Set up a low-stock alert workflow

Help center / Stock and sales

Open Workflows from the sidebar or Business setup and choose Use low-stock template. This creates a starting graph that you can configure for a product and stock scope. It does not place an order or send an email.

1. Choose the product, locations and trigger quantity.
2. Configure the supplier and draft order quantity.
3. Select the person who should receive the in-app notification.
4. Use Test workflow with a sample quantity.
5. Review the result, then save with Enabled after save checked when ready.

The public workspace is coming soon. The alert planning guide and free calculators can help prepare your settings now.

Choose stock trigger conditions

Set the quantity at which the workflow should respond and confirm whether it watches one location or a broader scope. The same product can need different treatment depending on whether you are checking a selling shelf or all stock available to the business.

Choose the trigger from your replenishment policy. Shopify's replenishment formula explanation describes the relationship between demand, delivery time and a buffer. The configured trigger is a stock condition; it does not determine the correct purchase quantity by itself.

Configure an order email draft

Select a supplier with an email address and enter the proposed quantity. Check that the supplier is active and that the address belongs to the intended contact. Use the contact directory instructions to correct incomplete supplier details first.

The order-email node prepares a downloadable text draft. It does not send email, submit a purchase order or receive a supplier acknowledgment. A person must review the draft and use the business's normal ordering process. Do not treat a successful node as confirmation that stock is on its way.

Select an in-app notification recipient

Choose an active member of the same business. The recipient needs access to the Workflows screen to view workflow notifications. Confirm the person is responsible for reviewing this stock condition and has the access needed to investigate it.

An in-app notification is not an SMS, push message or external email. Agree how often the responsible person will check the inbox. If ownership changes, update the workflow as part of the handover rather than relying on the previous recipient to keep forwarding information outside the app.

Connect workflow nodes without dragging

You can drag nodes and connect their handles, or use the inspector's node picker, position fields and Connect nodes action. Select the intended source and destination carefully when building branches.

The editor supports trigger, condition, order-email and person-notification nodes. It does not run arbitrary code or send HTTP requests. A workflow has one trigger, with no loops or joined branches. Each graph can contain up to 30 nodes and 50 connections, and a business can hold up to 50 workflows.

Preview a workflow with sample stock

Use Test workflow to evaluate a sample quantity before activation. Try a value above the trigger and another at or below it. Check which branch runs, what the order draft says and who is selected for notification.

Testing is a preview. It does not save run activity or notify anyone. A clean preview is useful evidence about your configuration, but it does not verify a supplier's address or establish that the chosen person is monitoring the app. Review those operational details separately before enabling the workflow.

Enable a saved inventory workflow

Check Enabled after save and save the reviewed configuration. If recorded stock is already at or below the trigger, enabling runs it once. Make the activation decision with that immediate behavior in mind.

Future evaluations happen after committed app saves, including counts, receipts, transfers and sales. Direct changes outside that saving process do not provide the same trigger behavior. An uncounted position is unknown rather than zero, so a missing count should be resolved instead of being used as evidence that the product has run out.

Understand repeated alert behavior

After a low-stock run, stock must recover above the trigger before another low-stock event runs. This avoids sending another event for every save while the product remains below the same level.

For an illustrative trigger of five units, a count of four can run the workflow. Another save at three does not re-arm it. Recovery to six followed by a drop to five can produce the next event. If you need a daily review of unresolved shortages, assign that review separately rather than expecting repeated notifications from this crossing rule.

Review failed workflow actions

Open the recent run activity and inspect the completed and failed actions. A failure stops its branch, so do not assume that an action later in that branch happened. Review the supplier, recipient and graph configuration before testing a correction.

The business retains the latest 50 runs within the activity size limit. This is a recent operational view, not an unlimited audit archive. Notification read state is separate from the definition. Checking a notification does not confirm that an order was sent or that a stock count was corrected.

Manage workflow permissions and restore

Manage workflows controls editing and activation. Review custom roles through People and roles; NIST's least-privilege guidance explains the access principle behind limiting configuration changes.

Operational backups include workflow definitions. Restoring them disables the workflows for review and does not execute them. Check products, locations, suppliers and recipients before enabling a restored definition. Recent run history and read receipts are separate, so a restored configuration should not be mistaken for a complete record of previous activity.

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