Work With Lines | Finsyte Documentation

Many record types have lines: an invoice has item lines, a vendor bill has item and expense lines, a journal entry has its debit and credit lines. On a bulk record sheet each line is its own row, and a Line ID column tells Finsyte which NetSuite line each row is. This page explains how lines are laid out and gives step-by-step instructions for every change you can make to them.

How Lines Appear on the Sheet

One row per line. A record with three item lines uses three rows.
Body fields repeat on every row. Customer, Date, Memo, and the other body fields are the same on every row of a record, and every row carries the record's Internal ID.
Each sublist has its own block of columns. The section bars on row 6 show where each sublist starts, for example Items and Expenses.
One row can hold one line from each sublist. Lines from different sublists share rows side by side. A bill with two item lines and three expense lines uses three rows: rows 1 and 2 hold an item line and an expense line, and row 3 holds only an expense line (its Items cells are blank).
Each sublist has a Line ID column. It is named after the sublist, such as Items: Line ID or Expenses: Line ID, and sits just left of that sublist's first column. It holds NetSuite's ID for the line on that row. Finsyte adds these columns to every sheet automatically; you do not choose them in the template.

Line IDs are filled in for you. Downloaded rows arrive with them, and after an upload Finsyte writes the Line ID of every new line onto its row. You normally only clear a Line ID or leave it blank. The one time you type into it is to group several inventory assignment rows into one new line, described in Inventory Detail.

The Rules

When you upload an existing record, Finsyte compares the sheet with the record in NetSuite, sublist by sublist, using the Line IDs.

Warning: Download a record before you change it. A record whose Internal ID was typed or pasted in has no Line IDs, so every existing line in each sublist the template has columns for is deleted on upload.

On the sheet	What happens in NetSuite
A row has a Line ID that is on the record	That line is kept and updated to match the row. A blank cell on the row clears that field.
A line's Line ID is not on any row (the row was deleted, or its Line ID was cleared)	That line is deleted.
A row has line cells filled in and a blank Line ID	A new line is added.
Two rows have the same Line ID (for example, a copied row)	The first row keeps the line. The other row becomes a new line.
A row has a Line ID that is not on the record, or a word instead of a number	A new line is added.

Remarks

Rows are never matched to lines by their contents, only by Line ID. Two identical rows are two lines.
A sublist with no columns on the template is never changed. For example, a template with only Items columns leaves a bill's expense lines alone.
A record's lines are only compared when something on the record changed. Unchanged records are skipped.

Step by Step

Create a New Record

On the first empty row, leave Internal ID blank.
Fill in the body fields.
Fill in the first line's cells, such as Item, Quantity, and Rate. Leave the Line ID cells blank.
For each additional line, use the next row. Repeat every body field on the new row exactly as on the first row, and fill in that line's cells. If the template has a Record Group column, give every row of the record the same value.
For lines of another sublist, such as expenses on a bill, use the same rows: fill in the Expenses cells on the first row, the second row, and so on. Add rows when a sublist has more lines than the others.
Select Validate Sheet, then Create.

After the upload, the Internal ID and every Line ID are filled in, and the rows show the record as NetSuite saved it.

Important: Every row of a record needs the record's body fields, and on an existing record its Internal ID. A row without them is read as the start of a separate new record.

Change a Field on an Existing Line

Download the record.
Change the cell. Leave the row's Line ID as it is.
Upload. Only the changed field is sent.

Clear a Field on a Line

Delete the cell's contents and upload. The field is cleared in NetSuite. If NetSuite requires the field, the upload is rejected with Field must contain a value and the row is marked.

Add a Line to an Existing Record

Download the record.
Right-click the row number of the record's last row and select Insert to add an empty row inside the record. You can also add the row directly below the record.
Copy the record's Internal ID, its body field cells, and its Record Group (if the sheet has one) onto the new row.
Fill in the new line's cells. Leave the sublist's Line ID blank.
Upload. The new line is added, and its Line ID appears on the row.

If a row of the record already has blank cells for that sublist (for example, a row that holds an item line but no expense line), you can fill in the blank sublist cells on that row instead of inserting a new one. Leave that sublist's Line ID blank.

