Table of Contents

Inventory on Build To Order products

Inventory at the BTO Product level

The following settings affect whether inventory levels are enforced at the BTO Product level (e.g. is the “PowerTraveller Laptop” available for purchase?):

  • Settings > Store Settings: “Allow customers to purchase out of stock items” should be set to “No”.
  • BTO > BTO Settings: “Should your store's general inventory settings apply…” should be set to “Yes”
  • Add/Modify BTO Product > Inventory Settings: “Disregard Stock” should be set to “No” and back-ordering should not be allowed.

If all of the above is true, then when the BTO Product is out of stock, it will not be available for purchase.

In many cases, the BTO Product is “made to order” and therefore the idea of enforcing inventory at the BTO Product level does not make sense. In those cases, you case use the “Disregard Stock” setting at the product level, or disable inventory completely on all BTO Products under BTO Settings

Inventory at the BTO configuration level

Until recently, inventory levels were not enforced on the BTO configuration pages. Beginning with ProductCart version 3.1, changes were made to the system so that inventory levels are enforced. Specifically:

  • IF the store is set up to track inventory
  • … and the BTO Settings are such that inventory levels are enforced
  • … and the product is not individually setup to disregard stock
  • THEN when the item is out-of-stock, it is automatically hidden on the configuration page.

The Control Panel allows notifies the store administration: the BTO configuration page shows the message “Hidden - Out of Stock” next to the item on the “Configure Build to Order Products or Services” page.

Feature limitation: back-ordered items. As of version 3.11, ProductCart Build To Order The does not provide back-ordering information at the item level on the product configuration pages. That is: if an item is selectable not because it is in stock, but because purchasing is allowed when the item is back-ordered, the customer does not know that they are selecting a back-ordered item. This will likely be corrected in a future version (e.g. “This selection might delay your shipment”).


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