NetSuite Knowledge Base
NetSuite Glossary
The most comprehensive guide to NetSuite terminology, features, and concepts. Whether you’re new to NetSuite or an experienced administrator, this glossary helps you understand the platform’s capabilities.
Last updated: December 2024 | 220+ terms defined
A
Account
Definition: Record in NetSuite’s Chart of Accounts tracking financial transactions. Types: Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, Expense, COGS.
Accounting Book
Definition: Complete set of accounting records following specific standards. Supports Primary and Secondary Books for multi-book accounting.
Accounting Period
Definition: Time range (typically monthly) for organizing financial data. Can be opened, closed, or locked.
Accounts Payable (AP)
Definition: Money owed to vendors for goods or services received. Liability account increased by vendor bills and decreased by bill payments. Critical for cash flow management.
Accounts Receivable (AR)
Definition: Money owed by customers for sales made on credit. Asset account increased by invoices and decreased by customer payments. Key metric for business health.
Accrual Accounting
Definition: Revenue/expenses recorded when earned/incurred, regardless of cash timing.
Advanced PDF/HTML Templates
Definition: FreeMarker templates for customizing printed documents.
Advanced Revenue Management (ARM)
Definition: Module for ASC 606/IFRS 15 compliance and revenue recognition.
Allocation Schedule
Definition: Distributes costs/revenue across segments based on rules.
Amortization Schedule
Definition: Spreads cost/revenue over periods for prepaid expenses, deferred revenue.
Approval Workflow
Definition: SuiteFlow workflow routing transactions through approvers.
Assembly Build
Definition: Transaction creating assemblies by consuming components.
Assembly Item
Definition: Inventory item composed of components that are physically consumed during build.
Audit Trail
Definition: Chronological record of changes via System Notes. Essential for SOX compliance.
Available (Inventory)
Definition: Quantity committable to new orders. Formula: On Hand – Committed.
Available-to-Promise (ATP)
Definition: Future inventory availability calculation by date.
Average Costing
Definition: Item cost = weighted average of all purchases.
B
Back Order
Definition: Quantity exceeding available inventory on an order.
Balance Sheet
Definition: Report showing assets, liabilities, equity. Assets = Liabilities + Equity.
Bank Reconciliation
Definition: Matching NetSuite transactions against bank statements.
Billing Schedule
Definition: Template defining recurring invoice timing and amounts. Used for subscription billing, installment payments, and milestone-based billing. Supports fixed amounts, percentages, or calculated values.
Bill of Materials (BOM)
Definition: Components and quantities needed for manufacturing.
Bill Payment
Definition: Transaction paying vendor bills, reducing AP.
Bin
Definition: Specific storage location within warehouse for granular tracking.
Blanket Purchase Order
Definition: Agreement for quantities delivered over time with releases.
Bundle
Definition: Packaged NetSuite customizations installed as a unit.
C
Campaign
Definition: Marketing initiative in CRM tracking leads and ROI.
Case
Definition: Customer support record tracking issues with SLA support.
Cash Basis Accounting
Definition: Accounting method recognizing revenue and expenses only when cash is exchanged. Simpler than accrual but less accurate for long-term planning. Common for small businesses and tax purposes.
Cash Sale
Definition: Combined order, fulfillment, and payment transaction.
Chart of Accounts
Definition: Complete list of all GL accounts. Foundation of financial reporting.
Class
Definition: Segmentation dimension for reporting (with Dept, Location).
Client Script
Definition: Browser-side SuiteScript for real-time validation.
Closing Entries
Definition: Journal entries that transfer income and expense balances to retained earnings at period/year end. NetSuite automates this process during the year-end close.
Committed (Inventory)
Definition: Quantity allocated to orders but not yet fulfilled.
Consolidated Exchange Rate
Definition: Exchange rate used for consolidating subsidiary financials in multi-currency OneWorld implementations. Can differ from transaction rates and allows period-end adjustments for accurate consolidated reporting.
Credit Memo
Definition: Reduces customer balance for returns or adjustments.
CSV Import
Definition: Bulk data import from CSV files with saved mappings.
Custom Field
Definition: User-defined field for additional data capture.
Custom Record
Definition: User-defined record type extending NetSuite’s data model.
Customer Deposit
Definition: Advance payment applied to future invoice.
Customer Payment
Definition: Payment received, applied to open invoices.
D
Dashboard
Definition: Customizable home screen with KPI portlets.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Definition: Average number of days to collect payment after a sale. Key metric for cash flow health. Formula: (Accounts Receivable / Total Credit Sales) × Number of Days. Lower DSO indicates faster collections.
Debit Memo
Definition: Increases what vendor owes you (returns to vendors).
Deferred Revenue
Definition: Liability for payment received before services are delivered or revenue earned. Common with subscriptions, prepayments, and contracts. Recognized as revenue over time per delivery schedule.