Copy a Line

To add a line that is almost the same as an existing one:

Right-click the row number of the line you want to copy and select Copy.
Right-click the row number directly below it and select Insert Copied Cells.
Change what should differ on either row.
Upload. The upper row keeps the original line. The copy carries the same Line ID, so it is added as a new line and gets its own Line ID.

Warning: Use Insert Copied Cells, not Paste. Pasting a copied row over another row replaces that row, so the line it held is deleted on the next upload.

Tip: After Insert Copied Cells, Excel stays in copy mode. Press Esc before typing, otherwise Enter can paste the copy again.

Delete a Line

Use whichever fits the row:

The row holds only this line: right-click the row number and select Delete.
The row also holds a line of another sublist (for example, an item line and an expense line): clear the cells of the line you want to delete and its Line ID. Leave the other sublist's cells and Line ID alone; that line is not affected.

Upload. The line is deleted in NetSuite and does not come back on the sheet.

Remarks

Clearing a line's cells while keeping its Line ID does not delete the line. It clears each field instead, and NetSuite usually rejects that.
Deleting every line of a sublist is allowed. For example, removing a bill's only item line leaves the bill with expense lines only.

Replace a Line

To replace a line with a new one, clear only the row's Line ID and upload. The old line is deleted and the row is added as a new line with a new Line ID.

Replace a line when...

You change the item and want NetSuite to build a new inventory detail for it. See Change the Item on a Line.
You move lines to another location on a form that has no line Location. See Inventory Detail.
You want NetSuite to fill in a line from scratch.

What the new line gets:

Every filled cell on the row for that sublist. Blank cells are not sent, and NetSuite fills in its defaults.
NetSuite's defaults for every field that is not on the template. Values on the old line that are not on the template are not copied. Values that another application stamped on the line can be lost.
A new default inventory detail.
No link to a source transaction line. A bill line created from a purchase order loses its link to the order when it is replaced.

Note: On forms that show Location on item lines (invoices, cash sales, and vendor bills when using multiple locations), a new line needs a Location. A template that adds or replaces item lines on those forms needs the Location column in the Items group.

Change the Item on a Line

There are two ways, with different results.

What you do	Result
Change the Item cell and keep the Line ID	The line keeps its Line ID and gets the new item. The line is saved without an inventory detail, as when you change the item in NetSuite and save without opening the detail.
Change the Item cell and clear the Line ID	The line is replaced. NetSuite builds a default inventory detail for the new item.

When you change the item, the old item's Description, Rate, and Units cells stay on the row and are sent with the new item. Clear them to get NetSuite's values for the new item.

Sublists Sent as a Complete List

A few sublists are sent as the complete list rather than line by line, for example Subscriptions and Sales Team on customers and Landed Costs on vendor bills. Subscriptions and Landed Costs have no line IDs in NetSuite, so their Line ID cells stay blank. On every upload, the sheet's rows for these sublists are the whole list:

A row you add is added.
A row you delete is removed.
A row you change is changed.

Address Book

Address Book lines, for example on customers, follow the same rules as other lines. Keep the Line ID to edit an address, leave it blank on a new row to add an address, and delete the row to remove an address. A new address row needs the address fields filled in, not only its label; otherwise NetSuite rejects it with Address is required.

Mistakes Validate Sheet Catches

Message	What to do
`<Sublist>: Line ID '<id>' names a line of an existing record, but this record has no Internal ID — the line will be created new. To edit that record instead, fill in its Internal ID.`	The row has a Line ID but no Internal ID, usually because rows were copied from a downloaded record. To create a new record, leave the Line ID as it is: the line is created new, and rows that share the Line ID stay one line. To edit the existing record, fill in its Internal ID.
`Internal ID '<id>' appears in N blocks — each upload overwrites the previous one.`	The same record appears in two places. Move its rows together.

After the Upload

Successful records are rewritten from NetSuite. New lines show their Line IDs, and lines appear in NetSuite's order, so a line you added in the middle of a record can move to the end.
If the status reads … — Line IDs could not be retrieved. Download this record again before making further changes., the record was saved but its rows could not be refreshed. Download it again before changing it, so every row has the right Line ID.

Next step: Inventory Detail