Shopify guide · Internal Notes
How to add internal notes to Shopify orders, customers and products
Updated
Short answer
Shopify gives each order one Notes field, which the customer's checkout note also uses, plus a timeline where staff can comment. Products have no notes field at all. Toolbench's Internal Notes adds staff-only notes with categories, such as VIP or fraud risk, to orders, customers and products, shown right on each page.
How to do it with Toolbench
Toolbench's Internal Notes adds staff-only notes to orders, customers and products, beyond Shopify's single note field. Each note has a category, from presets like VIP, Fraud risk and Shipping issue or your own, and notes show in the Tools block on Shopify's order, customer and product pages.
- Install Toolbench from the Shopify App Store, open Internal Notes and click Turn on.
- Add the Tools block to Shopify's order, customer and product pages so notes show where staff work.
- Add a note from the order page under More actions > Tools, or from the app, and pick a category.
- Edit the category list in the tool's settings to match how your team works.
Why this happens
The single order note fills up, or it's already taken by the customer's own checkout note. Important warnings about a customer get missed because they sit behind a small notes icon. There's nowhere to leave a note on a product for the warehouse or the buying team.
Your options in Shopify
The order Notes field
One notes field per order. If you collect order notes at checkout, the customer's note goes into the same field.
Timeline comments
Staff can comment on the timeline of orders, draft orders, customers and transfers, with @mentions and attachments. Customers never see them. There's no search across comments, and products don't have a timeline.
Customer notes and tags
Each customer has one note field. Tags such as VIP or DO-NOT-SHIP show on the customer page and can be used to filter the customer list.
Product metafields
A text metafield definition such as "Internal note" adds a field to every product page. It holds one value per product.
You only approve what Internal Notes needs
Toolbench asks for no permissions when you install it. When you turn on Internal Notes, Shopify asks you to approve only what this tool uses: read orders, customers and products.
It doesn't ask for inventory, discounts or checkout settings. Each of Toolbench's other tools asks for its own access separately, and only if you turn that tool on, so you never grant access for tools you don't use. Read access means Toolbench can see that data but can't change it.
Before you turn it on
- Notes are stored in Toolbench, not in Shopify's notes field, so they don't print on packing slips, appear in Shopify exports or reach other apps.
- Notes are deleted with the rest of the store's Toolbench data after the app is uninstalled.
Pricing
Internal Notes is a free tool. The free plan runs any 3 of Toolbench's 12 free tools at a time, with no time limit and no credit card. Premium is $9.99 a month for all 16 tools at once and starts with a 14-day free trial.
Questions
Can customers see Toolbench's internal notes?
No. Notes are only visible to staff inside the Shopify admin.
Can I add notes to a product in Shopify?
Not natively, beyond a metafield you create yourself. Toolbench's Internal Notes adds categorized notes to products, orders and customers.
Do internal notes show on packing slips?
No. Toolbench's notes stay in the admin. Use Shopify's order notes field for anything that needs to print.
What permissions does Internal Notes need?
Only the ones it uses: read orders, customers and products. It doesn't ask for inventory, discounts or checkout settings. Toolbench asks for no permissions at install, and each of its other tools asks for its own access separately, only if you turn that tool on.