Guides
This is the guide index for Line Board — every step-by-step how-to on the site, listed below. Practical guides for apparel teams building a line board: how to build one, how the tools compare, and the distinctions that keep the season on track.
After a definition rather than an index? The board itself is on what is a line board; the numeric plan behind it on how to build a line plan; the tool category on visual line planning software; the sell-in tool category on line sheet software; the assortment board on assortment board, and building one on how to build a visual assortment board.
How to build a line board →
A step-by-step from concept and colorways to a sign-off-ready range.
How to build a line plan →
The numbers the board is built against — option counts by category, price tier and drop, the seven build steps, and a worked plan that sums.
How to build a range plan →
The same artifact as a line plan under the range vocabulary — the word-by-word map, the five decisions the plan records, and what the vocabulary names differently by vertical.
How to run a line review →
Who attends, prepping the board, walking the range, and locking sign-off for the buy.
Line board vs spreadsheet, Miro & Airtable →
Why generic grids and whiteboards go stale, and what a board built for planning adds.
From mood board to assortment →
The design-to-merch handoff — turning a season’s direction into a concrete range.
Internal vs wholesale line sheet →
The critical distinction between an internal line board and a buyer-facing wholesale line sheet.
Line sheet software: what it does and where it stops →
The sell-in tool category — presentation, pricing and terms, availability, order capture — and the four upstream range decisions it cannot make.
Line boards for footwear and accessories lines →
How the board changes beyond apparel — drop groupings, collection families, and material swatches.
Line boards for denim, intimates and swim →
In denim, intimates and swim one card stands for a two-axis grid, so two boards with identical card counts carry very different buys. How to fix that.
Line boards for beauty and personal care lines →
How line boards work for beauty and personal care: the franchise as the planning unit, the shade ladder as beauty’s size curve, and the gaps it hides.
Line boards for home, outdoor and sporting goods lines →
How line boards work for furniture, outdoor gear and equipment — ranges configured rather than sized, model-year changeovers, and dealer prebooks.
Line boards for toy, juvenile and jewelry lines →
How line boards work in three categories that are not sized like apparel: toys by age grade, juvenile chassis versus colourway, and jewelry with moving cost.
Style, option, colorway, SKU: what counts as one thing →
The four counting units, the arithmetic between them, and why two teams count the same range differently.
Line architecture: good, better, best and price tiers →
Reading the price shape of a range on the board — tier gaps, clusters, inversions, and tier balance.
Costing the line to a margin target →
Holding the margin while the range is still soft — target costing, the margin-drag style, cost creep, and the four levers.
Building the color story on a line board →
Reading color across the whole line — core, hero and fashion color, orphan shades, carryover, and seasonal handover.
Locking the line →
What sign-off actually commits, the four-lock ladder, and how to change a locked range without losing the board.
Balancing carryover and newness →
What carryover earns and what it costs, the per-style test — hindsight, margin, trend life — anchor rows vs story rows, and the recolor trap.
Planning drops on the line board →
Organizing a season as drops — deriving the drop count, the anchor core vs the rotating stories, rows as drops, and the T&A cascade.
Hindsighting the line →
Reading last season’s board by option role before building the next — rows and columns, the four questions, and the line rules that fall out.
Line board vs assortment board →
One decides what the range is, the other decides where it goes and how deep — and why the sequence is not negotiable.
How to build a visual assortment board →
The locked line laid out by store cluster, channel or delivery — choosing the axis, what goes on each card, breadth against depth, the buy meeting, and a worked board that sums.
New to this? Start with What is a line board? for the definition, then see how the tools compare.
Selling the range into wholesale rather than building it? Start with internal vs wholesale line sheet, then line sheet software: what it does and where it stops.