How to code NetSuite bills to departments, classes and locations with AI, using a saved search and CSV import

• NetSuite with permission to create saved searches and run CSV imports for vendor bills.
• A StayCharted account. The Review Queue is on Essentials and Business.
• A sandbox account, if you have one, for the first import.

About 7 minutes to read. The import instructions follow Oracle documentation; this workflow has not been tested end to end in a NetSuite account. Have your NetSuite administrator verify the saved-search line identifier, import key and approval behavior in a sandbox before updating live bills.

Create a transaction saved search:

• Criteria: Type is Vendor Bill; Main Line is false (so each expense line is a row); Date within the last 12 to 24 months; and, if you use approvals, only approved bills.
• Columns: the bill's Internal ID, the line's ID, Vendor, Memo (the line's), Amount, Account, Department, Class, Location, and any custom segments you code.

Export it as CSV. Each row is a line someone on your team coded, which is exactly what the model learns from.

Main Line is false also exposes other transaction lines. Restrict this export to the expense lines you intend to update, exclude tax or other generated lines, and check that each bill-and-line key is unique. Ask your NetSuite administrator to verify which saved-search identifier maps to the Expenses import key; do not substitute a spreadsheet row number.

In StayCharted, start a new model and upload the file.

• The model reads: Vendor, Memo, Amount, and anything else your team looks at when coding a line.
• The answer: choose Account, Department, Class and Location as answer columns together. The model learns them as one answer, so it never suggests a combination your team hasn't used.
• Leave out: the Internal ID and line ID. They identify the line; they don't help code it.

StayCharted checks the file first (the same memo coded two ways, combinations with too few lines), then trains and tests the model on lines it never saw. Read the report: how often each combination is right, which ones it confuses, and what share of lines are right above each confidence. Pick the cutoff where the lines above it are right often enough to go straight through.

Use consistent names or IDs for accounts and segments, and resolve blank answer fields before training. Confidence is not a guarantee: check a sample of the higher-confidence answers too.

Copy the saved search and change the criteria to the bills waiting to be coded, for example Department is empty, or a status your AP process uses. Keep the Internal ID and line ID columns: the import needs them to find each line again. Export as CSV.

In StayCharted, open the model's Use tab and fill the file. Every row gets the suggested account, department, class and location, a confidence, and whether it needs review. Your other columns stay as they were.

Fill only the answer cells that need coding. Keep the bill and line identifiers unchanged, and preserve existing valid coding. Use the same input columns and format as the training file.

Lines below your cutoff are flagged in the file and wait in the Review Queue on Essentials and Business. A reviewer confirms or corrects each one. Their answers become training examples for the next version, so the next version can learn from the corrections.

Before import, reconcile approved corrections into the CSV you will upload. Do not assume an earlier downloaded file updates itself. Retrain and publish the model before expecting corrections to affect later fills.

Oracle’s documented way to change existing bills is a mass update: a transaction saved search of vendor bills, the data changed outside NetSuite, then the Import Assistant with the Update data handling option.

• Import type: Transactions, Vendor Bill, Update.
• Expenses in their own file. NetSuite asks for expense lines in a separate CSV file from the bill itself.
• Match each bill by its Internal ID, on every row.
• Match each line by its line key. The Expenses sublist can be updated line by line.
• Map Department, Class, Location, custom segments and, if you're changing it, Account, onto the expense lines.

Run the first import in a sandbox, or on a handful of bills, and check them before importing the rest. Save the import map to reuse each week.

Map coding fields to the Expenses sublist, not the bill header. Verify the Line/Order Line key mapping with your administrator. Keep Overwrite Sublists off for selective updates, and confirm that untouched expense lines remain unchanged in your sandbox test. Use account and segment values accepted by your import map, and include only the records and fields you intend to update.

If your bills arrive as a spreadsheet, from a capture tool or a supplier portal, you can fill that file before importing the bills as new records. The coding is then on each line from the start, and you replace Steps 3 and 6 with a new-record import using NetSuite's required fields and IDs. Review the coding before creating bills.

• Retrain monthly or quarterly on the newest coded lines, including the reviewers' answers.
• After a chart of accounts or segment change, retrain on lines coded the new way. A model only suggests combinations it has seen.
• Watch the report per combination, not just the overall figure. A new cost center starts with no examples.

• Vendor Bill Import: expense lines, segment fields and mass updates
• Supported Sublist Imports
• Using Journal Entry Import for Updates