Online Store: Making sure the count on an item resets after a refund

[Maureen]

I have a workshop with just 6 spots for registrants. It sold out in an hour this morning when I posted a link to the "item." but one registrant accidentally purchased two spots. I did a refund for her via Square.

I have two concerns: 

1) the item NOW shows the workshop is sold out (zero items in the inventory tracking) and I wonder when that will change -- or IF it will change? 

2) there is another person who wants to come in to our brick-and-mortar to pay in cash, and I have told her that's okay. If the inventory changes online when I'm not watching it, I might OVER-book the workshop which would be really not okay. How can I make sure the item number STAYS at zero? When I tried to change it, it would not let me. 

[Helen · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your post @Maureen! 

Currently, when you proccess a refund for an Online Store payment you do have to manually update the inventory from the Store Editor section. The 'stock'  level for your workshop won't update automatically. I absolutely see how it this would be useful and I'll share your feedback with the Online Store team.

It's odd that you weren't able to manually adjust the stock for your item when you tried. You should be able to set the inventory to 0 when your workshop is fully booked. If your changes weren't saving you it might have been an issue with your browser. You could try refreshing the page, clearing your browsing history, or switching to another browser like Google Chrome.

You can also make an invoice unavailable online by switching the Item Visibility toggle off > then click Save.

[Maureen]

Thank you for your help, Helen. I wasn't able to change the item stock number to "1" -- it was at zero because one workshop participant accidentally signed up for two spaces in the workshop. So technically after I refunded her for one of the spaces, the stock should have gone back to "1" available, but it would not let me change it at all. I have not had a problem in the past, changing the stock to 0 manually. This was trying to go the other way, adding an "item" back into the stock. 

I was also inquiring because IF the stock DID automaticallly go back to "1" available, and it was delayed in doing that, I would have no control over someone ELSE signing up for that last space, when the person who I had told could have it, was coming into our gallery -- and not going to sign up online. Does that make sense? 

Next time I will try to clear my cache and browser history and see what that does. 

[Helen]

AH, I see what you mean now - sorry! You should have been able to manually adjust the stock up or down — there isn't a delay for refunds made through the Online Store.

If you're still having trouble can you reply here to let me know? If you see a specific error or if you can take a screenshot of what happens when to try to update the stock that'd be great.