each one detailed further down the page.
✓AI-assisted Receipt Import — Apple Foundation Models on-device extract line items from any supplier invoice (CE Distribution, Mouser, Tayda, D'Addario, Tube Depot, StewMac, Newark, plus unknown vendors via LLM fallback)
✓Velocity-based Reorder Forecasting — learns real usage rate from transaction history and projects days-until-empty (coming soon)
✓Lot Expiration Tracking — per-cost-lot expiry dates auto-populated from each item's shelf life. Catches stale electrolytics and aging batteries before they fail in production
✓Workshop Calendar — month-grid view of Work Orders and Production Orders by due date
✓Global ⌘K Search — spotlight-style cross-entity search across inventory, work orders, customers, BOMs, and production
✓Undo for Destructive Actions — 60-second undo window via actionable toast after any delete
✓Activity Log — see who did what across the shop, filterable by entity type, user, and date range
✓Stocktake / Cycle-Count Mode — scan-driven count sessions with expected-vs-actual reconciliation
✓Supplier Directory — managed vendor list with default payment terms and lead-time defaults that feed the velocity forecaster
✓Location Bins — hierarchical Building → Room → Shelf → Bin tracking with scan-to-find
✓WIP Cost Rollup — real work-in-progress valuation for half-built production orders
✓Keyboard Shortcuts — ⌘1–⌘9 sidebar navigation, status row tinting toggle, refreshed Dashboard icons
Dashboard
Your shop's pulse at a glance.
✓Summary cards: Total Items, Inventory Value, Low Stock Alerts, Active Work Orders
✓Overdue Work Orders card — surfaces WOs past their due date that are still pending or in progress, sorted by due date with a per-row days-late count
✓Production Summary card — stacked horizontal bar chart of active production orders by status; tap the paintbrush to recolor any bucket
✓Recent work orders with live status badges
✓Reorder alerts — items below threshold
✓Lot expiration alerts — flag stale electrolytics, aging batteries, and adhesives past their shelf life
✓Active production orders
✓Global ⌘K search — spotlight-style cross-entity search across inventory, work orders, customers, BOMs, and production. One keystroke and type a SKU, customer name, serial, or WO number to jump straight to it
✓Refreshed Dashboard icons across all cards
StringsTheory Dashboard on Mac StringsTheory Dashboard on iPad
Inventory Management
Complete control over every item on your shelves.
✓Full item management: name, SKU (auto or custom patterns), internal SKU, barcode, photos
✓Category / Subcategory / Item Type taxonomy with inline creation
✓16+ units of measure: each, box, bag, case, roll, spool, pack, pair, set, feet, meters, lbs, kg, oz, custom
✓Units per package with automatic cost-per-piece calculation
✓Unit Cost, Sale Price, reorder point, and reorder quantity with visual low-stock alerts
✓Location tracking and total inventory value calculated in real-time
✓Backorder detection
✓Item photos with camera capture or gallery import
✓Barcode scanning (Code128, QR, UPC) to find or create items
✓Wholesale item linking — wholesale to retail with auto stock deduction
✓Component and wholesale item linking
✓Bulk add items with shared properties
✓Bulk edit — update category, type, location, reorder point, sale price, or sync flags across multiple items
✓Built-in barcode scanner (camera on iPad, USB scanner on Mac)
✓Detailed Inventory Mode — opt-in per-category spec fields (capacitance, resistance, tolerance, voltage, tube type, package, footprint, and more) for technical inventories
✓Cross-part Substitution Rules — declare interchangeable parts so BOMs auto-pull a declared substitute when the primary is short
✓AI-assisted Receipt Import — drop in a supplier invoice (CE Distribution, Mouser, Tayda, D'Addario, Tube Depot, StewMac, Newark, plus unknown vendors via LLM fallback). Apple Foundation Models on-device extract line items and match them to inventory — invoices never leave your Mac
✓Hierarchical Location Bins — Building → Room → Shelf → Bin tracking so anyone on the bench can find a 22uF cap without a treasure map. Scan-to-find from any item barcode, or print bin labels straight from the Label Designer
✓Stocktake / Cycle-Count Mode — scan-driven count sessions for end-of-month or surprise audits. Expected-vs-actual reconciliation, with variances posting as adjustments so COGS stays honest
✓Lot Expiration Tracking — per-cost-lot expiry dates auto-populated from each item's shelf life. Surfaced on the Dashboard before electrolytics, batteries, or adhesives go stale in production
✓Velocity-based Reorder Forecasting — learns real usage rate from transaction history and projects days-until-empty per item, factoring in supplier lead times (coming soon)
✓Undo for destructive actions — 60-second undo window after delete via actionable toast across inventory, work orders, customers, and BOMs
StringsTheory inventory management on Mac StringsTheory inventory management on iPad
Work Orders
From drop-off to pick-up, fully tracked.
