How to Import Sales Order to NetSuite (2026 Guide)

Before you can import sales orders, the feature must be enabled in your account. Go to Setup > Company > Enable Features and click the Transactions subtab. Check the Sales Orders box and click Save. Without this feature enabled, the Sales Order record type will not appear in the CSV Import Assistant.

Every sales order in your CSV must reference a valid customer and valid items that already exist in NetSuite. Open Lists > Relationships > Customers to verify customer records, and Lists > Accounting > Items for product records. You can match customers by name, email, or internal/external ID.

Warning: Missing customers or items cause the entire sales order row to fail. Import customers and items first if needed.

Navigate to Setup > Import/Export > Import CSV Records. Set the Import Type to Transactions and the Record Type to Sales Order. This configures the import assistant to expect sales order header and line-item fields from your CSV.

Structure your file with header fields (External ID, Customer, Tran Date, Ship Date, PO Number, Terms) on the first row of each order, and line-item fields (Item, Quantity, Rate, Amount) on subsequent rows grouped by the same External ID. Shipping address fields are optional but useful for fulfillment. Download the template from the import page for reference.

Tip: Repeat the External ID on every row of a multi-line order. NetSuite uses this field to group lines into a single sales order.

Click Select to browse for your CSV file and upload it. Choose the character encoding that matches your file (UTF-8 is standard). Click Next to proceed to the field mapping page where you will align CSV columns to NetSuite fields.

Review the auto-mapped columns. Ensure Customer maps to the Sales Order Customer field, Tran Date maps to Date, and Item maps to the line-item field. Use the pencil icon to set defaults for optional fields like Terms or Location that you want applied to all orders. Drag and drop to correct any mismatches.

Import two or three sales orders as a test run. Open them in NetSuite and verify the customer, dates, line items, quantities, and shipping details are correct. Confirm that the order status shows as Pending Fulfillment. This step prevents large-scale errors from bad mappings.

Upload the complete CSV, confirm your field mappings, and click Run. After processing, check the Job Status page for success or failure. Download the CSV Response file if errors occur, fix the flagged rows, and re-import only the corrected records. Successfully created sales orders appear immediately in Transactions > Sales > Sales Orders.