Purpose-Built for UK Antique Dealers
Antique shop inventory management software that tracks provenance, period, condition, and margins. Manage your stock across shops, fairs, and online channels from one place. Built by someone who has run the back office of a UK dealing business since 2013.
Inventory
6 items
Art Deco Diamond Ring
JWL-2026-0089
Cartier Tank Watch
WCH-2026-0034
Georgian Silver Candelabra
ANT-2026-0056
Hermès Birkin 25
HBG-2026-0012
Edwardian Sapphire Pendant
JWL-2026-0091
Rolex Datejust 1601
WCH-2026-0035
One house clearance can bring in a vanload of pieces in an afternoon, each with its own history, its own condition report, and its own VAT position. Each of those details needs a place on that piece's record, or it ends up spread across a spreadsheet, a notebook, and whatever you can still remember.
Every antique piece needs its history documented — who owned it, where it came from, and its journey through dealers, estates, and auctions. Across hundreds of items, that history has to stay tied to the right piece and to the person you bought it from.
The Margin Scheme is optional. You can choose it for second-hand goods, works of art, antiques and collectors' items you were not charged VAT on, such as stock from private sellers, or from house clearances and estate sales where no VAT was charged; precious metals, investment gold and precious stones cannot go on it. Special rules apply to works of art, antiques and collectors' items you import yourself, and to works of art bought from the creator or their heirs. Using it means knowing which items qualify, calculating VAT at 1/6 of the margin, and keeping accurate records, detail that manual methods make easy to get wrong.
A shop, the fairs circuit, Shopify, and before long eBay. With one of everything, each channel has to be corrected by hand as soon as a piece moves, and the piece you just sold may already be sitting on a stand two counties away.
Taking stock to fairs means knowing exactly what is where. Which pieces are at the shop, which are at this weekend's fair, and which are listed online? Without a system that tracks locations, you end up with handwritten lists and guesswork.
Four answers to the four problems above, in the order a piece actually moves through your books.
Create custom fields to record where every antique came from, who you bought it from, and the chain of ownership. Every purchase links to your contact database, giving buyers the confidence they expect when purchasing pieces with history.
GemJam records the VAT status of a purchase at the point you enter it, then works out Margin Scheme VAT when the piece sells. Your stock book and your VAT return draw on the same figures, so neither needs rekeying.
Put a piece on Shopify without leaving GemJam. Record the sale, wherever it happened, and your stock and your connected Shopify listing move together. Sell somewhere GemJam is not connected to and you update that listing yourself. eBay integration is in development.
Track which items are at your shop, which are at a fair, and which are listed online. Record sales from any location on your phone and your inventory updates everywhere instantly.
PUR-2026-0042
Hatton Garden Estates · 15 Feb 2026
Subtotal
£8,250.00
VAT
£0.00
Margin Scheme
Total
£8,250.00
Line Items
Art Deco Diamond Ring, c.1925
JWL-2026-0089
£3,450.00
AvailableVictorian Pearl Brooch
JWL-2026-0090
£1,800.00
SoldCartier Tank Watch, 1970s
WCH-2026-0034
£3,000.00
AvailableA dining table and a mourning ring have almost nothing in common on paper, yet both need recording properly. Build a template per item type and each one asks for the fields that piece actually has.
Add custom fields for chain of ownership, acquisition source, and historical context — whatever your stock requires. Every purchase links to your contact database for a complete audit trail from purchase to sale.
Create template fields for period and era — Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, mid-century modern, or whatever categories suit your stock. Filter your inventory by era to find exactly what a customer is looking for.
Add condition fields to your item templates — from mint to heavily restored. Accurate condition information is critical for pricing, customer expectations, and reducing returns.
Include restoration fields in your templates — what was done, when, and by whom. Buyers of antiques expect transparency about repairs and restorations, and accurate records protect both you and the customer.
Second-hand goods, works of art, antiques and collectors' items you were not charged VAT on, such as pieces from private sellers, or from house clearances and estate sales where no VAT was charged, can go on the Margin Scheme if you choose to use it; precious metals, investment gold and precious stones cannot. Special rules apply to works of art, antiques and collectors' items you import yourself, and to works of art bought from the creator or their heirs. The scheme charges VAT on the profit margin rather than the full selling price, and GemJam works out that VAT as you trade.
A VAT treatment recorded for every item you buy, with unclear cases flagged for your review
VAT calculated at 1/6 (16.67%) of the margin on each eligible piece
Produces the Stock Book and invoices from the same records
Xero-compatible export, ready to forward to Dext
Everything listed is in GemJam now, except items marked coming soon.
The questions dealers ask us before they move their stock book across.
GemJam lets you create custom item templates with exactly the fields you need for your stock. An antique table needs different details from an antique brooch, so you define the fields that matter — provenance, period, condition, materials, maker, dimensions, restoration history, and anything else. Each item type gets its own template, so nothing is missing and nothing is wasted.
GemJam’s custom templates let you add provenance fields tailored to your stock — chain of ownership, acquisition source, historical context, or whatever details matter for your items. Every purchase is linked to your contact database, so you can trace who you bought from, when, and at what price. This gives buyers the confidence they expect when purchasing antiques with history.
GemJam records the VAT treatment on every purchase. Two things decide whether a piece can go on the scheme: it has to be goods the scheme covers, and you have to have bought it without VAT being charged on the purchase. Special rules apply to works of art, antiques and collectors’ items you import yourself, and to works of art bought from the creator or their heirs. Buying from a private individual or a non-VAT-registered seller usually means no VAT was charged, but it is the purchase that decides, not the seller. When a scheme piece sells, GemJam calculates VAT at 1/6 of the profit margin rather than the full selling price. It generates the Stock Book and dual invoice formats.
Yes, by three routes: pull your stock from Shopify, upload a CSV or Excel sheet, or enter pieces one at a time. Every piece lands as its own record carrying photos, purchase history, and whatever custom fields your templates define: provenance, condition, period, or anything else. The import itself is quick. How long the whole job takes depends on how much tidying your existing records need.
Yes. GemJam supports multiple locations, so you can track which items are at your shop, which are at a fair, and which are listed online. When you sell at a fair, record the sale on your phone and your inventory updates everywhere instantly. No more double-selling or losing track of stock across venues.
GemJam is cloud-based, so it works in a browser on any device with no software to install. It includes Shopify integration for multi-channel selling (eBay coming soon), automatic VAT Margin Scheme calculations, and a Xero-compatible accounting export you can forward to Dext. It was built by someone who has run the back office of a UK dealing business since 2013 and understands the specific challenges of managing unique inventory.
Provenance, condition, period, and margin recorded against the piece itself, wherever it happens to be that week. Join the waiting list for early access.