Demand Planning
Definition: Module forecasting demand from historical data.
Department
Definition: Segmentation dimension for organizational units.
Depreciation
Definition: Allocating fixed asset cost over useful life.
Direct Deposit
Definition: Electronic payment method for employee payroll. Transfers wages directly to employee bank accounts. Requires bank account setup and is processed through SuitePeople or third-party payroll providers.
Drop Ship
Definition: Vendor ships directly to customer, bypassing your warehouse.
Dunning
Definition: Automated collection letters for overdue invoices.
E
Email Template
Definition: Reusable email format with merge fields.
Employee Center
Definition: Self-service role type for employees to submit expense reports, time entries, and access HR information. Provides limited access compared to full NetSuite roles.
Employee Record
Definition: Person record for HR, projects, expenses, time tracking.
Entity
Definition: Person or company (Customer, Vendor, Employee, Partner).
Estimate (Quote)
Definition: Proposed pricing that converts to sales order when accepted.
Exchange Rate
Definition: Currency conversion rate, auto or manual.
Expense Report
Definition: Employee expense submission for reimbursement.
F
FIFO (First In, First Out)
Definition: Costing method where oldest inventory sold first.
File Cabinet
Definition: NetSuite’s file storage for documents, scripts, images.
Financial Statement Builder
Definition: Advanced reporting tool for creating custom financial statements. Allows row/column layouts, formulas, and formatting for income statements, balance sheets, and custom financial reports beyond standard templates.
Fixed Asset
Definition: Long-term property (equipment, vehicles) subject to depreciation.
Form
Definition: Custom record layout controlling visible fields per role.
Fulfillment
Definition: Shipping goods to customer, capturing carrier and tracking.
G
General Ledger (GL)
Definition: Core record of all transactions with debits/credits.
GL Impact
Definition: Debit/credit entries a transaction creates, viewable on GL Impact tab.
Governance Units
Definition: Resource allocation system limiting SuiteScript execution. Each script type has unit limits (Scheduled: 10,000, Map/Reduce: 10,000, User Event: 1,000, Client: 1,000). Exceeded limits cause script termination.
Group Item
Definition: Collection of items appearing as separate lines.
H
Historical Rates
Definition: Past exchange rates for accurate historical reporting.
HTML Email
Definition: Rich-formatted email with images and styling.
I
Income Statement
Definition: Revenue minus expenses report (also P&L).
Integration Record
Definition: Configuration record for external system connections via Token-Based Authentication. Stores Consumer Key/Secret and defines permissions for API access. Required for all TBA integrations.
Intercompany
Definition: Transactions between subsidiaries with auto eliminations.
Internal ID
Definition: Unique numeric identifier for every record.
Inventory Adjustment
Definition: Transaction changing inventory without purchase/sale.
Inventory Item
Definition: Tangible product tracked with quantities and costs.
Inventory Valuation
Definition: Total value of inventory using selected costing method (FIFO, LIFO, Average). Critical for balance sheet accuracy and COGS calculations. Report shows quantity and value by item and location.
Invoice
Definition: Records money owed, creates AR, recognizes revenue.
Item Receipt
Definition: Records physical receipt of goods from PO.
J
Job (Project)
Definition: Customer project tracking time, expenses, revenue.
Journal Entry
Definition: Manual accounting entry with balanced debits/credits.
K
Kit/Package
Definition: Items sold together but tracked separately.
KPI
Definition: Key Performance Indicator – dashboard metric (DSO, Margin %).
L
Lead
Definition: Potential customer in CRM pipeline.
Lead Time
Definition: Days from order to delivery for reorder calculations.
LIFO (Last In, First Out)
Definition: Costing method where newest inventory sold first.
Location
Definition: Physical place (Warehouse, Store, Office) for inventory tracking.
Lot Number
Definition: Batch identifier for traceability and expiration tracking.
M
Manufacturing Routing
Definition: Sequence of operations to produce an item with work centers and times.
Map/Reduce Script
Definition: SuiteScript for processing large data volumes in parallel stages.
Mass Update
Definition: Bulk editing of records matching search criteria.
Matrix Item
Definition: Parent item with child variations (size, color combinations).
Memorized Transaction
Definition: Saved template for recurring transactions (monthly bills).
Merchandise Hierarchy
Definition: Multi-level classification system for organizing products. Supports categories like Department > Class > Subclass for retail reporting, analysis, and filtering in searches and reports.
Multi-Book Accounting
Definition: Maintaining multiple accounting books from single transactions.
Multi-Currency
Definition: Transacting in multiple currencies with auto conversion.
N
NetSuite
Definition: Oracle’s cloud ERP integrating financials, CRM, inventory, e-commerce.
Nexus
Definition: Tax jurisdiction where you have taxable presence.
Non-Inventory Item
Definition: Item not tracked in inventory (supplies, drop-ship products).
