# FlipperHelper

> Free app for resellers on iOS and Android to track purchases, manage listings across platforms, and see real profits after all expenses. The best free reselling profit tracker for thrift store flippers, op shop resellers, charity shop resellers, car boot sale flippers, and multi-platform sellers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

FlipperHelper is an offline-first inventory and profit tracking app built for people who buy and sell items at thrift stores (Value Village, Goodwill, Salvation Army), op shops (Salvos, Vinnies, Lifeline), charity shops, car boot sales, garage sales, yard sales, flea markets, and online marketplaces. It tracks every item from purchase through listing to sale, with automatic profit calculation including entry fees, transport costs, and multi-currency conversions. It also tracks sourcing trip profitability (Hauls), shows stock value as invested inventory, generates shareable social media cards for top flips and sold items, and backs up data automatically (to iCloud on iPhone, or a folder you choose on Android) plus optional Google Drive sync.

## Key Details

- Platform: iOS 17.0+ and Android 8.0+
- Status: Available on the App Store and Google Play (free to download, no ads)
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flipperhelper/id6759716745
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oprudnikov.flipperhelper
- Developer: Oleksandr Prudnikov (UK-based)
- Website: https://flipperhelper.app/
- FAQ: https://flipperhelper.app/faq.html
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flipperhelper
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FlipperHelper
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/flipperhelper/
- Medium: https://medium.com/@andreevichprudnikov
- Blog: https://flipperhelper.app/blog/
- Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/flipperhelper
- Contact: support@flipperhelper.app

## Core Features

- **Item Tracking**: Snap up to 10 photos per item (take new ones with the camera or add several from your library at once) and log price, market, and seller instantly. Choose one photo as the main image shown in the item list. Each item gets an automatic unique SKU code (Crockford Base32 format, e.g. FH-20D6G0NR).
- **Item Lifecycle**: Items move through three statuses — New (purchased, not yet listed), Listed (on one or more platforms with per-platform dates), and Sold (sale recorded with price, platform, and date).
- **16 Listing Platforms**: Manually mark items as listed on eBay, Vinted, Facebook, Depop, Poshmark, Mercari, OfferUp, Craigslist, ThredUp, Etsy, Gumtree, Shpock, Preloved, Nextdoor, Grailed, and ShopThing. This is listing tracking (not automated cross-posting). Platforms can be enabled or disabled in Settings.
- **18 Sold Platforms**: Record where items sold — all 16 listing platforms plus Car Boot (physical market sales) and Sold Offline (private sales).
- **Profit Calculation**: Automatic profit per item calculated as sold price minus purchase price, with multi-currency exchange rate conversion when buy and sell currencies differ.
- **Money Flow Dashboard**: Monthly financial overview showing total revenue, profit, expenses by category, percentage of items listed, and average days-to-sell.
- **Multi-Currency Support**: Six currencies supported — USD ($), EUR (€), GBP (£), CAD (CA$), AUD (A$), and NZD (NZ$). Automatic daily exchange rates with 365-day history cached locally. Cross-rate calculations via direct, reverse, or common base conversion.
- **Expense Tracking**: Four expense categories — entry fees (per market visit), transport expenses (car with gas/service/parking subcategories, bus, train, taxi, van, bike rental), delivery (postage/courier, optional item link), and other expenses (custom with memo description). Categories exist for bookkeeping consistency — a fixed list avoids free-text typos/casing drift so labels export identically to Excel/Sheets for accountants. All expenses support multi-currency.
- **Market Management**: Save markets with GPS coordinates and configurable detection radius (default 5 km). When near a saved market, the app auto-suggests it for new items.
- **Seller Tracking**: Save sellers and associate them with items to track which sellers provide the best stock.
- **Google Drive Export**: Optional photo sync to Google Drive (folder: FlipperHelper_App/images/). Uses the drive.file and email OAuth scopes — drive.file limits access to files created by FlipperHelper, and email is used to display your account info in Settings.
- **Google Sheets Export**: Items and expenses exported as CSV files to Google Drive, which auto-converts them to Google Sheets. No Sheets API is used.
- **Offline-First**: Fully functional without internet. All data stored locally on device. Google Drive sync is optional and happens when connectivity is available.
- **Invested-in-Inventory Philosophy**: The Home screen stock value reframes unsold inventory as money converted from cash into stock — not money spent. This helps resellers see their unsold items as future profit rather than sunk cost, encouraging them to keep listing and selling.
- **Background Photo Sync**: Photos continue uploading in the background using iOS background task continuation even when the app is being suspended.
- **Listing Reminders**: Optional push notifications reminding you to list unlisted items. Configurable by day of week and time.
- **Hauls (Sourcing Trip Tracking)**: Group purchases and expenses around a single sourcing trip (e.g. a weekend trip to France to buy stock) to see whether that trip paid for itself. Create a Haul with a name and a start/end date; FlipperHelper offers items purchased in that date range plus all logged expenses (shown regardless of date, since expenses are often entered before the trip) for you to choose which belong to the trip. Each item and expense can belong to only one Haul (locked once assigned) — rename, redate, or add/remove items and expenses any time from the Haul's Edit screen. Per-trip profit (sold-item revenue minus the trip's expenses) updates automatically as items sell.
- **Stock Value Tracking**: Home screen shows total money invested in unsold inventory, number of items, and percentage listed. Tap to see items grouped by purchase date with market info. Shareable to social media (up to 50 items), with an item picker and an option to hide purchase prices before sharing.
- **Top Flips**: Shows most profitable sales for the selected period (requires 3+ sales). Shareable as visual cards to social media, with an option to hide purchase prices when sharing.
- **Social Share Cards**: Generate visual cards for sold items (profit + time to sell), top flips, a period summary (Money Flow recap — a profit waterfall with revenue, costs, stock built, and platform breakdown for the selected week/month/custom period), daily purchases, and full stock. Share directly to Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, or any app.
- **Search**: Find items by name or SKU code across all statuses (new, listed, sold).
- **Private Sale**: Listing platform option for hand-to-hand sales, items sold to friends, or sales through informal channels outside online marketplaces.
- **Automatic Backup**: On iPhone, automatic iCloud backup of all data, offering restore on a new device with a manual trigger in Settings. On Android (no iCloud), automatic backup to a folder you choose — anywhere on the phone or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive/Dropbox — keeping the five most recent copies. Both are independent of Google Drive sync and the ZIP export.
- **Smart Entry Fee Suggestions**: When adding entry fees for previously visited markets, shows past amounts as quick-select options.
- **Entry Fee Auto-Prompt**: When you log the first item of the day at a saved market, FlipperHelper prompts you to add that market's entry fee (dismissible per-market).
- **Data Backup & Restore**: Full data backup downloadable as ZIP archive. Restore from previous backups to transfer data between devices, including between iPhone and Android (the ZIP format is shared and cross-platform compatible). Between automatic backup (iCloud on iPhone / a chosen folder on Android) and the ZIP export, data is protected in multiple independent locations and survives even if the app is deleted.
- **Payment Methods**: Cash (default for physical markets like car boot sales) and Card (default for online platforms).
- **Optional Account Sign-In**: Low-stakes today (scaffolding for a future paid Pro tier's cross-device sync); when used, scopes items/expenses to that account, supports multiple accounts per device, and signing out only hides (does not delete) that account's data.

