How to Match Vendor SKUs to Inventory in NetSuite

It’s a common AP challenge that you’ve probably seen before: When it comes to purchasing goods and services, no two people (or companies) use the same language.

While you can create Uniform SKUs and UPCs (Universal Product Codes) in your NetSuite environment, all of your suppliers have a mind of their own and will rarely (if ever) follow the same terminology.

If the same inventory items are purchased from multiple suppliers, or if your purchasing department sources from multiple locations, this increases complexity.

Fortunately, there is more than one way out.

In this guide, we'll discuss the different ways you can assign vendor-specific item codes to your NetSuite items. We'll specifically discuss the following:

1. Assigning multiple supplier codes to one item code
2. Assigning a unique supplier code to an item code
3. Using CSV imports for bulk mapping
4. Storing SKU assignments outside of NetSuite (for example, when using OCR)
5. Using workflow automation to combine the best parts of solutions 1 – 4

These solutions differ a bit – some are more manual, while others are highly automated and suitable for scale. You can choose the one that is best for your business depending on the scale of your operations.

Assigning multiple supplier codes to one item code

If you work with multiple suppliers for the same item, the best way to store the suppliers' SKU codes is in the Table of suppliers of articlesThis allows you to link each item to multiple vendors along with their specific item codes.

This is the most common scenario – many common inventory items will fall into this category. For example, if you purchase standardized parts or accessories as part of a small manufacturing facility, you will likely have to source them from multiple suppliers to get the best price.

Here's how you can set it up and get the data via a saved search or SuiteQL query.

Steps:

1. Enable multiple vendors for an item:
   • Gonna Setup > Company > Enable Features.
   • In the “Items and Inventory” tab, enable Various suppliers for articles.
2. Enter the supplier codes:
   • Open the item record and navigate to the Purchasing/Inventory eyelash.
   • In it Sellers In the sub-tab, you will find a field to add vendor-specific item codes. Enter the vendor SKU code for each vendor that supplies the item.
3. Create a saved search to display vendor codes:
   • Gonna Reports > Saved Searches > New.
   • Select Article like the guy.
   • On the Results tab, select the following fields:
     • Item > Name
     • Vendor > Name
     • Vendor > Vendor Code
   • Run the search to get a list of items and their vendor-specific codes.
4. Using SuiteQL to get SKU codes from suppliers: SuiteQL is a powerful query language that allows for more advanced data retrieval. You can use SuiteQL to directly extract SKUs from item suppliers. This method can be used if you are using the NetSuite API.

SELECT 
   Vendor.CompanyName,
   ItemVendor.vendorCode,
   ItemVendor.purchasePrice
FROM 
   ItemVendor
INNER JOIN 
   Vendor ON ItemVendor.vendor = Vendor.Id
WHERE 
   ItemVendor.Item = 'YOUR_ITEM_NUMBER';

In this query, we use the itemVendor table to get the list of all the vendors that have that item listed and their respective codes for that specific item.

Assigning a unique supplier code to an item code

If you only work with one supplier per item, use a custom field or a Article Alias This is a simpler method. It allows you to store the supplier's SKU code directly in the item record.

Here's how to implement this assignment:

Steps:

1. Create a custom field:
   • Navigate to Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Item Fields > New.
   • Create a custom field called Supplier SKU code (Text field type).
   • Add this field to your item records.
2. Enter the supplier's SKU code:
   • Go to each item record and fill in the field Supplier SKU code field with the respective supplier SKU.
3. Use the supplier's SKU in transactions:
   • Once added, this custom field can be used in transactions such as purchase orders and invoices to display the supplier SKU next to the internal item code.
4. Display supplier SKU in forms:
   • If you want the supplier SKU to appear on printed purchase orders or supplier invoices, you can customize your transaction forms to include this custom field.

Using CSV imports for bulk mapping

If you have a large number of items and suppliers, manually entering each SKU code can be time-consuming. In this case, you can use NetSuite's CSV import feature to bulk update the SKU codes for your item suppliers.

