Internal and External Notes on Customer Orders

In this article, we’ll walk you through the difference between external and internal notes in RoasterTools. You'll learn how each type of note works, where to add them, and how to use them effectively to communicate with your customers—or keep your internal team aligned behind the scenes.

Internal & External Notes

When creating or editing an order in RoasterTools, you'll see two note fields available:

Internal Notes and External Notes (to Customers).

You can add notes to any type of order—including Portal orders, Manual orders, and Commerce orders. These notes help you manage communication both within your team and with your customers depending on the type you choose.

Internal Notes

Internal Notes are meant solely for internal team communication. These notes are not visible to customers and do not appear on printed invoices or packing slips.

You might use an internal note for:

• Add important context or instructions about the order
• Communicate customer preferences

External Notes

External Notes are visible to both you and your customer. These notes appear on the invoice and packing slip, making them ideal for sharing order-specific instructions or details.

You might use an external note to:

• Indicate a specific delivery contact or location
• Highlight a special request from the customer

How External Notes Can Be Added

There are two ways External Notes can be entered:

1. By you – when editing the order manually in RoasterTools
2. By your customer – during the checkout process in the customer portal

When customers complete their product selection in the portal, they’ll see a section labeled “Add a Note” where they can leave any special instructions.

How Internal and External Notes Show Up

Here are some examples of what the notes look like and where each type of note will appear in several places through the app.

On the Orders Page

• External Notes will be a clear thought bubble
• Internal Notes will be a black filled thought bubble

You can quickly see what is on the notes by hovering over each thought bubble.

On an Invoice or Packing Slip

• External Notes - Displayed under the header “Note to Customer”
  • Visible to customers and will appear on printed invoices and packing slips
• Internal Notes - Displayed under the header “Internal Note”
  • Not visible to customers and will not appear on printed invoices and packing slips. They are only visible within the app to your team.

Printed Examples

Invoice:

Packing Slip:

How Order Notes Sync to Your Accounting Platform

When you add notes to orders in RoasterTools, those notes automatically sync to your connected accounting platform as part of the invoice sync process. This article explains how each note type maps to your accounting software and what to expect on each platform.

Understanding Note Types

RoasterTools orders have two note fields that serve different purposes:

External Note — This is the customer-facing note. When synced, it appears on the invoice your customer sees. Use this for delivery instructions, special terms, order-specific messages, or anything you want your customer to read on their invoice.

Internal Note — This is your private, internal-facing note. When synced, it appears only in your accounting software's internal/private notes area — your customer will never see it. Use this for internal reminders, fulfillment instructions, or notes for your bookkeeping team.

What Syncs Where

The table below shows how RoasterTools order fields map to each accounting platform. Not all platforms support every field.

How the memo is built

The customer-facing (external) memo on your invoice is constructed by combining several fields, separated by //. Here's what it looks like for each platform when all preferences are enabled:

QuickBooks Online [External Note] // Order [#] // PO: [PO Number] Example: Please deliver to loading dock B // Order 4521 // PO: PO-2025-0087

QuickBooks Desktop [External Note] // Order [#] (PO number is stored in its own dedicated field, so it won't appear in the memo.)

Xero [External Note] // Order [#] // PO: [PO Number]

The internal memo (where supported) follows the same pattern:

QuickBooks Online [Internal Note] // Order [#]

QuickBooks Desktop [Internal Note] // Order [#]

If any field is blank or its preference is disabled, it's simply omitted — you won't see empty placeholders.

Platform-Specific Details

QuickBooks Online (QBO)

• Customer Memo — Visible to your customer on the invoice. Contains the external note, order number, and PO number.
• Private Note — Internal only, visible in QBO but not on the customer-facing invoice. Contains the internal note and order number.

QuickBooks Desktop (QBD)

• Memo — Customer-facing field on the invoice. Contains the external note and order number.
• Internal Memo — Private field for your team. Contains the internal note and order number.
• PO Number — QuickBooks Desktop has a dedicated PO number field, so the PO number syncs there instead of being added to the memo.

Xero

• Invoice Memo — Customer-facing. Contains the external note, order number, and PO number.
• Xero does not support a separate internal/private note field, so internal notes from RoasterTools are not synced to Xero.

Character Limits

Each accounting platform has its own character limits for memo fields. If your combined note content exceeds the platform's limit, it will be automatically truncated to fit. To avoid losing important information, we recommend keeping your notes concise.

FAQs on Note Syncing

Q: Can I sync notes without syncing invoices? No — notes are synced as part of the invoice. If invoice syncing is enabled for your accounting connection, notes will be included automatically.

Q: What if I update a note after the invoice has already synced? If the invoice is updated and re-synced, the updated notes will be included. However, if the invoice has already been marked as sent or paid in your accounting platform, some platforms may not allow updates to memo fields.

Q: Why don't I see my internal note in Xero? Xero doesn't have a private/internal note field on invoices. This is a platform limitation — internal notes will only sync to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.

Q: I turned off "Include Order Number" or "Sync PO to Invoice." Will my notes still sync? Yes. The external and internal notes always sync independently of those preferences. If a preference is off, that field simply won't be appended to the memo — but your notes will still appear.

Shipping & Billing Notes

If you are looking for a way to have a note appear every time an order is placed without manual entry you can add a note to show up under the billing or shipping address. This is a great way to give delivery drivers instructions.

How to add Shipping & Billing Notes:

Go to: Edit Customer > Edit Shipping or billing > Find Note Section > Add your note.

FAQs 

Q: Can you search by note?

A: No but you can view the internal notes field in the advanced order export