How To Create a Product Inventory Using Lookup Fields

Create a product catalog that connects to your order forms, so pricing, availability, and product details update automatically across all forms.

Build Time & Skill

15–30 min

Intermediate

What you'll learn

How to connect a product catalog to your order form so prices and availability update automatically.

Connect a product catalog to your order form.

Managing product inventory across multiple forms becomes tedious when prices change or items go out of stock. With Cognito Forms’ Lookup fields, your business can manage its entire product inventory in one form that links to your order form. When customers place an order, the order form will automatically look up product names, prices, and availability from the inventory form, keeping your listings, prices, and availability up to date without manual updates.

This approach helps you:

Eliminate duplicate data entry by maintaining product details in one place that all forms reference automatically.
Prevent errors by ensuring customers always see current prices and accurate stock levels.
Save hours of manual updates when products, prices, or availability change.
Scale efficiently by adding new products once and seeing them appear across all connected forms.

Before You Begin: What You'll Need

This guide shows you how to create a product inventory system using two forms that work together:

Product Inventory form: Your catalog storing all product details (names, prices, quantities). This is your single source of truth that other forms will reference.
Order form: The form customers use to place orders. This form looks up product information from your inventory form in real-time.
Lookup fields: Available on Team and Enterprise plans, Lookup fields connect forms together so data flows automatically. When you select a product on the Order form, the field pulls current pricing and availability from your inventory form.
Learn more about Lookup fields →

This form looks up product information from your inventory form in real-time.

Steps to Connect Your Product Catalog

First, you’ll create a Product Inventory form to store your catalog data, then connect it to your Order form using a Lookup field.

Step 1: Build the Product Inventory form

Create a new form named Product Inventory.
On the Build page, add fields for your catalog details:
- Product Name (Textbox field)
- Price (Currency field)
- Available Quantity (Number field)
Under Form Settings, enable Use with Lookup Field? so this form’s entries can be referenced by other forms.
Click Save.
On the Entries page, create a new entry for each product.

Step 2: Build the Order form

Create a new form named Order Form.
Add fields to collect customer information:
- Name (Name field)
- Email (Email field)
- Shipping Address (Address field)
- A Repeating Section – Repeating sections are groups of fields that can be duplicated as necessary.
Within the repeating section, add a Lookup field named Product and a Number field named Quantity.

Configure the Lookup field

In the Lookup field settings:
- Select the Product Inventory form under Look Up Choices From.
- Insert the Product Name and Price into the Choice Label.
Enable Collect Payment and select the Price field. If you haven’t already, you’ll be prompted to connect your payment account.
Enable Limit Quantity. Set the Quantity Available field to the Available Quantity field on the Product Inventory form. Make sure to include an error message (“We’re out of stock!”).
Enable Specify Quantity and select the Quantity field in the repeating section.
Save your changes.

Step 3: Test Your Setup

Before going live, verify that your new Order form works correctly:

Test the customer experience. Preview your Order form by clicking the Preview button in the top right. Add multiple products and enter quantities to confirm that your product selection works as intended.
Test payment processing. Test the payment calculation by submitting a test order. If you’re using Stripe to collect payment, you can use a test credit card number.
Verify automatic updates. Update a product in your Product Inventory form to make a change to a product name, price, or quantity. Select that same product on the Order form and confirm the updated information displays correctly.

Advanced Customizations

Once your inventory and order forms are working, these advanced techniques help you make them even more powerful:

Hide products with the Include option

To hide out-of-stock items from your Product field, use the Include option in the Lookup field settings to show only items where Available Quantity is greater than 0 (Available Quantity > 0).

Hide options that are out of stock.

Add images to your product selection

To display product images in your lookup field, add a File Upload field to your Product Inventory form and upload an image file to each entry.

Adjust the image size in the Lookup field settings.

On your Order form, select the File Upload field under Choice Image in the Lookup field settings. Use the options under Style and Image Size to control how the images appear alongside the product names.

Display images in the Cards style.

Organize products with Cascade Filters

To allow customers to narrow down their selection before choosing a specific product, add a Choice - Dropdown field for Product Category in your Product Inventory form (e.g., “Stationery,” “Electronics,” “Apparel”). Then, click + Add Cascade Filter under the Include option in the Lookup field settings to filter products by category. Learn more about Cascade Filters.

You can also set the Product field to only display after a category is selected. In the Product field settings, update Show this Field - When to Category is filled out.

You can also set the Product field to only display after a category is selected.

Start Building Your Product Inventory Today

With Lookup fields, you create one product catalog that powers all your order forms automatically. When inventory changes, update it once and watch the changes flow everywhere instantly.

Whether you’re managing a small product line or hundreds of items, this approach saves time, prevents errors, and ensures customers always see accurate information. Start with your first product catalog today and experience how Lookup fields can transform your ordering process.

FAQ

Cognito Forms checks inventory in real-time when the form is submitted, not when it's opened. If a product goes out of stock between when someone opens the form and when they submit it, they'll see an error message at submission time prompting them to adjust their order. The quantity limit you configured prevents overselling, even if multiple customers are ordering simultaneously.

Simply add more fields to your Product Inventory form for any data you want to track—SKU numbers, supplier names, reorder points, or product descriptions. These fields don't need to appear on your Order form to be tracked. You can reference this additional data in confirmation emails, use it in calculations, or display it on internal-only views.