How should a beekeeper track honey inventory?

Start the lot at harvest, in the same record as the hive. In HiveFlow the remaining kilograms live on that lot. A sale removes kilograms, can store a moisture percent, and opens an invoice for the customer.

When does a honey sale become income?

When you receive the payment. Issuing the invoice creates a receivable. Marking it received posts honey income to the ledger. A sale you have not been paid for stays in open receivables.

What else can the ledger record besides honey?

Income and expenses for wax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, nucs, queen sales, pollination, and other. Labor hours at an hourly rate post as an expense. The ledger does not calculate payroll tax.

Can a small honey stand use this, or only a packing plant?

Both. A few jars and a wholesale pallet use the same lot and the same customer list. The free plan covers up to 8 colonies and 8 bait boxes. PRO goes up to 100 colonies and 100 bait boxes. Team has no cap and includes 25 seats.

Does treatment withholding affect what you can sell?

Yes. An open treatment blocks a honey harvest until you remove it. A finished treatment blocks harvest until the clearance date. You cannot create a lot from honey the rule still holds back.

Honey Business Software: Lots, Customers, and a Ledger

September 22, 2026 Updated: September 22, 2026 Editorial

Honey business software should start at the extractor, not in a spreadsheet on Sunday. HiveFlow creates a lot when you record a honey harvest, sells kilograms to a customer, and puts the money in the ledger only when you are paid.

That is the same account a backyard, a meliponary, and a full-time yard already use for inspections and the map. Scale changes the plan. The workflow does not change.

From harvest to a lot

Stock does not exist until you harvest. The harvest is blocked while a treatment is still in the hive, and blocked after removal until the clearance date. When the harvest saves, the lot appears with a code and the remaining kilograms.

Moisture is optional. Honey ready to sell is usually under 20%. Store the reading on the lot so the next sale does not depend on a scrap of paper in the honey house.

Charts of what each hive produced are a separate view. They come from the harvest weights, in lb, kg, or oz. See honey production tracker.

The sale

Step	What happens
Pick the lot	You can only sell what is still remaining.
Pick the customer	Name is required. Email, phone, and tax ID are optional.
Enter kilograms and price per kilogram	The sale removes those kilograms from the lot.
Save	An invoice opens for that amount.

If the customer is new, add them first. Buyers are not team members. The team is the people who work the hives.

Invoices and the ledger

The commercial house shows three numbers up front: how many yards you have named, kilograms of honey still in stock, and how many invoices are still open, with the open total.

Issued means you are owed the money.
Paid means you marked it received, and the ledger now has the income.
Void means the invoice should not be collected.

The ledger is the book of money that moved. Filter by period to change the totals and the chart. Amber is money in. Black is money out. A season name, such as 2026, labels the year. It does not create a row.

Categories: honey, wax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, nucs, queen sales, pollination, and other income or expense. Pollination payments follow the same receive-then-post rule. See pollination contract tracker.

Labor is hours times an hourly rate. That row is an expense. It is not a payroll-tax calculation.

CSV import expects a first line of date, kind, category, amount. Kind is income or expense. Example: 2026-09-22, income, honey, 150. Export is there when an accountant wants the file.

Yards, so the honey has an address

A yard is a named place, such as North or the home yard. Check the hives that belong there and save once. An optional varroa threshold, often starting at 3%, alerts when a count passes it. The inspection CSV is the house export of treatments, clearance dates, and harvests.

Plans, without a second product

Situation	Plan
Up to 8 colonies and 8 bait boxes	Free
More colonies, same commercial house	PRO
More than one person on the hives	Team, 25 seats, replaces individual PRO

Owner invites and removes people. Field logs the work. Read only can look. Each invite uses one seat.

Where a spreadsheet still wins

Use a spreadsheet or your accountant’s file for the tax return, sales-tax rules in your state, and anything that must land in QuickBooks. HiveFlow does not file taxes and does not sync to accounting suites.

Use HiveFlow for the number that otherwise gets typed twice: kilograms leaving a lot, the customer, and the day the money arrived. The scale guide is commercial beekeeping software.

HiveTracks Pro ($6.99/month or $69.99/year on their site) is the older US commercial desktop. Stay if that book is already your system of record. The field comparison is HiveTracks alternative.

Start here: HiveFlow · Google Play · App Store.

Frequently asked questions

How should a beekeeper track honey inventory?: Start the lot at harvest, in the same record as the hive. In HiveFlow the remaining kilograms live on that lot. A sale removes kilograms, can store a moisture percent, and opens an invoice for the customer.
When does a honey sale become income?: When you receive the payment. Issuing the invoice creates a receivable. Marking it received posts honey income to the ledger. A sale you have not been paid for stays in open receivables.
What else can the ledger record besides honey?: Income and expenses for wax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, nucs, queen sales, pollination, and other. Labor hours at an hourly rate post as an expense. The ledger does not calculate payroll tax.
Can a small honey stand use this, or only a packing plant?: Both. A few jars and a wholesale pallet use the same lot and the same customer list. The free plan covers up to 8 colonies and 8 bait boxes. PRO goes up to 100 colonies and 100 bait boxes. Team has no cap and includes 25 seats.
Does treatment withholding affect what you can sell?: Yes. An open treatment blocks a honey harvest until you remove it. A finished treatment blocks harvest until the clearance date. You cannot create a lot from honey the rule still holds back.

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