Item Availability on Order Forms

Every item on your online order form is available whenever the form is open, unless you say otherwise. Some items need tighter rules: mince pies only in December, a lunch box that’s weekdays only, or a celebration cake that needs two days’ notice. Custom availability lets you set those rules one item at a time.

Where to Find It

Go to Online → Order Forms, click Manage on the form, and open the Items tab. Each included item has a small availability badge on its row:

• Always (grey) means the item has no restrictions
• An amber badge means custom rules apply, and it summarises them, for example 01 Dec – 20 Dec · 24h notice

So you can scan the list and see at a glance which items are restricted.

Setting Custom Availability

Click the badge to open the item’s availability settings, choose Custom availability, and set any combination of:

• Available from / Available to: a date range. Outside it, the item can’t be ordered. You can set just one end, for example “available from 1 December” with no end date
• Available days: the days of the week the item can be delivered or collected. At least one day must be ticked
• Hours notice required: how far ahead of the delivery or collection time the customer has to order this item. 48 means they must order at least 48 hours before their chosen time. This applies on top of the form’s own day-by-day cutoff times, so use it for the handful of items that need longer

Click Save in the popup. The change is saved straight away; you don’t need the page’s main Save button as well. To remove the rules, open the badge again and switch back to Always available.

What the Customer Sees

A restricted item always shows when it’s available, underneath its price, for example “Available 1 Dec – 20 Dec · 24h notice needed”. That way a customer who hasn’t picked a date yet still knows.

Once they choose a date that doesn’t suit, the item stays on the page but is dimmed and marked Unavailable on this date, rather than disappearing. They can’t order it for that date, and if one slips through, the order is refused when they submit. Change the date to one that fits and the item comes back.

Related

• Online Order Form for setting up the form and choosing its items
• Calendar & Google Calendar for closing whole days across your business
• Items & Categories for managing the items themselves