Previously in NetSuite, vendor bills were identified with a transaction date, a single amount and a single due date. With the 2019.1 update, the Installments Feature allows the total amount for a vendor bill to be divided into several parts to be paid in installments. Each installment will have a designated due date.
First thing to do is enable Installments, to do this navigate to Setup > Company > Enable Features > Accounting tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the Advanced Features section and make sure the INSTALLMENTS option is checked, if not check the box and Save it.
Once you have enabled the INSTALLMENTS feature you will want to setup Installment terms. To do this navigate to Setup > Accounting > Setup Tasks > Accounting Lists > New > and select Terms.
- In the Terms field, you want to enter the installment terms, for example you can set it to 3-month terms.
- In the days Till Next Due field, you want to enter the number of days after the invoice date that the payment is due. You can enter any amount of days, for this example I will enter 30 days.
- The Recurrence Frequency list specifies the number of recurring payments, select between Annually, Daily, Monthly or weekly.
- For the Recurrence Count field, you enter the number of recurring payments required. In this case we will select 3.
- Since month terms were established you want to enter 1 for the repeat every month field.
- You can split the payments evenly between the recurring payments by checking the box Split Evenly. If you decided not to split the payments, a list of installment lines will appear where you can enter the desired amount of payment per installment.
- Click save once all data is entered.
- Keep in mind that any fields that are not supported by installments are unavailable after the installment box is checked. Specifically, Discounts, they are not supported after this point.
After you have created your Installment terms,
- You can add the terms to the existing vendor bill or add terms when creating the Invoice. I will create an invoice and set the payment terms.
- To add the installment terms to a new invoice, navigate to the billing subtab, select your terms from the list and save it.
- If you choose to change the amount due, you can check the override Installments box to make changes to your payments. Make sure the totals add up to the total amount of the invoice so that you don’t have any past due amounts.
Finally, if an installment payment is unpaid after the due date, the late installment for that period is marked past due affecting the Aging reports since they are now based on the due date for payment.
If you’d like to learn more about Installments or anything else about NetSuite, please contact us at any time! You can also learn about more great tips for NetSuite on our YouTube playlist or our other blog posts.
