A line sheet is the document a wholesaler sends you that lists what they sell, at what price, in what configuration. It's the closest thing wholesale has to a menu, and like a menu it can be straightforward or it can be deliberately confusing. After fifteen years on the buying side I can say with confidence: most line sheets are confusing by accident, not on purpose. The wholesaler set up a spreadsheet five years ago and has been adding to it since. Here's how to read one without missing what matters.
Start at the top. Every legitimate line sheet has a header with the supplier's legal name, EIN, ship-from address, and the date the prices are effective from. If any of these are missing, write back and ask. You are about to send money; you should know to whom, where from, and at what price as of when.
The SKU column is just an identifier. It doesn't tell you anything important except that it gives you a way to refer to a specific item in a purchase order without ambiguity. Use the supplier's SKU on your PO — don't make up your own.
The product name column should describe the item clearly enough that a person who has never seen it could find it on a shelf. 'Mug' is not enough. 'Stoneware mug, 12 oz, matte cream' is enough.
The wholesale price column is what you pay per unit. The MSRP or 'suggested retail' column is what the supplier is hoping you'll charge. These are independent of each other — you can ignore the MSRP if your market won't bear it. The number you care about is the wholesale price, and the implied margin between wholesale and your actual planned retail. If that margin is below 2.2× (keystone plus 10%) you are usually losing money once you account for damages, returns, and freight.
The case pack column is where most first-time wholesale buyers get burned. A case pack of 6 means you cannot order fewer than 6 units of that SKU. If the supplier shows a case pack of 24 on a $4 item, your minimum unit commitment on that SKU is $96 — and if you wanted to test the SKU first, you can't.
Lead time, when listed, is the time between PO acceptance and shipment. It is not the time between PO submission and shipment, which is a different and longer number. Always confirm the difference on your first PO with a new supplier.
FOB (Free On Board) and EXW (Ex Works) tell you who pays for freight and when title transfers. FOB origin means the goods become yours the moment they leave the supplier's dock — you own them in transit. EXW is similar but starts at the supplier's door, meaning you're also responsible for arranging pickup. Most US wholesale sells FOB origin; if you see EXW, ask for clarification, especially if the supplier is not someone you've worked with before.
Four numbers, in our experience, change the math on a line sheet more than anything else: case pack, freight class, MOQ (minimum order quantity, across the whole PO), and net terms. If you understand those four for every supplier, the rest of the sheet is detail.
If you'd like a template we hand to new buyers — a one-page line-sheet annotated with what to look for in each column — send us a note. We email it as a PDF and we don't ask for anything in return.
Written by Amy Burdick for WICE. Questions or pushback? We read every reply. Write to us.