Artist the Bookkeeper

Why is it that one can find online tools for just about any application, but nothing that helps artists organize their 'shit'. Well, there are a few tools, but they are not very good if you ask me. But why do artists need help organizing? What do they have that needs to be organized. Not money for sure. Not property. No assets. Wait, assets. Our work often doesn't get sold for a long time (often not until after the artist is dead), but it IS VALUABLE. If you only paint for fun, you won't need this, but if you're a professional artist, you should keep track of all the work you create, all your gallery contacts, your 'clients', your shows, commissions, website inclusions, etc... If you don't do it from the get go, it becomes a bit a beast. Now, I just decided I needed to improve my own bookkeeping, as I have been slacking. When asked if painting 'X' is still around, all hell breaks loose in my house. Where is it? Is it in Germany? Is it in Ireland, the US? Is it sold? Is it in a gallery, in the studio? In storage? Is is 'hanging' at a friend's house? What condition is the piece in? Is it one of the pieces that got damaged in the flood?

Now, I have some friends who are well versed in database stuff and I'm going to take the hard route here. I am not going to subscribe to a service to do this for me, nor am I going to buy a software which I can then never migrate out of. I'm going to build a database (with some help from my friends) and somehow try to create some webpage admin for it. The idea is that I update the status of a painting in ONE place, say it gets sold, and this automatically reflects on the website. Then when I query the db for a piece, it tells me where it is and how to contact that person/gallery/place.

Bear with me, as I intend to post updates on my progress here. It may only take a year or so.... but if I do get it to work, I will be one happy camper!