How to Enable and Manage Product Stock in Payment Fields

Keeping track of your stock is key to running any product-based business. It helps you avoid overselling, manage stock levels, and cut down on extra work—so you can keep things running smoothly and your customers happy. But without the right tools, stock management can become a hassle that eats into your time and profits.

At Jotform, we’ve made stock management a lot simpler. Before, you’d need extra widgets or workarounds to handle stock in your payment forms. Now, you can set quantity limits directly in the Payment field—no add-ons or hacks needed. This means your form can automatically limit purchases based on available stock, show how many items are left, and update inventory in real time—all from one place. 

Enabling Stock Control

Whether you’re setting up a new payment form or updating an existing one, setting it up to track stock, limit purchases, and keep your inventory under control takes no time at all. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open your form in Form Builder, and click on the Payment field.
2. Now, on the right side of it, and depending on the method you used to set it up:
   • Click on the Wand icon to open the Payment Settings menu.
   • Click on the Shopping Cart icon to open the Product List menu.
3. Then, in the menu on the right side of the page, under the Products tab, hover your mouse over the product you want to the manage stock for, and then click on the Pencil icon on the right side of it.

4. Next, in the Product Settings window, under the Stocks tab, toggle Enable Stock Control to Yes.
5. Now, set the following options:
   • Available Stock — Enter the total number of products currently in stock. You can update this value anytime to set or restock your inventory.
   • Enable Low Stock Alert — Toggle this to Yes to get a notification when stock’s running low.
     • Low Stock Value — This field appears once the Low Stock Alert is enabled. Enter the stock threshold that’ll trigger the alert.
6. Once everything’s set, click on Save at the bottom.

Setting Quantity Limits for the Product Options

Once you’ve added product options to your products, you can set the available stock for each one of them separately. Here’s how to do it:

1. In the menu on the right side of the page, under the Products tab, hover your mouse over the product you want to manage stock for, and then click the Pencil icon on the right.

2. Next, in the Product Settings window, under the Stocks tab, toggle Enable Stock Control to Yes.
3. Now, set the following options:
   • Available Stock — In the Quantity column, enter the total number of products currently in stock for each option. You can update each value anytime to set or restock your inventory.
   • Enable Low Stock Alert — Toggle this to Yes to get a notification when a product is running low.
     • Low Stock Value — This field appears once the Low Stock Alert is enabled. Enter the stock threshold that’ll trigger the alert.
4. Once everything is set, click on Save at the bottom.

Recognizing Stock Form Warnings and Product Settings Indicators

Stock warnings and indicators help both you and your customers stay on top of product availability in real time. They simplify inventory management—especially when your form includes a long list of items. For customers, these visual cues reduce frustration by clearly showing what’s in stock, running low, or sold out. Altogether, these badges and messages help keep your order process smooth and dependable.

Sold Out

When a product is out of stock, a Sold Out badge is shown on the form, and the item’s automatically disabled so customers can’t select it. For products with options or sub-products, the badge only appears if all their stock values are zero.

To make the product available again, open the Product Settings in Form Builder and update the Available Stock quantity. You’ll see a Sold Out indicator next to them, making them easy to spot at a glance.

Low on Stock

Products with low stock show a Low on Stock indicator in Form Builder. This helps you act before the stock runs out completely.

The indicator appears only if Low Stock Alert is enabled and the Available Stock is at or below the Low Stock Value. For product options or sub-products, the indicator shows only when their individual stock is below that value.

Check Stock

Your form automatically checks stock in real time. If a product option or a combination of product options is out of stock and selected by customers, a “Not Enough Stock for the Current Selection” warning is shown immediately after they’re selected.

Sub-products with a Quantity Selector Dropdown that are out of stock are automatically disabled, and customers won’t be able to select them.

In Form Builder, a Check Stock badge is shown on a product when one or more of its product options are out of stock. This helps you quickly identify which items need restocking.

Just Sold Out

If a product sells out while someone is still filling out the form, a Just Sold Out badge will appear when they select it. If they try to submit the form with that item still selected, they’ll get a “Not Enough Stock for the Current Selection” warning. The product will be disabled once they reload the form or deselect it.

Not Enough Stock

If a product or sub-product uses a text box for quantity and the customer enters a number higher than what’s available, they’ll see a “Not Enough Stock for the Current Selection” warning. It also shows the number of items left, so they can adjust their order accordingly.

X Items Left

For sub-products that use a Quantity Selector Dropdown, the dropdown options don’t automatically reflect the available stock. But if a customer selects a quantity that’s more than what’s left, a warning will appear showing how many items are still available.

Looking for more info? Our guide on How to Turn Product Options into Sub-Products has more details.

Stock Control Email Notifications

The Stock Control feature sends two types of email alerts to help you manage inventory more effectively.

When a product or product option’s available stock hits or drops below the Low Stock Value set in the Product Settings, you’ll get a Low Stock notification email at the address linked to your account. This email is triggered after a successful form submission when stock is running low.

You’ll also get an Out-of-Stock email notification when a product’s Available Stock hits zero or is completely sold out.

Clicking on Update Your Stock in the email opens the form in Form Builder, in a new tab, taking you directly to the product mentioned.

Understanding How the Payment Status Affects Stock Availability

For payment integrations that rely on off-form payments or include them as a payment option*, product stock is only reduced after the payment’s successfully completed on the gateway’s page and Jotform gets confirmation of that successful transaction.

For payment integrations that support payment authorization, the available stocks of selected products are reduced for every successful form submission, regardless of whether you complete the transaction by charging or capturing payments later.

For incomplete payment transactions, the available stocks of selected products are reduced only when the submission is manually marked as completed.