PunchOut - cXML Supplier Notifications
How Supplier Notifications Work
After you submit a purchase order to a vendor, the vendor can send back updates electronically — confirmations, shipping notices, invoices, and credit memos. These arrive as cXML documents and are held in a processing queue (Pending Notification records) until a scheduled script picks them up and applies the updates to your NetSuite records automatically.
You don't need to do anything to trigger this. The scheduled script runs on a set interval, processes all queued notifications, and stamps each one as complete when it finishes. If you want to check whether a notification has been processed, look at the Date Processed field on the Pending Notification record — it will be blank if it's still in the queue.
Notification Types
PO Acknowledgement
A PO Acknowledgement is the vendor's confirmation that they received your purchase order. It tells you whether each line was accepted, placed on backorder, or rejected, and may include vendor-confirmed quantities, delivery dates, and an order confirmation number.
What gets updated in NetSuite:
On the Purchase Order header:
| Field | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Order Confirmation Number | The vendor's reference number for this order |
| Order Confirmation Date | The date the vendor issued the confirmation |
| Supplier Tax Amount | Tax total as reported by the vendor |
| Supplier Shipping Amount | Shipping total as reported by the vendor |
| Supplier Order Total | Full order total as reported by the vendor |
On each PO line (matched by line number):
| Field | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Order Confirmation Number | Per-line vendor reference |
| Confirmation Status | Whether the line was accepted, backordered, or rejected |
| Confirmed Quantity | The quantity the vendor confirmed |
| Confirmation Comments | Any notes from the vendor on that line (up to 300 characters) |
| Delivery Date | Expected delivery date, if provided |
| Ship Date | Expected ship date, if provided |
If the vendor includes tax or shipping charges in the acknowledgement, and your vendor configuration has a tax or shipping item set up, those will be added as separate lines on the PO automatically.
Advance Shipping Notice (ASN)
An Advance Shipping Notice tells you that some or all of your order has shipped. Vendors can send multiple ASNs for the same order (for example, if items ship in separate packages), and NetSuite will accumulate the shipped quantities rather than overwrite them.
What gets updated in NetSuite:
On each PO line (matched by line number):
| Field | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Shipped Quantity | Running total of shipped quantity across all ASNs received — each new ASN adds to the existing value |
| Ship Date | Date the shipment left the vendor |
| Delivery Date | Expected delivery date |
| Tracking Number | Carrier tracking number(s) — multiple values are comma-separated; duplicate values are ignored |
| Carrier | Carrier name — comma-separated if multiple shipments |
Supplier Invoice
A Supplier Invoice is the vendor's bill for goods or services. When received, NetSuite automatically transforms your Purchase Order into a Vendor Bill using the line items and amounts from the vendor's invoice.
Note: If your NetSuite configuration does not allow billing before receipt and the PO is still in Pending Receipt status, the invoice will be held in the queue with an error message until the PO has been received.
What gets created in NetSuite:
A new Vendor Bill, linked back to the original PO, with:
| Field | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Invoice Date | Date on the vendor's invoice |
| Invoice Number | Vendor's invoice ID |
| Related PO | Link back to the originating Purchase Order |
Line items are matched from the PO to the invoice by line number and supplier part ID. Matched lines have their description, quantity, and rate updated from the invoice. Lines that appear on the PO but not on the invoice are removed from the bill. Lines on the invoice that weren't on the PO are added as new lines. Tax and shipping charges are added as separate lines if your vendor configuration includes the appropriate items or accounts.
Supplier Credit / Credit Memo
A Supplier Credit is issued by the vendor to reduce the amount you owe — for example, after a return, a pricing dispute, or an overpayment. NetSuite creates a new Vendor Credit record and links it to the original PO and the related Vendor Bill.
What gets created in NetSuite:
A new Vendor Credit with:
| Field | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Credit Date | Date on the vendor's credit memo |
| Credit Number | Vendor's credit memo ID |
| Related PO | Link back to the originating Purchase Order |
| Related Vendor Bill | Link to the bill being credited |
| Vendor | Copied from the PO |
| Subsidiary | Copied from the PO |
| Location | Copied from the PO |
Lines are built by matching the credit memo's line items against the original PO lines by line number and supplier part ID. All amounts — including line items, tax, and shipping — are treated as positive values. Tax and shipping credits are added as separate lines if configured on the vendor.
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