How to Import Journal Entry to NetSuite (2026 Guide)

Navigate to Transactions > Financial > Make Journal Entries and click Import. On the Scan & Upload CSV File page, click the Single Journal Entry Template File link to download the official CSV template. Save this template locally and use it as the starting point for your data.

Tip: Always use the official NetSuite template to ensure your columns match the expected format exactly.

Open the downloaded template in Excel or Google Sheets and fill in your journal entry data. Each journal entry must have at least two lines with balancing debits and credits. Header fields like External ID, Date, and Memo appear on the first line, while each subsequent line contains Account, Debit or Credit, and optional line-level fields.

Warning: Debits must exactly equal credits for each entry. If any single entry is unbalanced, the entire file will fail to import.

Assign a unique External ID to every journal entry in the CSV. NetSuite uses this field to identify and deduplicate records. If you re-import the same file later, entries with matching External IDs will be flagged rather than duplicated. Use a consistent naming convention such as SOURCE-TYPE-UNIQUEID.

Tip: A pattern like STRIPE-PAYOUT-po_1234567890 makes it easy to trace entries back to their origin.

On the Scan & Upload CSV File page, select the character encoding that matches your file (UTF-8 is the most common default). Click Select, choose your populated CSV file, then click Open followed by Next to proceed to field mapping.

On the View Mapping / Start Import page, NetSuite will auto-map columns from your CSV to the corresponding journal entry fields. Review each mapping carefully and drag-and-drop fields to correct any mismatches. Click the pencil icon next to a field to set a default value for unmapped or blank columns.

Tip: If you include both a 'Memo' and 'Line Memo' column, NetSuite maps them to the header-level and line-level memo fields respectively. Including only 'Line Memo' maps it to the line memo field.

Before importing all records, select just one or two journal entries from your CSV and run a test import. Verify that the resulting journal entry in NetSuite has the correct accounts, amounts, dates, and memo text. This catches mapping errors before they affect your full dataset.

Warning: Skipping the test import risks creating hundreds of incorrect entries that must be reversed manually.

Once your test import looks correct, return to the import assistant and upload the complete CSV file. Click Run to start the import. NetSuite will process the file and display the created journal entry upon successful completion.

Tip: NetSuite supports up to 10,000 lines per journal entry, but performance may degrade above 1,000 lines.

If the import succeeds, the new journal entry appears immediately for review. If any errors occur, NetSuite redirects you to the Job Status page. Click the CSV Response link to download a results file that contains your original data alongside error messages for each failed row. Correct the errors in your CSV and re-import.