✓Three view modes: Kanban board, compact list, detailed list
✓Eight-status workflow: Pending Triage → Pending → Awaiting Parts → In Progress → QC → Ready for Pickup → Completed / Cancelled
✓Dashboard callouts for Pending Triage and Ready for Pickup — tap to jump to Work Orders pre-filtered to that status
✓Rich fields: title, description, BOM link, quantity, customer, due date, notes, terms & conditions
✓Work order templates — pre-configure title, description, checklists, fields, and tags
✓Apply templates with one tap to speed up intake
✓isCustomerCommon flag — surface templates on the Customer Intake Kiosk
✓Customizable checklists with progress tracking per order
✓Custom fields (text, number, dropdown)
✓Custom color-coded progress tags
✓Signature capture (touch on iPad, mouse/trackpad on Mac)
✓PDF generation with business branding
✓Email work orders directly to customers with customizable templates
✓Tag system for categorization and filtering
✓Search and filter by status, customer, title, or tags
StringsTheory work orders on Mac StringsTheory work orders on iPad
Workshop Calendar
Every promised due date on a single canvas. New in v1.6.
✓Month-grid view of every Work Order and Production Order plotted by due date
✓Tap a day to see what's promised; tap an order to jump straight to its detail view
✓Color-coded by status so overdue, in-progress, and ready-for-pickup are obvious at a glance
✓Filter by customer, progress tag, or order type
✓Two-way Google Calendar sync — coming soon
Customer Intake Kiosk
Turn a shared iPad into a self-service drop-off station. New in v1.5.1.
✓Simple Mode (default) — 4 active steps: You → What's going on? → Details → Sign. A flat list of 4–5 plain-English common services curated by the shop
✓Power Mode — full Category → Template flow preserved via Settings toggle for shops that want fine-grained customer self-classification
✓"Other / Not Sure" tile creates a Pending Triage work order so the shop owner can triage it later
✓"Hand to Customer" button on the Dashboard and Work Orders toolbars launches the kiosk full-screen in one tap
✓PIN exit gate — kiosk only exits via the owner's PIN, set once in Settings
✓Tap-anywhere Welcome screen and labeled step indicator (You · Service · Details · Sign)
✓Customer search with phone-first autocomplete plus explicit "I'm new" path
✓Optional signature capture with printed name and shop terms-of-service blurb
✓Auto-reset on inactivity with configurable timeout
✓Auto-launch on app start for dedicated iPad kiosks
✓Test Mode preview for setup without writing work orders
✓Auto-email confirmation to customer on submission
✓Auto-print repair labels on submit (see Labels & Printing below)
Customers
Keep every client relationship organized.
✓Full customer records: name, email, phone, company, address
✓Search by any field
✓Linked to work orders and production orders
✓Multi-select for bulk actions
✓CSV import/export
✓Inline customer creation from work order or production order forms
StringsTheory customers on Mac StringsTheory customers on iPad
Supplier Directory
Your vendor list, with the numbers you actually use. New in v1.6.
✓Managed vendor list — name, contact, account number, website, notes
✓Default payment terms per supplier (net-15, net-30, prepay, COD, custom)
✓Lead-time defaults per supplier — feeds the velocity forecaster so reorder timing accounts for how long parts actually take to arrive
✓Per-item supplier linkage — track which vendor each part came from for re-orders and price history
✓Inline supplier creation from the Receipt Import wizard — new vendors save as you go
BOM (Bill of Materials)
Know exactly what goes into every build.
✓Create assemblies with output item, output quantity, and component items
✓Automatic cost estimation based on component unit costs
✓Self-reference prevention — output item cannot be a component
✓Search and filter BOMs
StringsTheory BOM on Mac StringsTheory BOM on iPad
Serialized Items & Production Tracking
Serial-level visibility across everything you build.
✓Production orders with auto-incrementing PO numbers
✓Stock orders and customer orders
✓Line items linked to inventory with quantities
✓Due date management with overdue highlighting
✓Custom progress tags with color coding
✓Serialized unit tracking — serial number, status, manufactured date, revision, color
✓Unit statuses: Available, Reserved, Consigned, Sold, In Repair, Defective
✓Dealer and customer assignment per unit
✓Custom production fields (text, number, date) — define once, track per unit
✓CSV import/export of serialized units with flexible column matching
✓Customer resolution during import — auto-match by name or pick from dropdown
✓WIP cost rollup — for half-built production orders, see parts consumed × FIFO cost × percent complete. Real work-in-progress valuation, useful when the accountant asks what's sitting on the bench at month-end
StringsTheory production on Mac StringsTheory production on iPad
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) Reports
Real numbers, real margins.
