Hi Robert,
Since the requirements are going o be different in every circumstance, your idea of use the notepad would work pretty well. I'd actually use a specific UserID for the entry (rather than a date and time) and make sure that the note entry conformed to a rigourous structure so that it would be easy to decode.
I think that adding all these fields to the Item master would make the record unmanageably large (and most of our users do not need these fields).
We are adding the ability to import notes into Adagio Receivables V9.0A and I expect that this feature will be propagated through the other modules "in the fullness of time". (Speaking of AR 9.0A - any features you'd like to see added?)
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Andrew Bates