What Is a Line Sheet? What Goes on One and How to Take It Online

A line sheet is the wholesale document a brand sends to retail buyers so they can write an order. It lists every style with a photo, style number, wholesale price, MSRP, colors, sizes and case pack, plus the minimums, ship windows and payment terms the buyer has to order against.

This guide is for brands and manufacturers that sell to stores: apparel, beauty, home goods, gifts and specialty food. It covers what to put on a line sheet, how to build one in a spreadsheet or Word, and how the same data becomes online wholesale ordering on Shopify. Last updated November 5, 2026, with Shopify's current B2B plan features.

What goes on a line sheet

Write it for a buyer with an order form open: every field should answer a question they would otherwise email you about. Here is the checklist:

• Brand and contact. Your logo, the sales contact, the rep or showroom that handles the account, and how to place an order.
• Season and issue date. Which season the sheet covers and the date it was issued, so a buyer can tell whether the prices are current.
• Product image. One clear photo or sketch per style. Show the back when the back matters.
• Style name and style number. The style number, or SKU, is what the buyer writes on the order. Keep the numbering consistent from season to season.
• Wholesale price. The wholesale price the retailer pays per unit.
• MSRP. The MSRP, the retail price you recommend. The retailer still sets its own shelf price.
• Colors and sizes. Every colorway and the full size run for each style.
• Case pack or prepack. The case pack, meaning how many units ship in one case, or the size breakdown of a prepack.
• Minimums. Your minimum order quantity, per style, per order, or both.
• Ship windows and cancel dates. When each delivery ships and the date after which the buyer can cancel.
• Terms. Payment terms, shipping policy and how returns or damages are handled.

Put the terms on the first or last page and keep them identical on every sheet you send. A missing minimum or ship window turns into a question by email, and the order waits for the answer.

Line sheet vs lookbook vs catalog

The three documents do different jobs.

• Lookbook. Styled photography that shows the collection and the brand. Keep prices and order terms off it and put them on the line sheet.
• Line sheet. The buying document for one season or collection. Every style, every price, every term the buyer needs to write the order.
• Wholesale catalog. The full year-round assortment, suited to distributors and to brands with replenishment products that do not change by season.

A practical rule: if a buyer could place an order using only that document, it is a line sheet. If they would still need to ask you for prices or minimums, it is a lookbook. If you sell by season, send the lookbook and the line sheet together so the buyer gets the collection and the order terms in one email. If your assortment rarely changes, a wholesale catalog or an online ordering site that is always current will serve buyers better than reissuing a seasonal sheet.

How to make a line sheet

Build the data before the layout. The layout changes every season, and the product data should not have to be retyped each time.

• Step 1: build the master spreadsheet. One row per style and color. One column per field from the checklist above: style number, name, wholesale price, MSRP, sizes, case pack, minimum, ship window. This file becomes the source for the line sheet and later for your online catalog.
• Step 2: add images. In Excel for Microsoft 365 and Excel 2024, Microsoft says "The Place in Cell feature allows you to insert pictures into cells," so each style row can carry its own photo. In Word, Microsoft's steps are "Select Insert > Pictures > This Device for a picture on your PC."
• Step 3: lay out the pages. Group styles by category or by delivery, a few styles per page, with the price and minimum next to each image. Put brand, contact and terms on the cover or the last page.
• Step 4: export to PDF. Microsoft notes that "You can use the Office programs to save or convert your files to PDFs so that you can share them or print them using commercial printers." In Word, if the file was saved before, select File, then Save a Copy, and pick PDF in the drop-down list.
• Step 5: version it. Put the season and issue date in the file name and on the cover. When a price changes, send a new version and say what changed.

A line sheet template is just this structure saved once: the column headers in the spreadsheet and a page layout you reuse. Two cautions from Microsoft's own documentation apply to the PDF. "When you convert your spreadsheet to a PDF, the internal links within the spreadsheet will get lost during the conversion." And "Many programs, including Microsoft Word, have the ability to open and edit PDF files," so a PDF does not lock your prices.

PDF vs digital line sheet

A PDF line sheet is easy to send and opens on any device. The trouble starts once the buyer has it.