✓Track purchases, sales, work order usage, and adjustments
✓Date range filtering (7D, 30D, 90D, 1Y, All)
✓Revenue, COGS, gross profit, and gross margin calculations
✓Breakdown by item, type, day, or month
✓Bar chart visualization — cost vs. revenue per item
✓Sortable columns for detailed analysis
✓Exportable transaction data
StringsTheory COGS report on Mac StringsTheory COGS report on iPad
Label Design & Printing
Design, preview, and print labels your way — from a single barcode to a full batch run.
✓Visual drag-and-drop label designer with element rotation
✓60+ pre-built label templates (Dymo, Brother, custom sizes)
✓Seven built-in repair label designs (NEW in v1.5.1): Repair Hangtag, Case Sticker, Customer Receipt, Parts Bag, Status Sticker, QC Pass, Ready for Pickup — all editable in the Label Designer
✓Design elements: Text, Barcode (Code128/UPC-A/EAN-13), QR Code, Images, Lines, Rectangles
✓25+ merge fields for dynamic content — including v1.5.1 additions: customer_phone_last4, customer_email, date_promised, service_summary
✓Import .dymo files from Dymo Label software
✓Production labels — auto-queue labels for every new serialized unit
✓Auto-print on customer intake submit (NEW in v1.5.1) — adaptive routing across three targets (Print Server / Local Printer / None) and three output modes (Auto / Native / Sheet), per-design copies and enable toggles, fail-soft to Print Queue
✓Multi-up sheet rendering (NEW in v1.5.1) — lay multiple thermal labels on a letter or A4 sheet with crop guides, for shops without a thermal printer
✓Dual-label support for front/back printing
✓Label image library
✓Print preview with live rendering
✓Print to system printer or PDF
✓Dedicated print queue with entries grouped by printer
✓Print status tracking with failure visibility and error messages
✓Bulk "Print All" per printer
✓Network print server support with Bonjour (mDNS) discovery
✓Printer role assignment: production, shipping, returns, inventory
✓Label size validation per printer brand (Dymo, Brother, Zebra, Rollo)
✓Batch job submission to network printers
Bulk Operations & CSV Import/Export
Move data in and out fast — with validation every step of the way.
✓Multi-item selection (Cmd/Shift+Click on macOS, tap on iPad)
✓Bulk edit: category, location, reorder point, integration sync toggles
✓Bulk add items with shared properties
✓Bulk delete with confirmation dialogs
✓Bulk status changes for work orders and production units
✓CSV template generation for any data type
✓Flexible import with validation preview and column mapping
✓Round-trip compatible: export → edit in Excel → re-import
✓Inventory CSV with all item fields
✓Production CSV with SKU, serial number, status, color, dates, dealer, customer, revision, custom fields
✓Customer CSV import/export
✓Work order CSV import via templates
✓Auto-create categories and item types from imported data
✓Customer resolution UI for production imports: auto-match, pick from list, or keep as text
Integrations
Connect your tools, automate the grunt work.
✓Square POS: OAuth with PKCE, two-way inventory sync, retry with exponential backoff
✓Square POS: Location-specific sync, catalog matching by SKU, variation preservation
✓Square POS: Field sync options (name, description, price, quantity), exclusion list
✓Shopify: OAuth with HMAC validation, product and variant synchronization
✓Shopify: Fulfillment location selection, two-way inventory quantities
✓Google Sheets: Push inventory and serial data, delta-based quantity tracking
✓Google Sheets: Per-item worksheets with serial unit details and custom production fields
✓Google Sheets: Import preview before applying changes
✓Configurable auto-sync intervals per integration (5, 15, 30, 60 min)
✓Per-item exclusion lists and field sync options
Cloud Sync & Multi-Device
Work anywhere — online or off. Your data follows you.
