Get Started with the Emburse NetSuite Connector

This guide helps administrators prepare NetSuite and Emburse Professional before they connect the Emburse NetSuite Connector.

Complete these steps before you connect both systems. This preparation helps reduce setup errors during onboarding.

Prepare NetSuite Before Connecting

Before you connect NetSuite to Emburse Professional, log in to NetSuite as an administrator and complete the following tasks.

1. Generate Authentication Tokens and Download the Emburse Integration Bundle

Estimated effort: 5 minutes

Authentication tokens connect Emburse Professional to your NetSuite environment and allow data to move between both systems.

Follow Generate NetSuite Authentication Tokens for the Emburse NetSuite Integration to generate the required tokens.

2. Create Emburse Roles for NetSuite Employee/Vendor Records

Estimated effort: 15 minutes

To synchronize an employee or vendor record to Emburse Professional as a user record, assign a role to each record. Emburse Professional includes four user role types. Each role includes different permissions and access.

Follow Create Emburse Professional User Roles in NetSuite for the Emburse NetSuite Integration to create roles in NetSuite and assign them before synchronization.

3. Apply Supervisor and Department Fields to Vendor Records

Estimated effort: 10 minutes

If your organization stores employees as vendors in NetSuite, add two custom fields to your vendor records:

1. A Supervisor field, which maps to the First Approver field in Emburse Professional
2. A Department field, which maps to the Department field in Emburse Professional

Both fields are required to synchronize a vendor to Emburse Professional as a user.

Create the Supervisor Field

1. Select Customization, then Lists, Records, & Fields, then Entity Fields, then New.

2. Enter the following information on the new entity record:

• Label: Enter a field name, like Vendor Supervisor. This label appears on vendor records in NetSuite.
• ID: Enter a unique ID. You need this ID when you configure the integration with Emburse.
• Description: Enter a brief description.
• Type: Select List/Record.
• List/Record: Select Vendor.
• Applies To: Select Vendor.

3. Optional: On the Display tab, select the subtab where the new field should appear on the vendor record in NetSuite.

4. Select Save.

The new field is available on vendor records, and a supervisor can be assigned to each user.

Create the Department Field

The Department field in NetSuite is not native to the vendor record. Create a custom field and apply it to the vendor record to store each user’s default Department value.

1. Select Customization, then Lists, Records, & Fields, then Entity Fields, then New.

2. Enter the following information on the new entity record:

• Label: Enter a field name, like Vendor Department. This label appears on vendor records in NetSuite.
• ID: Enter a unique ID. You need this ID when you configure the integration with Emburse.
• Description: Enter a brief description.
• Type: Select List/Record.
• List/Record: Select Department. This option lets you assign a value from the default Department list to each vendor.
• Applies To: Select Vendor.

3. Optional: On the Display tab, select the subtab where the new field should appear on the vendor record in NetSuite.

4. Select Save.

The new field is available on vendor records, and a department can be assigned to each user.

4. Assign Values to Each Employee/Vendor Record

Estimated effort: 10 minutes

After you create the required fields in NetSuite, assign values to your employee or vendor records so the records can synchronize to Emburse Professional.

If users are created as employees in NetSuite, open each employee record that needs access to Emburse Professional and confirm that the following fields include valid values:

• The Emburse User box is checked, if your organization plans to send a subset of users to Emburse Professional
• User Role
• Department (native NetSuite Department field)
• A Supervisor or Expense Approver is selected
• The employee record is active and includes an Email Address, First Name, and Last Name

If users are created as vendors in NetSuite, open each vendor record that needs access to Emburse Professional and confirm that the following fields include valid values:

• The Emburse User box is checked
• User Role
• Department (custom field that uses the Department list created in a previous step)
• Supervisor (custom field that uses the Vendor list created in a previous step)
• The vendor record is active, set as an Individual-type vendor, and includes an Email Address, First Name, and Last Name

5. (Optional) Create Expense Categories in NetSuite

Estimated effort: 10 minutes

The Emburse NetSuite Connector imports existing expense categories from NetSuite into Emburse Professional for use on expense reports. Expense categories selected on Emburse Professional expense reports export back to NetSuite and map expenses to the appropriate expense account for reconciliation.

Whether you export to the Expense Report module in NetSuite or export reports as a Vendor Bill, you must maintain an expense category list in NetSuite.

1. To review your expense category list in NetSuite, select Setup, then Accounting, then Expense Categories.

Categories listed here import to Emburse Professional and can be selected by users when they create expense reports.

2. If no categories exist, select New to create categories.

3. Enter the Name, select an Expense Account, and select the Subsidiaries that can use the category.

• Name: Enter the name users see when they select an expense category in Emburse Professional. Typical expense category names include Airfare, Hotels/Lodging, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Office Supplies.
• Expense Account: Select the expense account that maps to the expense category. Mapping to an expense account helps submitted transactions reconcile to the appropriate account in NetSuite.
• Subsidiary: Select the subsidiaries that can access the expense category.

Active expense categories import to Emburse Professional during the first scheduled synchronization, which is completed in a later step.

Configure Emburse Professional Settings

Configure the following settings in Emburse Professional to reduce possible NetSuite export errors.

6. Enable Expense Equality Check

NetSuite allows only one credit card account to be linked to an expense report. If your organization has one credit card program connected to Emburse Professional, no additional configuration is required.

If your organization integrates multiple credit card programs with Emburse Professional, reconciliation in NetSuite can fail when credit card expenses from multiple programs are included on the same expense report.

To prevent this issue, enable an Expense Equality Check. This check prevents users from submitting expense reports that include expenses from multiple card programs.

1. Log in to Emburse Professional as an administrator and select System Configuration. Under Company Policy Travel and Expense Policy, select View and Edit Policy.

2. Scroll to Expense Equality Checks and select Credit Card Program from the dropdown menu.

3. Check Ignore expense lines with empty Credit Card Program values.

This setting lets users submit reimbursable expenses and credit card expenses on the same report.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save.

When users submit an expense report that includes transactions from multiple card programs, an error displays. Users must correct the report before they can submit it.

This setting helps expense reports exported to NetSuite reconcile to the correct credit card account.

7. Prevent Negative Expense Report Totals

NetSuite does not allow expense reports with negative totals. Although users are unlikely to submit a negative report through Emburse Professional, validation can prevent negative expense reports from being submitted.

Contact Emburse Support and request validation to prevent users from submitting negative expense reports.