Google Forms to Google Sheets: How to automatically update inventory

Managing a growing eCommerce business and need details on your inventory? Spreadsheets are a great tool to track your store's inventory, list all of your products and supplies, and log whenever anything's added or taken out.

The only problem is that it can be tedious—and time-consuming—to update and edit your spreadsheet every time you add a new product to your stock or a new sale decreases your inventory.

Fortunately, there's a way to automatically manage and update your inventory in a Google Sheets spreadsheet every time a new Google Forms response is submitted, so your stock quantity updates the moment something changes. 

Jump ahead

• Before you begin

• Set up your Google Forms trigger

• Set up your Google Sheets search step

• Set up your Formatter step

• Set up your Google Sheets action

Before you begin

You'll need to create a Google Form and an inventory spreadsheet in Google Sheets if you don't have one already. You should have at least one submission in your Google Form and some inventory in your spreadsheet.

If you're starting from scratch, follow the instructions below.

How to set up an inventory spreadsheet

In a separate window, open Google Sheets, make a new spreadsheet, then list your inventory there. Be sure to add at least a column for your product ID numbers—or SKU for stock keeping units—and the quantity of the items you currently have.

Now, we'll create a new Google Form to update inventory. Inside the same spreadsheet, click Tools > Create a new form in your spreadsheet.

In the form, add the fields you'd want to update—including at least the product ID or SKU and the number of stock you're adding (or removing—which you'll do by adding a negative quantity).

You can also add a validation to your quantity—click the 3 dot menu on that question, select Response Validation, and add the details you need to make sure you have the correct data.

A tab will automatically be created within your Google Sheet, so every time you fill out your Google Form, your responses will be routed there. We'll call this tab "Inventory update form". 

Once you have an inventory spreadsheet and your Google Form set up, you can move on to setting up your Zap.

Set up your Google Forms trigger

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. In the Zap editor, search for and select Google Forms as the trigger app and New Form Response as the event. Click Continue. 

Now, connect your Google Forms account. If you've connected Google Forms to Zapier before, your account will automatically show up. Click on Change to select a different account from the dropdown menu (if you've connected others before) or click Sign in to add a new account.

Once you've connected your account, click Continue. Select the Google Form you'd like to use and click Continue once more. 

Now it's time to test your trigger. When you click Test step, Zapier will find a recent form response. If you've never submitted a response before (because the form is new), submit a Google Forms response now with some new product numbers. (You can delete this later.) This data will be used to set up the rest of your Zap.

Once your trigger successfully returns a form submission, click Continue with selected record.

Set up your Google Sheets search step

Now let's set up the action—the event your Zap will perform once it's triggered. Select Google Sheets as your action app and Lookup Spreadsheet Row as your action event. Click Continue. 

Connect your Google Sheets account to Zapier and click Continue.  Just like with your trigger step, you'll either select from a list of previously connected accounts or click Sign in to connect a new account to Zapier.

Now it's time to customize your action step by specifying how Zapier will find the inventory you want to update. First, select the Drive that your spreadsheet lives in. Then, under Spreadsheet, select your main spreadsheet. Under Worksheet, select the sheet with your inventory list (in our example, this is called Inventory sheet).

Under Lookup Column, choose your product ID or SKU column from your inventory tab. Then under Lookup Value, select the SKU field from your Google Form. 

After you've adjusted these fields, click Continue. 

Now it's time to test your action. When you click Test step, Zapier will send a spreadsheet row to Google Sheets according to how you set up your step. 

Set up your Formatter step

It's time to crunch the numbers and calculate your new stock quantity. Add another step to your Zap by clicking the plus sign below your previous Google Sheets step. 

Select Formatter by Zapier as your action app and Numbers as your action event. Click Continue. 

Under Transform, select Perform Math Operation. Under Operation, select Add. 

Now it's time to input the values you want to add together. Under Input, click in the first field and select the Quantity value from the dropdown of data from your previous step. In the next field, click and select the Stock value from your Google Sheet. Click Continue. 

Now it's time to test your trigger. Click Test step. If your Formatter step is working correctly, you'll see the sum of the inputs you specified earlier—in this case, 10 + 1 = 11.

Set up your Google Sheets action

Now it's time to set up the very last action: Updating your spreadsheet row with the right stock quantity. 

Click the + sign after your previous action step to add a new step to your Zap. Select Google Sheets as your action app and Update Spreadsheet Row as your action event. Click Continue. 

Once again, choose the Google Sheets account you'd like to use or connect a new one to Zapier. Then click Continue. Under Spreadsheet, select the same inventory sheet from your previous step (ours is called Inventory test). Under Worksheet, select your stock sheet tab.

Now, under Row, click on Custom and select Lookup Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets.

Select the ID value from your first Google Sheets step. 

Now, scroll down to the last field. Click in the Quantity in sock field, click on the Numbers in Formatter by Zapier dropdown, and select the Output value from your Formatter step. That will add the new quantity to your spreadsheet to keep your inventory up to date.

Click Continue. 

Now it's time to test your Zap. If your Zap is working, you'll see an updated item quantity in your inventory spreadsheet.

Once you've tested the Zap, remember to click Publish to turn it onThen Share the form with your team. Now, whenever you need to update inventory in Google Sheets, just fill out that form, and your inventory spreadsheet will update automatically.

This article was originally published in May 2017, written by Matt Guay, with previous updates by Elena Alston. It was most recently updated in February 2024 by Hannah Herman.