Some instructions belong to one item rather than the whole order. Each line on a purchase order carries two notes and the supplier's own part number, and a product can sit on more than one line when two lots of it are two different jobs.
Notes on a single line
Some instructions belong to one item, not the whole order. Click the note icon at the end of any line and you get two notes plus that supplier's part number:
Note for the supplier - prints under that line on the purchase order they receive. For anything specific to the item: a finish, a lens or size combination, what to substitute if they are out.
Internal note - only your team sees this. It never prints, is never emailed, and never leaves Stockroom. Use it for which customer order the incoming units are for, or to mark them as general stock for your shelves.
Supplier SKU - their code for the item, editable right here. See Buy the same item from more than one supplier.
The icon fills in on lines that have something on them, so you can see at a glance which items carry instructions. Both notes stay editable after you have sent the order - a note is not a change to what you ordered - and the internal note is often most useful then, while you are waiting for the delivery.
If you annotate most lines, you can show these as columns instead of opening each line. Use the Columns button above the items and switch on Supplier SKU, Supplier note or Internal note. On a draft you type straight into the columns; on an order you have already sent they read as text, shortened to two lines with the full note a tap away. The choice is remembered for your whole store and applies to orders you are building and orders you have already placed. If the extra columns make the table wider than the page, it scrolls sideways - switch off a column you do not need, and it fits again.
The same product on more than one line
A purchase order can carry the same product as many times as you need it, each line with its own notes. Pick the product from Browse products or the Add products search a second time and you get a second line, not a bigger quantity on the first one. Stockroom tells you it is already on the order as the line lands, and marks it in the search results, so a repeat is always something you meant.
This is for items where two lots of the same thing are two different jobs. An optician ordering the same lens for two customers puts the prescription in the supplier note and the customer's order number in the internal note, once per line, and the supplier gets one purchase order that spells out both.
Scanning still counts up. A barcode scan means "one more of these", so scanning the same code twice makes it a quantity of 2 on one line - that is what you want when you are working down a stack of cartons. Use the picker or the search field when you want a second line.
Importing a CSV follows the same idea: two rows for one item become two lines when their notes differ, and merge into one line when they say the same thing.
Two lines that say exactly the same thing are marked. When one line carries the same product, destination, part number, notes and pack code as another, both wear an amber Duplicate note under the product name - in the editor as you build, and on the order once it is placed. Nothing is blocked and nothing is merged: repeating a line is allowed, and the mark is only there so a repeat you did not mean is easy to spot on a long order. Lines you deliberately kept apart with different notes are not marked, because they are not the same line.
Supplier notes print whenever notes are switched on for the document. To turn them off for one supplier, or for everyone, see Customize the purchase order PDF.