O
OneWorld
Definition: Multi-subsidiary management with consolidation and intercompany.
On Hand (Inventory)
Definition: Physical quantity in location regardless of commitments.
Opportunity
Definition: CRM record tracking potential sale with value and probability.
Order Management
Definition: Full order lifecycle from quote to cash.
P
Partner Center
Definition: Self-service portal for partners (resellers, affiliates) to register deals, access marketing materials, and view commissions. Provides limited access to relevant customer and opportunity data.
Payment Processing
Definition: SuitePayments feature for accepting credit cards and ACH payments. Integrates with payment gateways for e-commerce and ERP transactions. Supports tokenization for secure recurring billing.
Permission
Definition: Setting controlling view/create/edit/delete access per role.
Pick Pack Ship
Definition: Warehouse process: pick items, pack boxes, ship orders.
Portlet
Definition: Dashboard widget showing KPIs, searches, or reports.
Preferred Vendor
Definition: Default vendor for item purchasing.
Price Level
Definition: Named pricing tier (Retail, Wholesale, VIP).
Purchase Order
Definition: Request to vendor for goods/services with quantities and prices.
Q
Quote (Estimate)
Definition: Proposed pricing document that converts to sales order.
Queue
Definition: Scheduled script processing queue managing job execution order.
R
Record
Definition: Single data instance with unique internal ID.
Reorder Point
Definition: Quantity triggering replenishment order.
Requisition
Definition: Internal request for goods or services requiring approval before generating a purchase order. Used in procurement workflows to control spending and enforce approval hierarchies.
RESTlet
Definition: Custom REST API endpoint built with SuiteScript.
Return Authorization (RMA)
Definition: Authorizes customer to return goods for credit/replacement.
Revenue Recognition
Definition: Recognizing revenue over time per accounting standards.
Role
Definition: Permission collection defining user access.
S
Safety Stock
Definition: Buffer inventory to prevent stockouts.
Sales Order
Definition: Customer’s commitment to purchase, commits inventory.
Sandbox
Definition: Copy of production for testing without affecting live data.
Saved Search
Definition: Powerful query tool with criteria and results columns.
Scheduled Script
Definition: SuiteScript running on a schedule (hourly, daily, etc.).
Serial Number
Definition: Unique identifier for individual inventory units.
Service Item
Definition: Non-physical item for services (consulting, labor).
Sublist
Definition: List of related records/lines within a main record.
Subsidiary
Definition: Legal entity in corporate structure (OneWorld).
SuiteAnalytics
Definition: BI platform with Workbooks, datasets, and Connect (ODBC).
SuiteApp
Definition: Third-party or Oracle app extending NetSuite functionality.
SuiteBilling
Definition: Subscription billing for recurring revenue models.
SuiteCommerce
Definition: E-commerce platform fully integrated with NetSuite.
SuiteFlow
Definition: Point-and-click workflow builder for automation.
Suitelet
Definition: Custom UI page built with SuiteScript.
SuiteQL
Definition: SQL-like query language for flexible data retrieval.
SuiteScript
Definition: JavaScript-based API for NetSuite customization.
SuiteTalk
Definition: Web services API (SOAP/REST) for integrations.
System Notes
Definition: Audit trail entries recording all record changes.
T
Task
Definition: Activity record with assignee, due date, priority.
Tax Code
Definition: Tax rate applied to transactions by jurisdiction.
Terms
Definition: Payment conditions (Net 30, 2% 10 Net 30).
Time Entry
Definition: Record of hours worked for projects or payroll.
Token-Based Authentication (TBA)
Definition: Secure API authentication without user credentials.
Transaction
Definition: Business event affecting GL (order, invoice, payment).
Transfer Order
Definition: Moves inventory between locations.
U
Units of Measure
Definition: Different UOMs for buying, selling, stocking (Each, Case, Pallet).
User Event Script
Definition: Server-side script running on load/save/delete.
V
Vendor
Definition: Company/person you purchase from.
Vendor Bill
Definition: Invoice received from vendor creating AP.
Vendor Credit
Definition: Reduces what you owe vendor (returns, adjustments).
W
Wave
Definition: Group of orders released together for warehouse fulfillment. Used in WMS (Warehouse Management System) to optimize picking routes, balance workload, and improve shipping efficiency.
WIP (Work in Progress)
Definition: Inventory value of partially completed manufacturing.
Work Order
Definition: Authorizes manufacturing of assemblies with operations.
Workflow
Definition: Automated process with states, transitions, actions.
X
XML
Definition: Data format used in integrations and SOAP API calls.
Y
Year-End Close
Definition: Process of closing fiscal year and rolling retained earnings.
Z
Zone Pricing
Definition: Shipping rates based on geographic zones/distance.
Need Help With Your NetSuite?
From simple questions to complex customizations, our certified experts are here to help.