✓Bi-directional cloud sync across Mac and iPad Annual
✓Entity-level selective sync — choose what syncs
✓Tier-ordered sync — parent entities always sync before children
✓Manual conflict resolution with visual diff viewer
✓Conflict persistence — unresolved conflicts survive across sync cycles
✓Offline queue with automatic retry on reconnection
✓Delta tracking via JSON snapshots
✓Full sync log with device and integration filtering
✓Web app companion at app.stringstheoryinv.com
Team & Multi-User
Bring your whole team on board with role-based access. Annual
✓Email/password and Google OAuth login
✓4 roles: Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer — with per-role permission scopes
✓Magic-link email invites — teammates click once and they're in, no shared passwords
✓Seat-based multi-tenant: each teammate gets their own login on the same shop data
✓User management: create, activate/deactivate, change roles, delete; deactivated users surface in their own section
✓Per-row "modified by" attribution across inventory, work orders, customers, and production
✓Forgot password and change password flows
✓Server-pushed announcement banners
Backup & Restore
Your data, protected and portable.
✓Full system backup including email templates
✓Selective backup by data type
✓Local file export
✓Restore coordination — pauses sync during restore
✓Factory reset with confirmation
Email System
Keep customers in the loop automatically.
✓Customizable email templates with 19 merge fields
✓Auto-triggers on work order creation, status change, and completion
✓Delivery via Resend (cloud) or local mail client
✓PDF attachment support
✓HTML-sanitized merge fields (XSS prevention)
✓Rate limiting with toast feedback
✓Email template backup and restore
Activity Log
Who-did-what across the whole shop. New in v1.6.
✓Every create, update, delete, and status change attributed to the user who made it
✓Filter by entity type — Inventory, Work Order, Customer, BOM, Production, Settings
✓Filter by user and by date range
✓Per-row drill-down to the affected entity
✓Pairs with the existing "modified by" attribution on each row — settles arguments without a paper trail
Keyboard Shortcuts & Quick Actions
Bench-tested defaults that get the mouse out of your way. New in v1.6.
✓⌘1–⌘9 jump between sidebar destinations
✓⌘K opens global spotlight-style search across inventory, work orders, customers, BOMs, and production
✓⌘N creates a new item in the current section (Inventory, WO, Customer, BOM, Production)
✓Status row tinting toggle on the Work Orders board — color-codes whole rows by status for a glance-and-go view, or off for a calmer table
✓Undo toast (⌘Z to confirm undo of last delete within the 60-second window)
✓Refreshed Dashboard icons across all cards — sharper, more legible at small sizes
Settings & Configuration
Configure everything to match how your shop works.
✓Category / Subcategory / Item Type taxonomy management
✓Label templates and label designer
✓Work order templates with checklists and custom fields
✓Progress tag management with color picker
✓Production field management with drag-and-drop reorder
✓Printer assignments to label templates
✓Print server configuration
✓Business profile: name, DBA, address, phone, email, website, logo, currency
✓Category, subcategory, and item type management
✓Custom component fields
✓Progress tag management with color coding
✓Language selection (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian)
✓Light/dark theme with system default option
✓Compact vs. comfortable view mode (Mac)
StringsTheory settings on Mac StringsTheory settings on iPad
Accessibility
Built so every shop hand can use it — keyboard, VoiceOver, Reduce Motion, Dynamic Type. New in v1.5.1.
✓Required-field markers (*) on Inventory, Work Order, and Intake forms with VoiceOver "required" hints
✓Reduce-Motion respected across all 28 animation sites in the app — toasts, sheet transitions, multi-select toggles, and progress animations become instant when Reduce Motion is on
✓VoiceOver labels on Dashboard stat cards ("Total Items: N") and global search results, with button traits where appropriate
✓Dynamic Type support on Help articles and the iPad sidebar navigation
✓44pt touch targets on iPad across all primary actions
✓App display name "Inventory" on the iPad home screen, macOS Dock, and Spotlight — disambiguates from other Dual Stage apps
Security
Your data stays yours. No trackers, no telemetry.
✓Row-Level Security on all database tables
✓Cross-tenant isolation hardened on all child entities
✓PKCE OAuth for third-party integrations
✓Rate limiting on authentication and sync endpoints
✓HSTS security headers
✓Keychain storage for all credentials and tokens
✓Email merge field HTML sanitization (XSS prevention)
✓No advertising trackers, behavioral analytics, or third-party SDKs
Platform Support & Internationalization
Native apps, six languages, and automatic updates.
✓macOS: Native table views, keyboard shortcuts, menu bar integration, Sparkle auto-updates
✓macOS: USB barcode scanner support, system printer discovery
✓iPad: Touch-optimized interface, camera barcode scanning, adaptive layouts, 44pt touch targets
✓Web: Companion web app accessible from any browser
✓6 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian
✓Light/dark theme with system default option
✓Compact vs. comfortable view mode (Mac)

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