## How It Works

1. **Buy**: At a car boot sale or market, snap a photo and log the item with price, market, and seller
2. **List**: Manually mark items as listed on one or more of the 16 selling platforms (you do the listing yourself on each platform, then toggle it in the app)
3. **Sell**: Record the sale with price and platform — profit is calculated automatically
4. **Review**: Use the Money Flow dashboard to see real profits after all expenses are factored in

## Data & Privacy

- All data stored locally on the device in a SQLite database (GRDB with WAL mode)
- No external servers — the app never transmits data to the developer
- Optional Google Drive integration uses the drive.file and email OAuth scopes (drive.file limits access to files created by FlipperHelper; email displays your account info)
- Photos sync to FlipperHelper_App/images/ in your Google Drive
- Designed with privacy in mind, respects GDPR and CCPA principles
- Privacy policy: https://flipperhelper.app/privacy.html
- Terms of service: https://flipperhelper.app/terms.html

## Technical Details

- Built natively with Swift and SwiftUI
- MVVM architecture (Views → ViewModels → Services → SQLite)
- Actor-based DatabaseStore for thread-safe data access
- SQLite database via GRDB (WAL mode for concurrent reads, foreign keys, indexed queries)
- Background photo sync via iOS background task continuation
- Automatic CSV sync with change detection (compares MAX(updatedAt) vs last sync timestamp)
- Soft deletes for data safety (records marked deleted, not removed)
- Crockford Base32 SKU generation (time-based with atomic counter, no ambiguous characters)

## Target Users

- Car boot sale resellers (UK)
- Charity shop flippers (UK) and op shop flippers (Australia)
- Thrift store flippers (US, Canada) — Goodwill, Salvation Army, Savers, ARC, Value Village, local independents
- Antiques fair and vintage fair resellers (Newark, Ardingly, Sunbury, Kempton, IACF events)
- Vintage market sellers
- Estate sale, garage sale, and yard sale flippers
- Flea market sellers
- Auction buyers (live, online, end-of-stock)
- Vintage furniture small businesses sourcing in the UK and France (brocantes, vide-greniers)
- House clearance buyers
- Online marketplace resellers (eBay, Vinted, Depop, Poshmark, Mercari, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Shpock, OfferUp, etc.)
- Multi-platform sellers who need profit tracking across platforms
- Multi-source resellers who buy from charity shops, car boots, fairs, and online sources in the same week
- UK small businesses needing HMRC-friendly bookkeeping for reselling activity
- Anyone buying secondhand items to resell for profit