Steps:

1. Prepare the CSV file:
   • Create a CSV file with columns for Item Name/ID, Vendor Nameand Vendor SKU Code.
2. Go to the CSV import tool:
   • Navigate to Setup > Import/Export > Import CSV Records.
   • Choose Article as the record type and follow the instructions to upload your CSV file.
3. Map the fields:
   • During the import process, ensure that the CSV columns are correctly mapped to the appropriate fields in NetSuite (Item, Supplier, and Supplier SKU Code).
4. Run the import:
   • After mapping, run the import to update all item records with the supplier SKU codes at once.

Storing SKU assignments externally

If you use an external tool to process invoices, such as OCR (optical character recognition) or AP automation software, you may prefer to store SKU assignments in an external system or CSV file rather than in NetSuite.

This method is useful when you are using an OCR/AP solution and want to map vendor codes to your internal item codes when coding an invoice, BEFORE importing it into NetSuite.

How to implement:

1. Store assignments in a CSV or external database:
   • Maintain a CSV or database with the following columns: Vendor SKU, Internal SKU, Vendor Name.
   • This can be stored on your local system or in cloud-based storage like Google Sheets.
2. OCR/AP Integration:
   • When an invoice arrives, use your OCR tool to extract the supplier SKU from the invoice.
   • Write a script or use an integration tool (most OCR or AP tools allow custom integrations with Python) to look up the supplier SKU in your external file and retrieve the corresponding internal SKU.
   • When loading data into NetSuite to create the vendor invoice, use the internal SKU code you just obtained from the lookup in step #2.

Below is a simple Python script to match the supplier SKU from a CSV file:

import csv

def get_internal_sku(vendor_sku, csv_file):
    with open(csv_file, mode="r") as file:
        reader = csv.DictReader(file)
        for row in reader:
            if row('Vendor SKU') == vendor_sku:
                return row('Internal SKU')
    return None

# Example Usage
vendor_sku = 'ABC123'
internal_sku = get_internal_sku(vendor_sku, 'vendor_mapping.csv')
print(f'Internal SKU: {internal_sku}')

When processing vendor invoices in NetSuite, you can now use the internal SKU returned by your script or integration to ensure the correct item is used.

• Please note that you will likely still need to perform data validation when entering vendor invoices into NetSuite (unless your OCR/AP tool already does this). Failure to do this may result in data being lost entering NetSuite.

<h2 id="using-ai-based-workflow-automation”>Using ai-based workflow automation

There is another way to do this that is faster and more scalable.

It involves using an ai workflow builder like Nanonets, which allows you to set up the exact workflow needed to match supplier SKUs to your NetSuite SKUs, before syncing it to NetSuite.

Here's what a typical workflow will look like:

1. Use a Nanonets ai model to extract invoice and receipt data: This model will extract the supplier item codes from each supplier invoice.
2. Set up a NetSuite integration on this model and create lookups to get the internal item codes
3. Nanonets then does the following for each supplier invoice it processes:
   1. Read the supplier's item code on the invoice
   2. Find a matching internal element code using a combination of ai reinforcement learning + SuiteQL + natural language understanding
   3. If no match is found, the model will prompt the user to select an internal SKU and learn from that decision.

But why do this?

Using ai automation like Nanonets has significant advantages:

• You will finish saving more than 80% of the time It is necessary to search for supplier codes.
• Nanonets has built-in data validation: For every invoice you export to NetSuite, each and every field is validated and formatted to ensure consistency with the object data models in NetSuite.
• You'll get the benefit of the NetSuite API and SuiteQL on the backend, while also gaining highly accurate OCR and ai learning capabilities that improve your workflow based on your feedback.

Interested in learning more? A short 15-minute introductory call with an automation expert is the best way to get started.

Conclusion

Mapping supplier SKU codes to internal item codes in NetSuite can be done in a number of ways, depending on your company’s setup. You can opt for something more manual that gives you more control, or you can automate it entirely using the API (with significantly more effort and some coding involved).

By combining the best of both worlds using a no-code solution like Nanonets, you can confidently manage supplier SKUs, streamline data entry, and reduce manual errors, saving valuable time for your procurement and finance teams.

API/SuiteQL References: