How to Track Commissions (Free)

Commission tracking breaks down at the exact moment you need it most

My first year taking commissions, I tracked everything in a single Google Sheet. It worked until it didn't. The moment I had eleven active commissions, three of which were behind on deposits, and one client who was emailing from a different address than I had logged, the sheet became a liability instead of a system.

I missed a deadline. The client wasn't angry, but I was embarrassed. The job that was supposed to take me to five commissions at a time had quietly eaten itself.

I've since tried every free tracking method available, moved between them as my volume changed, and landed on something that actually works for where I am now. Here's the honest breakdown.

Why commission tracking fails

Before comparing tools, it's worth naming the failure modes, because they're consistent across every method:

1. Status drift. You log a commission as "in progress" and forget to update it when it ships. Three weeks later you can't remember if that client paid their balance.
2. Inbox and tracker diverge. The commission information is half in your DMs, half in your sheet, and the sheet version is stale.
3. Payment tracking is bolted on. Most creative project tools aren't built for money. You end up maintaining a separate log for deposits, balances, and refunds.
4. Volume threshold. Every method has a volume at which it breaks. Knowing that threshold in advance saves you from hitting it with a client mid-project.

Method 1: Google Sheets (best for 1-5 commissions)

Google Sheets is where almost everyone starts, and it's a legitimate choice at low volume.

A basic commission tracking layout:

This gives you a working tracker in about 15 minutes. Free. No signup friction. Accessible on any device.

Where it breaks:

At 6-8 active commissions, maintaining this sheet becomes its own job. You're manually updating status columns, calculating balances in your head, and the lack of any visual pipeline means everything looks equally urgent. There's no way to see at a glance that two commissions are overdue and one hasn't paid a deposit yet.

Sheets also don't notify you of anything. If a deadline passes, the sheet doesn't care. The system requires you to check it deliberately, and when you're busy executing commissions, deliberate system checks are the first thing to drop.

Verdict: Use Sheets for 1-5 commissions. Don't try to scale it further. The maintenance cost exceeds the benefit faster than you expect.

Method 2: Trello (best for visual thinkers, 3-8 commissions)

Trello free tier gives you unlimited cards and up to 10 boards, which is plenty for commission tracking.

The standard setup is a board with columns: Inquiry, Deposited, In Progress, Ready to Ship, Shipped, Complete. Each commission is a card that moves left to right as work progresses.

This visual pipeline is genuinely better than Sheets for understanding your queue at a glance. You can see which stage is bottlenecked, spot cards that haven't moved in two weeks, and get a sense of upcoming deadlines across your active work.

The real problems with Trello:

First, there's no payment tracking. You can add a checklist item "deposit received" to each card, but that's it. No totals, no balance calculations, no running revenue view. If a client underpays or disputes a deposit, Trello gives you nothing.

Second, Trello boards go stale. This is documented repeatedly in creative communities, including Artists Beware, where stale commission boards appear in client complaint posts with alarming regularity. The board looks active to the artist but unresponsive to the client who emailed two weeks ago and got no update.

Third, you're maintaining two systems. Your client communication is in email or DMs. Your project status is in Trello. These diverge. The Trello card says "in progress" but your DMs show the client asked for a revision three days ago that you haven't addressed.

Verdict: Trello is a real upgrade from Sheets for visual queue management. Use it at 3-8 commissions if payment tracking is less critical for your work type. For commissions over $100, you need payment tracking, and Trello won't give you that.

Method 3: Notion (most powerful, most setup required)

Notion free tier is capable of building a genuinely sophisticated commission tracking system. The database views (table, kanban, calendar) let you see your commissions multiple ways. You can build formula fields that calculate balances automatically.

The catch: setup takes 3-5 hours minimum to build something you'll actually use. Every commission tracker Notion template I've found online needed significant customization before it matched my actual workflow. And Notion templates have a way of pulling you into redesigning the system instead of using it.

