Line board template
A ready-to-use line board template for apparel — lay out a season’s range visually by category, colorway, price tier, and option count, so you can build and review the whole line before it becomes a buy.
Download the template →What’s inside
- One row per style — grouped by category so the shape of the range is visible at a glance
- Colorways and Price Tier columns to build and balance the color and price story
- An Image column to paste product shots and make it a true visual board
- An Option-count column to catch over- and under-optioned bodies
- A Margin % that auto-calculates as (Retail − Cost) ÷ Retail
- Drop and Status columns to run the line review — mark styles In, Review, or Cut
- A worked sample spring range across tops, bottoms, and outerwear
Who it’s for
Designers, merchandisers, and planners building a season’s range — anyone who needs to see the line as products, side by side, before committing the buy. Use it at line-building and at the line review, where the team adds, cuts, and rebalances styles against the whole picture.
Where a spreadsheet board breaks
A spreadsheet board is a snapshot. It looks right the day you build it and drifts the moment option counts, costs, or the open-to-buy change — because it knows nothing about them. Use this template to build and review the range, then connect it: RetailNorthstar’s Canvas keeps the board live against the plan and the buy. For the numeric side (option counts, margin, OTB), the free tools live on retail-plan.com.
The template is a great start — but a spreadsheet board drifts from the plan the moment anything changes. Canvas is a visual line board that stays live against open-to-buy, the assortment, and the buy.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a line board template?
- A line board template is a structured layout for building a season’s range visually — one row per style, with category, colorways, price tier, option count, and status. It lets a team see the whole line at once and shape it (add, cut, rebalance) before the buy, rather than reading option counts down a spreadsheet column.
- What’s in this template?
- A ready-to-use grid with columns for category, style, image, colorways, price tier, cost, retail, an auto-calculated margin %, option count, drop, status, and notes — plus a worked sample spring range you can replace with your own. It is an Excel (.xlsx) file.
- Is this a line sheet or a line plan?
- Neither, exactly. It is an internal line board — the visual layout you use to build the range. It is not a wholesale line sheet (a buyer-facing catalog for taking orders), and it is lighter than a full numeric line plan. For the numeric plan — option counts, margin targets, and open-to-buy — use the templates and calculators on retail-plan.com.
- How do I make it a visual board with images?
- Paste a product image or sketch into the Image column for each style. Once the grid carries images alongside the colorways and price tiers, it reads as a board you can review by eye. The limitation of any spreadsheet board is that it does not stay in sync with the plan — see how a connected line board works in RetailNorthstar’s Canvas.