Custom fields come in two kinds. The ones you define on your products are set up in Custom fields for products. The ones you define on the purchase order itself — payment terms, contract numbers — are in Custom fields for purchase orders.
How products are listed
The Product Details table is the heart of a purchase order. It lists what you are ordering, and it is where you set the quantities, the prices and your own fields.
Reading the page from the top down, it comes in four parts. First the purchase order's own details — supplier, ship-to location, order date and reference number, estimated arrival, freight method and tracking code. Then Additional Info, which holds the custom fields that describe the order itself rather than the products on it — payment terms, contract numbers and the like (Custom fields for purchase orders). Then Product Details, the table this article is about. And at the bottom Activities, where you can leave a comment on the order for your team — a note about a delay— alongside the system log of what changed and when.
The toolbar above it changes with the screen. On the purchase order it holds only the controls that change what you see, never the order itself: Display and View full size. Edit keeps those and adds the ones that work on the order — the search magnifier, Browse to add products, Apply MOQ, Round up and Round down for quantities, Manage Custom Fields, and Update to save.
Whatever layout you are in, the structure underneath is the one you have in Shopify:
Product — the main item, for example The Slim Fit Jeans
Option — a variation such as colour: Hutton Grey, British Khaki, Grey Acid
Variant — the specific choice within the option, such as size: 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33
Which option does the grouping is set per product, by its Grouping Option on Configure → Products — so two products on the same purchase order can be shaped differently.
Choosing a layout
Open a purchase order → click Display in the Product Details toolbar → Layout. Three ways to read the same lines:
Layout | How it shows your products |
Hierarchy | Each product group gets a summary row with its variants nested underneath. The summary row totals the quantity and the price across those variants and has nothing to type into. Collapse All folds every product down to that row, which is the fastest way to get an overview of a long order. |
List | One flat row per variant and no product group rows at all — the shortest table, and the one to use when you only care about the lines themselves. |
Grid | One row per product group with its variants spread across the columns, closest to a size run. It is a reading layout: Grid is reachable from the purchase order page only, not from editing. |
The editing screens open in whichever layout you last chose, but the layout buttons are not on them.
Sorting
The lines start in the order they were added to the purchase order. Two ways to change that: click a column header on the table, or open a purchase order → click Display in the Product Details toolbar → Sort, then pick a column and a direction.
Clicking a column header cycles through three states: the first click sorts ascending, the second descending, and the third puts the lines back in the order they were added. An arrow beside the column name shows which way it is sorted.
Your custom columns join the Sort list once they are shown and the view is saved.
Multiple select, long text and attachment are not offered — none of them has a single value to put in order.
Sorting by Product Name uses natural size order: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL and 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, rather than alphabetical.
SKU is in the list too, which is the quickest way to line the table up with a supplier's own sheet.
The sort is kept as soon as you set it — the next purchase order you open is sorted the same way. Like the rest of the view, it is shared across your company.
Choosing columns
Open a purchase order → click Display in the Product Details toolbar → Columns.
Columns sit under Shown and Hidden, and your custom fields carry a Custom badge.
The eye on the right of a row shows or hides that column. Columns that cannot be hidden carry a padlock in the same place.
The grip on the left reorders a column by dragging. Product Name is fixed at the start and shows a struck-through grip to say so.
The search box narrows both lists, which earns its keep once you have a lot of fields.
Save view keeps the arrangement; Reset puts it back.
Two things worth knowing: the saved view covers columns, their order, the sort and the layout together, and it applies to viewing, editing and creating a purchase order. And it is shared across your company — unlike the Product Configuration page, where column choices are personal to each user.
Seeing the whole table
View full size hands the table the full width of the window: the panels around it fold away and the columns that were off to the right come into view. It is the same table rather than a preview — quantities, prices and custom fields stay editable in it, and the toolbar comes along. The button turns into Collapse to come back out. It is there on the purchase order and on the edit screen alike, and it earns its keep as soon as you have a few custom columns shown.
Finding a line on a long order
When an order runs to dozens of items, the search magnifier on the edit screen jumps straight to the line you want: open it and type a product name or SKU.
Editing the lines
Open the purchase order and click Edit.
What you can change on a variant row. Quantity and Unit Price are typed straight into the cell, and Total Price is calculated from them. Custom field columns are edited in place, each in its own way: type into text, long text and number cells; pick a day in a date cell; choose one option, or several, from your select lists; paste an address into a URL cell; and in an attachment cell use Add a file to upload one or more files against that line — images, PDF, DOC, XLS and CSV, up to 50 MB each.
What you cannot change. The product group row is a summary and is read-only on every purchase order screen, custom fields included — values that belong to the style are changed on Configure → Products. And Grid is a reading layout: it is reachable from the purchase order page only, so editing happens in Hierarchy or List.
Setting quantities in bulk. Three buttons above the table work on the whole order at once.
