The fields you suggest (color, size, style) sound fine. You need fields that will help you uniquely identify each item that you need to track. You might also want to include a SKU or some other identifier. Once you have a way of uniquely identifying the items, the actual items themselves don't matter in an inventory system.
There are several different approaches to inventory. They generally involve additional tables. Here are some that I have used and encountered.
- A [Transactions] table where inventory is added and consumed. This would be setup like a checkbook register where each record has an item, a date, a quantity, and a description. A rollup field would give the current total inventory. You could also implement an automation script to calculate running totals if you want historic information.
- A system with [Receiving] and [Consuming] tables. This is most useful when you have other tables already (like an [Orders] table) where inventory items are consumed, and need to add inventory elsewhere. Use rollups to calculate the total items received and the total consumed. You cannot get a running total with historic inventory this way, you can only see current inventory.
- If inventory is managed elsewhere (such as an online store) you need to decide which place (the online store or Airtable) is the source of truth, and then use automations to push data from the source to the other platform.
- You will also want some method to perform adjustments to inventory when you do an audit.
Airtable has a variety of ways of visualizing data with charts and graphs.
Given how broad your questions are, you may want to hire a consultant.
