If you’re using NetSuite to either make or receive payments, then it’s important that you understand what the supported payment methods in NetSuite are, as well as how you can use them.
Payment Prep
Before you are ready to use the payment methods in NetSuite, you would need to set up a couple things.
Enable Features
As is typically the case, there are several features in Enable Features that you would need to enable. To turn these on, navigate to Enable Features (Setup > Company > Setup Tasks > Enable Features) and choose the Transactions subtab. All the features related to payments are located under the section Payment Processing, which you can see below. We’ll be describing some of these features in more detail throughout the rest of the blog. Your company may or may not need to use all these features.
Merchant Account
Another preliminary step to using NetSuite for payments is establishing a merchant account. A merchant account is simply an account with a bank that allows you to accept customer payments. In addition to applying for a merchant account, you will also want to apply for a credit card gateway that is compatible with NetSuite. MerchantE and CyberSource are popular among NetSuite users since they enable you to get both a merchant account and a credit card gateway at once.
Vendor Payments
There are essentially two payment environments in NetSuite: outgoing payments (i.e., vendor bills, employee expenses, and customer refunds) and incoming payments (i.e., customer payments for your goods and services). Because of its overlap with other types of outgoing payments, we’re just going to focus on vendor payments. The feature you would need to enable for this is ACH (Automated Clearing House) Vendor Payments. In order to use this feature, you would need an ACH processing account, which you can acquire through Coastal Software & Consulting, Inc, which is integrated with NetSuite. Then, set up vendor records to use ACH payments.
Customer Payments
In addition to outgoing payments, like vendor payments, there are also incoming customer payments.
Three Payment Methods
Three key methods can be used to collect customer payments in NetSuite: EFT, credit card, and PayPal. Each of these would need to be set up separately.
Before using EFT (electronic funds transfer), you would need to (1) enable the feature, (2) set up ACH processing, and (3) set up customer records for ACH payments. EFT transactions are processed through the ACH network, but ACH is not the actual payment method as it is for vendor payments. In addition, it’s important to understand that while ACH is a common way to process electronic payments, it is primarily used in the United States. Other countries use different platforms to process their electronic payments. See this Help Center page for a complete list of supported payment methods for other countries.
The second customer payment method is through credit card processing. This method is used primarily for payments on sales orders and website orders. A number of security features ensure the protection of your customers’ credit card information.
The third customer payment method is PayPal. To use this method, you would first have to set up a PayPal merchant account. Then, customers who have a PayPal account can elect to make their purchases that way. Some of the primary uses for PayPal are for webstore orders and for customer returns.
Accepting Customer Payment
Once a customer has used one of the previous payment methods, you would need to record it and accept it by either applying it to an invoice or applying it to the Payment Page. Applying a payment to an invoice is the faster route. Simply view the invoice that corresponds to the payment and click the Accept Payment button, which will open a Payment page that is auto-filled with the information on the invoice. On this page, you can record the payment method under the Payment Method subtab and apply the payment to the invoice under the Apply tab. Then, save the payment record. If this payment results in the invoice being completely paid, then the status of the invoice changes from Open to Paid in Full.
You can also apply payments by navigating directly to the Payment page (Transactions > Customers > Accept Customer Payments). The only difference here is that you would need to put in all the information regarding the customer making the payment and the related invoice (if applicable).
Electronic Bank Payments
Electronic Bank Payments (previously known as Electronic Payments) is a SuiteApp that has similar functions as EFT and ACH Vendor Payments, but it also expands on these features. For example, it includes things like custom payment formats and multi-currency conversion support. This SuiteApp also has several features related to payment batches, such as allowing for scheduled approval of payment batches, automatically creating payment batches for approved bills, and processing multiple payment batches all at once. If the standard payment methods in NetSuite are insufficient for your company, then you may need to consider using the Electronic Bank Payments SuiteApp.
Conclusion
Understanding what the supported payment methods in NetSuite are and how they work ensures that you will be able to use them to their fullest capacity.
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