Button | What it does |
Apply MOQ | Raises every line to its minimum order quantity |
Round up | Rounds quantities up to the next batch size |
Round down | Rounds quantities down to the batch size below |
For what sits behind those numbers, see MOQ warnings on purchase orders, Product Group MOQ, the difference between MOQ types and batch size on purchase orders.
Adding and removing products. Browse opens the product picker, where you can select whole products or single variants; the search box beside it adds a product by name or SKU. To take something off the order, use the × at the far right of its row — on a variant row it removes that variant, on a product group row the whole group and all of its variants.
Landed cost + Add new landed cost adds duty, freight, insurance and similar costs to the order — see How to add landed cost to a purchase order.
When you are done, press Update.
Where custom field values come from
This is worth reading twice, because it explains everything that follows.
A purchase order line starts with no value of its own. What you see in the cell is the product's current value, read live. Change it on Configure → Products and every purchase order line that has no value of its own shows the new one immediately.
The moment you edit that cell on a purchase order and save it to the order, a value is stored on that line item. From then on the line holds its own value and stops following the product.
State | What you see | When the product changes |
No value of its own | The product's current value | The cell follows along |
Has its own value | The value saved on this line | The cell stays as it is |
Save, or Save globally
If you change any custom field value while creating or editing a purchase order, Fabrikatör asks where it should go before saving:
Save custom field changes? By default, changes to a product's custom fields are saved on this purchase order only — they won't affect the product elsewhere or any other PO. Choose Save globally to apply them to the product directly instead, exactly like editing it from the Product page.
You press | What is written | The product | This purchase order | Your other purchase orders |
Save | The value, on this order's line | Unchanged | Shows the new value | Unchanged |
Save globally | The product's own value | Updated | Shows the new value | Every line with no value of its own shows it too |
Cancel | Nothing | — | — | — |
Save globally does not create a line value. The line goes on following the product, which now holds what you typed.
The same question appears when you build a purchase order from scratch and set a custom field before the first save.
Creating a field without leaving the purchase order
You do not have to go back to the products page. On Edit and on the new purchase order screen, the toolbar carries Manage Custom Fields → Add new field. The field is created straight away: its column goes into the view as a shown column and the table scrolls across to bring it into sight, so you can start filling it in at once. Nothing on the purchase order needs saving for that, and the field survives if you leave without saving. Edit fields on the same menu renames and archives.
In your exports
They do not come out in the default export. What you show on screen and what comes out in a file are two separate things: a saved view changes the table, not the export. To get a custom field into a file you have to put it in an export template — Settings → Data & exports → Export templates — and then pick that template when you download.
Both CSV and PDF templates offer them. In a CSV template they are listed with a Product · Custom tag, which keeps them apart from the purchase order's own custom fields. Each line exports the value saved on it, or the product's value through the fallback where the line has none. Attachment fields are not exported — they stay in the app.
Frequently asked questions
I changed a value on Configure → Products but this purchase order still shows the old one. That line has a value saved on it — someone edited the cell on this order and pressed Save at some point — so it no longer follows the product. Type the new value into the cell on the order.
I changed a value on a purchase order and the product still shows the old one. That is intended. A change on a purchase order stays on that order. Use Save globally when you mean to change the product.
Does editing a line on one purchase order change another one? No. A line value belongs to that order alone. Only Save globally reaches further, and then only to lines that have no value of their own.
Why can't I edit the product group row? It is a summary of its variants — total quantity and total price — and the custom values on it describe the style, not what you are ordering. Change those on Configure → Products.
I created a field and I can't find it on my purchase order. A field you create from the purchase order itself is added to the view at once and the table scrolls to it. A field created on Configure → Products starts hidden here instead — click Display in the Product Details toolbar → Columns, find it under Hidden, show it, then press Save view.
My colleague sees different columns than I do. On purchase orders they shouldn't: the view is shared across your company, so the last Save view wins for everyone. The Product Configuration page is the opposite — those column choices are personal.
Why is there no Hierarchy / List / Grid on the edit screen? So that you don't lose work: switching layout would clear anything you had typed and not yet saved. Pick the layout on the purchase order first — the edit screen opens in it.
Can I sort by any custom field? By most. Multiple select, long text and attachment are left out because none of them has a single value to order by, and a custom column has to be shown and the view saved before it appears in the list.
What happens to a value if I archive the field? Archiving takes the field out of the columns list altogether, so its column leaves the purchase order and cannot be shown again. The values you already entered are not deleted, but they are no longer visible on the purchase order. If you still want to see them, hide the column instead of archiving the field.
Why doesn't a value I set on the product group row show on its variants? Product and variant values are separate on purpose, so you can hold one value for the whole style and different ones per variant. Purchase order lines are variants, so set it on the variants — or on the line itself, if it only applies to this order.
Can I change how options and variants are ordered? Sorting by Product Name gives you natural size order. Beyond that, the structure follows your Shopify option and variant setup.
How do I make a line follow the product again? Clear the cell on the purchase order and save. The line stops holding its own value and goes back to reading the product's — including any later change you make on Configure → Products.