I built a Notion commission tracker twice. The first version took four hours to build and I abandoned it in three weeks because updating it required opening seven properties per card. The second version I spent another three hours simplifying. I still prefer a more dedicated tool for active commissions.

Verdict: Notion is great if you enjoy building systems. If you want to track commissions without thinking about the infrastructure, the setup cost is too high for what you get.

Method 4: VGen (built for artists, but it costs you)

VGen is a commission platform specifically built for artists. It handles intake forms, queue display, payment collection, and client messaging in one place.

The problem is the pricing model: VGen takes a 5% cut of every transaction plus payment processing fees. On a $200 commission, you're giving up $10 to VGen before Stripe takes another $6. That's $16 off a $200 sale for platform access.

At low volume (1-3 commissions/month), 5% is irrelevant. At high volume ($3,000-5,000/month revenue), you're paying $150-250/month to VGen. That's more than most dedicated commission management tools.

VGen also offers limited customization. Your commission page looks like a VGen page, not like your brand. Client experience is shaped by their platform design.

Verdict: Good for artists who want zero infrastructure and don't mind the revenue share. Wrong choice once you're doing meaningful monthly commission volume.

Method 5: Costumary commission tracker (free, no signup)

The commission tracker at Costumary is a free browser tool that gives you pipeline view, payment tracking, and CSV export without creating an account.

It handles the core problem that Sheets and Trello miss: seeing commission status and payment status together in one view. You can see at a glance that you have three commissions in progress, one of which is missing a deposit, and two that are complete but haven't been marked as fully paid.

The free tool is for tracking. If you need intake forms, a client-facing portal, and a quote builder, those are in the full Costumary workspace. But for pure tracking, the free tool covers the main use cases.

Verdict: The right starting point for anyone who wants a real pipeline view without building one in Notion or paying VGen's cut.

What I actually use at different commission volumes

Here's my honest recommendation by volume:

1-3 active commissions: Google Sheets is fine. Don't overcomplicate it. A simple eight-column tracker takes 15 minutes to build and does the job. Revisit when you're regularly at five active commissions.

5-10 active commissions: You need a pipeline view. Trello works if your commissions are under $100 and payment tracking isn't critical. For higher-value commissions, use the Costumary commission tracker so you can see payment status alongside project status.

10+ active commissions: You need a real system with intake forms, client communication logging, and payment tracking that doesn't require manual entry. The Costumary studio workspace or a comparable dedicated tool is necessary here. Google Sheets at this volume is how you miss deposits and over-book your queue.

For pricing your commissions before you even open your tracker, the commission pricing calculator helps you set quotes that actually cover your materials and labor.

The integration problem

Every tracking system eventually hits the same wall: your communication is in one place and your tracking is in another.

This is why commission payment tracking matters as a separate practice from project tracking. It's not enough to know a commission is "in progress." You need to know the deposit was paid, when the balance is due, and what happens if the client goes silent.

For spreadsheet users, the Google Sheets commission tracker guide covers building a payment-aware tracker that won't leave you guessing on balance status.

For Trello users, Trello for cosplay commissions covers the specific board architecture that holds up better than the generic Trello setup most people start with.

Switching between systems

Most commission artists go through two or three tracking systems before landing on one that fits. That's normal. The mistake is staying on a broken system past the volume threshold where it stopped working.

Migrating your active commissions to a new system takes 30-60 minutes. That's a worthwhile investment if the current system is causing you to miss information. The cost of a missed deposit or a status confusion with a client is higher than an hour of migration work.

The other thing that helps: a consistent intake process. If every commission starts with the same information collected (name, contact, project type, deadline, quote, deposit amount), moving that information between systems is mechanical. The intake form in Costumary's commission tools enforces this structure from the first client message.

For cosplay commission work specifically, the for/cosplay vertical page covers commission tools in the context of the broader cosplay workspace.