• It goes stale. A price change, a sold-out color or a new style means a new file, and a buyer can still order from the old one.
• The order is still manual. A line sheet sent as a PDF or a spreadsheet has to become an order by hand. The buyer marks it up and sends it back, and someone on your team rekeys it, size by size.
• One sheet for every account. A PDF shows one price list. A key account with negotiated pricing gets a separate file, and someone has to keep the two in step.

A digital line sheet avoids all three. The buyer logs in, sees current styles and their own prices, and submits the order directly. Nothing gets rekeyed, and stock and pricing come from the same system as your consumer store.

The PDF is still the right choice for a small wholesale program: a few dozen accounts, one or two seasons a year, and orders written at a trade show. You are probably ready to move online when reorders start arriving between seasons, reps spend their afternoons retyping orders, key accounts want their own pricing, or buyers ask what is in stock before they commit.

How a line sheet becomes wholesale ordering on Shopify

Your master spreadsheet maps almost field by field onto Shopify B2B. "Shopify B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans." Here is where each line sheet field goes:

• Styles, colors and sizes. One style is one product, with colors and sizes as variants. "You can create up to 2,048 variants for a product," and "Each product can have up to three options." To load the sheet in bulk, Shopify notes that "Shopify uses CSV (comma-separated value) files to perform this kind of bulk task."
• Wholesale prices. B2B catalogs set the prices a business buyer sees: "You can include or exclude products, apply percentage price adjustments, and set fixed prices." On the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, "you can have up to 3 active catalog assignments across active B2B markets." On Shopify Plus you can also assign catalogs directly to specific companies.
• Case packs and minimums. Quantity rules sell "a product in certain increments" or set "a minimum or maximum limit," so a case pack of 6 becomes an increment of 6. The rule applies per variant: Shopify's example says "Customers can’t combine 5 gray hats and 5 blue hats to meet the minimum of 10 hats."
• Volume pricing. "You can add up to 10 price breaks per product which are applied to each variant."
• The size grid. Quick order lists "let your B2B customers add multiple variants of a product to their cart in one click from the product description page," which is how a buyer fills in a size run.
• Terms. "Payment terms define how long a company has to pay for an order," with options from Net 7 to Net 90 or due on fulfillment.
• Who sees prices. "Your B2B customers must log in with customer accounts to access their wholesale information and assigned catalogs." New retail accounts can request B2B access through a company account request form on your online store.

Reps can keep writing orders too. "If a draft order has a B2B customer and a company location assigned to it, then the prices, payment terms, and checkout options automatically reflect the settings for that company." Sales staff permissions are available on the Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans.

What gets built on top, and where Uncap fits

Some line sheet fields need more than native settings. A style minimum met across sizes, a prepack sold as a fixed size curve, delivery windows, prebooks and cancel dates are built during implementation. Deposits on prebooks are a plan question: "Deposit requirements, partial payments, and payment requests per fulfillment are available only on the Shopify Plus plan."

Uncap is a Shopify Platinum Partner that builds this for brands. For fashion and apparel, our line sheet ordering on Shopify for fashion brands page covers size run grids, prepacks and prebooks in detail. For the wholesale channel in general, see Uncap's wholesale solution, and for the native setup step by step, read Shopify for wholesale: catalogs, pricing and net terms.

Two Uncap products fit a digital line sheet. Uncap Portal gives trade accounts a self-serve home on Shopify with catalogs, pricing, reorders, invoices and users. Uncap Connect keeps inventory, orders, customers and pricing in sync between Shopify and your ERP.

Uncap's published migration work includes Mata Traders, an ethical women's fashion brand selling dresses, jewelry and accessories, which Uncap migrated to Shopify, porting all site information and customer data. Uncap also migrated the legacy website of Microfiber Wholesale, a family-owned business selling cleaning and janitorial supplies to households, retailers and businesses, to Shopify Plus, giving the business a stable and scalable solution for reaching B2B customers.

If you are still planning the move, Uncap Blueprint is a $7,500 fixed-price, four-week engagement that delivers a complete migration playbook before anything is built. To turn your line sheet into ordering, Talk to Our Experts.