Applying Vendor Prepayments With Auto-Apply
NetSuite can automatically apply vendor prepayments to your bills with the Auto-Apply accounting preference. When you use this preference, you do not need to manually apply vendor prepayments to bills. The Auto-Apply preference enters the vendor prepayment applications automatically.
Entering the vendor bills triggers the automatic application process using Auto-Apply when the Auto-Apply conditions are met. Auto-Apply periodically checks for new vendor bills that are eligible for automatic application. The automatic application of your vendor prepayments may take a several seconds to occur.
The Auto-Apply preference is enabled by default, but you can always configure this preference to your needs. For information about how to configure Auto-Apply, see Configuring Vendor Prepayments With Auto-Apply.
Auto-Apply enters vendor prepayments automatically in the following way:
-
When there are multiple vendor prepayments associated with the same purchase order, the auto-application occurs from the oldest to the newest prepayment.
-
NetSuite applies the maximum prepayment amount on each application, up to the total bill amount.
-
NetSuite creates a vendor prepayment application for each vendor prepayment transaction.
If you want to control how the prepayment amount is applied to different bills, you must apply the vendor prepayment manually. For more information, see Applying Vendor Prepayments Manually.
Auto-Apply Conditions
In addition to configuring the Auto-Apply accounting preference, the purchase order, prepayment, and bill must meet the following conditions:
-
You enter a purchase order, and associate the purchase order to one or more vendor prepayments. For more information, see Entering Vendor Prepayments.
-
You enter the vendor bill using one of the following two options:
-
The Bill button in the purchase order page.
-
The Transactions > Payables > Bill Purchase Orders page.
Note:Auto-Apply does not work when entering the bill from Transactions > Payables > Enter Bills. Auto-Apply requires an association to the purchase order.
-
-
The purchase order, vendor prepayment, and bill must be in one of the following statuses:
-
Purchase order – Pending Receipt, Pending Bill, Partially Received, Pending Billing/Partially Received.
-
Vendor Prepayment – Paid or Partially Applied status.
-
Bill – Open. Bills that have a Payment Hold or Pending Approval status are not available for application.
-
Auto-Apply works in the background using the NetSuite system account credentials. If you only apply the prepayments to your bills using Auto-Apply, you do not need permissions to work with vendor prepayments.
How to Determine When Auto-Apply Works
The following screenshots provide examples of the information you can expect to see in NetSuite when the Auto-Apply configuration works:
-
On the Vendor Prepayment Application page, the NetSuite System account activity in the System Information subtab:
-
On the Purchase Order page, the details of the prepayment transaction under the Related Records and Receipts & Bills subtab:
