Expense Reimbursements (NetSuite)

FISPAN's Expense Reimbursements feature for NetSuite lets you process employee reimbursement payments directly from the plugin. This guide will help you start processing your expense report payments quickly.

The Employee Reimbursements feature supports the following payment method:

ACH Wire Check

To see details about the information required for the supported payment method, go to the Payment Requirements section of this guide.

Before you are able to use the Expense Reimbursements feature, please ensure the below pre-requisites are met:

Employees must have payment methods set before you can process expense reimbursements.

Employee payment methods, bank accounts, addresses, and remittance preferences are managed via the Payment Methods page.

For more details on managing payment information, see the Payments 2.0 - Payment Methods guide.

To get access to the Expense Reimbursements page, please have your ERP Administrator navigate to the role to Customization → Scripting → Script Deployment. Use the following filters:

Edit the FISPAN Expense Reimbursements Suitelet script and, under the Audience tab, add roles that require access to Expense Reimbursements.

In order for an Expense Report to appear on the Expense Reimbursements page, the report must be approved by accounting. There is a checkbox on the Expense Report that can be checked off by accounting.

Now that you've completed the prerequisites and set up permissions, you're ready to start using the Expense Reimbursements feature. Follow these steps to learn how to pay expense reports in NetSuite.

Navigate to Accounts Payable (New) → Expense Reimbursements.

The Expense Reimbursements page displays all approved expense reports with remaining balances ready for payment.

Use the filters to find the expense reports you would like to pay.

If a Default Payment Method has not yet been set for the Employee, choose the desired Payment Method from the respective column. Then, select the expense reports using the checkboxes on the left and click Start Payment Run.

After clicking Start Payment Run, a popup will appear.

Select the source account from the dropdown for each currency and confirm the number of expense reports, amount, and currency are correct.

Click Review Payment Summary to continue.

NOTE: Expense Reports are auto-grouped per payment rail at the employee level. If you select 5 expense reports for the same employee, they create 1 payment (not 5 separate payments).

Review the payment summary details and click Send Payments to initiate payment.

After clicking Send Payments, a blue payment status bar will appear at the top of the page to show the progress of your payment.

Once the payment request is successfully sent, the status bar will turn green.

Go to the History tab on the Expense Reimbursements page.

The status will appear as Processing until the payment has been cleared. Payments will change to Completed after being approved, which may take several days.

You can pay less than the full expense report amount. The remaining balance stays open for future payment.

The expense report will reappear on the Expense Reimbursements page with the remaining balance after the payment completes.

Example:

Schedule expense report payments for a future date instead of processing immediately.

Scheduled payments appear on the History tab with "Scheduled" status until the payment date.

NOTE: You can cancel scheduled payments from the History tab before the scheduled date. Once processing begins, payments cannot be cancelled.

Payments can fail for various reasons (invalid bank account, insufficient funds, employee settings, closed accounting period). When this happens, the expense report remains open and can be corrected and resubmitted.

If you have previously failed payments, a banner will appear at the top of the Expense Reimbursements page alerting you to failed expense reports.

Failed expense reports display an error icon (⚠️) before the expense report number. Click the icon to see the specific error details and reason for failure.

To view failed expense reports, click the "View failed expense reports" link in the banner at the top of the page.

IMPORTANT: Failed payments are only visible on the page where they were initiated. If a payment fails on the Legacy page, it won't appear in the new Expense Reimbursements "Failed" view, and vice versa.

Remove an expense report from the Expense Reimbursements page without deleting it from NetSuite.

To restore: Edit the expense report record in NetSuite (e.g., change the status back to Approved). The plugin will re-sync and display it again.

Your NetSuite administrator can grant view-only access to users who need to review expense report data without the ability to submit payments. This is useful for auditors, reviewers, or team members who monitor reimbursement activity.

If you have view-only access, action buttons like Start Payment Run will be disabled or hidden.

NOTE: View-only access is controlled by your NetSuite administrator through role-based permissions. If you need full access to submit payments, contact your NetSuite administrator to update your role permissions.

Why doesn't my Expense Report show up on the Expense Reimbursements page?

Check if the Expense Report has been Approved by Accounting. If not, click Edit on the record, select the Approved by Accounting checkbox, and Save. This record should now appear on the page.

Also verify:

Are grouped expense report payments supported?

Yes, they are grouped automatically per payment rail at the employee level.

Why do I not have the option to group expense reports on an Employee record?

Multiple expense report payments issued to a single employee at the same time will be grouped by default. You don't need to enable this separately.

Can I pay a Vendor Bill and an Expense Report concurrently?

Yes. If there are two accountants logged in making payments, with one making a bill payment and one making an expense report payment, they will both be able to complete their payments.

However, you cannot pay vendor bills and expense reports in the same batch. Pay expense reports from the Expense Reimbursements page, pay bills from the Payments page.

Can I pay employee commissions or handle payroll using this feature?

No, because commissions and payroll are subject to complex taxes and additional unique calculations that are required.

Why can't I (or one of my users) open the Payment History page?

Check if you or your user has Read permissions on the Employee Record for this user's role.

What does it mean when I receive this error: "You have entered an Invalid Field Value [###] for the following field: [account]"?

The Employee's subsidiary does not match the subsidiary of the source account that you tried to pay with. Choose another Source Account that matches the subsidiary of the Employee.

What does it mean when I receive this SuiteScript error: "Your search contains a reference to join for which you do not have a permission: Employee"?

This is a NetSuite error that appears when you or your user tries to view the Payment History page without having read permissions for the Employee Record. This is not to be mistaken for Employees, despite what the SuiteScript error says.

Why is my expense report payment failing to go through, remaining on the Open tab, even though no failure message is shown?

The Accounting Period on the expense report may be closed. For example, it is December, and you are trying to pay an expense report from November when the accounting period for November is already closed.

Try re-opening the Accounting Period or editing the Accounting Period record and turning on Allow Non-GL Changes.

This can be done by navigating to Setup → Accounting → Manage Accounting Periods.

Please note your AP team may have internal controls in relation to Accounting Periods, and it is highly recommended you double-check with an AP manager or Administrator.

An expense report disappeared from my screen after I selected it. Why?

Another user started processing a payment for the same expense report. It will reappear after their payment completes, if a balance remains or if their payment fails. Your selections for other expense reports are not affected.

Can I pay less than the full expense report amount?

Yes. Click in the To Pay column and enter the amount you want to pay. The remaining balance stays open in NetSuite for future payment. The expense report will reappear on the Expense Reimbursements page with the updated balance.

Can I pay expense reports in different currencies together?

Yes, but a bank account is required in each currency involved. The plugin doesn't convert currencies. It creates one payment per currency, using the source account you select for that currency.

What happens if I select expense reports on Page 1, then go to Page 2?

Selections persist across pages. Any expense reports selected on Page 1 remain selected when you navigate to Page 2. The summary badge shows the running count and total across all pages.

If a payment includes expense reports from different departments/classes/locations, which one does the payment record use?

The values from the oldest expense report in the payment (smallest NetSuite internal ID), since a payment record can only carry one value each for department, class, and location.

How many expense reports can I include in a single payment run?

You can include up to 2,000 expense reports in a single payment run. If you need to pay more, complete the first run and start a new one.

How long do expense reports stay on the History page?

Expense reports never leave the History page. As long as there is a working sync between NetSuite and the plugin, you should be able to see your paid expense reports.

What happens if I close the browser during a payment run?

The payment run continues processing in the background. You can navigate away or close the browser. Check the payment status by returning to the Expense Reimbursements page and viewing the History tab.

Can I pay expense reports to the same employee using different payment methods?

Yes. Select expense reports for one payment method, complete that payment run, then return to select expense reports for a different payment method. You cannot mix payment methods for the same employee in a single payment run.

Why do I see multiple instances of the same expense report on the History page?

If you pay an expense report with partial payments, the same expense report will appear multiple times on the History page (once for each payment). Similarly, if an expense report payment failed and was repaid, it will appear in multiple payments on the History page.

I deleted an expense report in the plugin, and I want it to appear again. How can I do that?

If you modify anything on the expense report record in NetSuite (or change the status back to Approved), it should be picked up again and appear on the Expense Reimbursements page.

What should I do if an expense report's checkbox is greyed out?

Scroll to the far right side of the table and ensure a payment method is selected for the expense report. To save time on future expense reports, you can set a default payment method for this employee by clicking the star icon next to it.

Can I apply credits or discounts to expense reports?

No. Credits and discounts are only available for vendor bill payments. Expense reports do not support these features.

What payment methods are supported for expense reports?

Same as vendor bills: ACH, Wire, Check, VCC, International Wire, etc. The employee's default payment method determines available options. Payment methods are managed in the Payment Methods page (Employees tab). Most common for employees: ACH to employee bank account or Check to employee address.

Have feedback on this specific feature? Please share it with us! Click the "Feature Requests" page on the left, under Support.