NetLoan - Creating a Vendor Record from a Customer Record in NetSuite

Overview

NetSuite does not allow one entity record to act as both a customer and a vendor. To invoice a company and also pay bills to them, you need two records, one of each type. The Other Relationships feature lets you create the vendor record directly from the customer record and links the two, so you can transact with the company in both directions.

When to Use This

Use this when an existing customer also needs to be paid as a vendor. Common cases include rebates, referral fees, refunds paid by bill, or a company you both sell to and buy from.

Why NetLoan Draws Require a Vendor Record

Loans that disburse funds through draws (construction loans, rehab loans, lines of credit) often require a vendor record even though the borrower is set up as a customer.

When a draw is billed, NetLoan creates a vendor bill against the draw's disbursement vendor instead of an invoice to the borrower. A draw line with no disbursement vendor will error at billing time rather than bill principal to the borrower. If draw funds go directly to the borrower instead of a third party like a contractor or title company, the borrower needs a vendor record so they can be selected as the disbursement vendor and paid through Accounts Payable. On borrower-entity loans, NetLoan bills against a vendor entity, so the counterparty must have a vendor record. And if the Require Vendor Preapproval on Disbursement global setting is enabled, the vendor must exist and be preapproved before the draw is created.

Creating the vendor through Other Relationships keeps the borrower's customer and vendor records tied to the same entity, so AR activity (invoices and payments) and AP activity (draw disbursements) stay connected.

Steps

  1. Go to Lists > Relationships > Customers and open the customer record.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Click the Relationships subtab.
  4. In the Other Relationships field, click the New (+) icon.
  5. In the Type field, select Vendor.
  6. Fill in the vendor record. Details from the customer record do not carry over automatically, so add category, terms, expense account, tax details, and addresses as needed.
  7. Click Save on the vendor record.
  8. Click Save on the customer record.

The customer and vendor records are now linked as related entities. The vendor appears in the customer's Other Relationships field, and you can select the vendor on purchase transactions (bills, purchase orders, checks) while the customer stays available for sales transactions.

Notes and Limitations

  • Changes to the customer record (addresses, contacts) do not sync to the linked vendor record. Update each one separately.
  • Do not manually assign the customer's external ID to the new vendor record; this causes a DUPE_ENTITY error. Linked customer and vendor records for the same entity share identification behind the scenes.
  • The Other Relationships link cannot be created with server-side SuiteScript, and record.transform does not support customer-to-vendor. The common workaround for automation is to create a standalone vendor and merge it into the customer with an entity deduplication task.
  • In OneWorld accounts, customer records shared with multiple subsidiaries cannot be merged if they have a linked vendor relationship.
  • If you don't need the records linked, create a new vendor at Lists > Relationships > Vendors > New. Entity names must be unique, so an identical name will conflict unless the records are linked through Other Relationships.

Reverse Direction

The same process works in reverse. To create a customer record from a vendor record, open the vendor, go to Relationships > Other Relationships, click New (+), and select Type = Customer. This is needed when you have to send an invoice to a vendor, since NetSuite only allows invoices to customers.

Sources

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