The quick answer
Go to Transactions > Purchases > Enter Blanket Purchase Order. Pick the Vendor, set the Start Date and, for a fixed period, the End Date, and add the item on the Items subtab with the full quantity for the period. Click the line's Schedule icon, set Create Schedule to Autogenerate and Release Frequency to Monthly, and click Autogenerate. NetSuite splits the quantity into one row per month. Click OK, Add the line and Save. To release a month, edit the blanket order, open the schedule, check Release on that row and save. Each release becomes an ordinary purchase order whose line shows Created From with the blanket order, and the blanket order's Purchased Amount and Quantity Ordered go up.
The example is a food plant, Kestrel Bay Foods, that wraps its outbound pallets with 18-inch stretch wrap. It buys about 200 rolls a month from Ridgeline Poly Supply at 21.50 a roll, and every month a buyer keys the same purchase order again. Here the year gets agreed once and the monthly orders come from it. The screenshots use sample data, and the person, company, vendor and item names are fictional.
Before you start
Turn on Blanket Purchase Orders on the Transactions subtab of Setup > Company > Enable Features. You need a role that can enter blanket purchase orders and purchase orders. The example uses the Administrator role, and the menu can look different for other roles. In OneWorld, the vendor and item have to be available to the subsidiary you order for.
The example is one subsidiary, US dollars, one item and no location. It stops at the first release. Receiving and billing that purchase order are separate steps. If you have approval routing on blanket purchase orders, a new one can sit at Pending Approval, or Pending Active before its start date, instead of saving straight to Active.
A blanket purchase order isn't a purchase contract. A contract holds negotiated prices and quantity tiers that you select on purchase order lines. A blanket purchase order holds a planned quantity, rate and delivery schedule, and the purchase orders are created from it.
01. Check the item's purchase price
Go to Lists > Accounting > Items and open Stretch Wrap 18 in. On the Purchasing/Inventory subtab, Purchase Price is 21.50. In this account it's also the rate the blanket order line starts with. If you use vendor pricing or another currency or unit, check the rate on the line.
02. Start the blanket purchase order
Go to Transactions > Purchases > Enter Blanket Purchase Order.
Blanket Purchase Order # shows To Be Generated. Date and Start Date default to today, 10/01/2026 in this example. Select Vendor Ridgeline Poly Supply, and Subsidiary fills in as Kestrel Bay US. Enter End Date 09/30/2027 and Memo Stretch wrap supply FY27. The memo is internal, not a note to the vendor. Maximum Amount is read-only and stays at 0.00 until there's a line. It's the sum of the line amounts, and if blanket orders go through approval routing, it can set the approval level.
03. Set the terms and instructions
Open the Terms subtab. Payment Terms shows Net 30, which came from the vendor record. Leave it.
Open Special Instructions and enter Purchase Order Instructions: Deliver to Fresno Plant dock 3, first business day of each month. Whether these instructions print on the purchase orders you release depends on your forms and templates, so check one before you count on it.
04. Add the item and the year's quantity
On the Items subtab, select Item Stretch Wrap 18 in. Description, Units (Roll) and Rate 21.50 fill in from the item. Enter Quantity 2400, a year at 200 a month. Amount becomes 51,600.00.
05. Autogenerate the release schedule
Click the Schedule icon on the line, before you click Add. The schedule opens with Total Quantity 2,400. Leave Create Purchase Orders at Manually, so a buyer decides when each month becomes a purchase order. The other choice, At Lead Time, releases rows based on the item's lead time and your planning setup, so the item needs those settings first.
Set Create Schedule to Autogenerate and Release Frequency to Monthly. Start Date 10/01/2026 and End Date 09/30/2027 come from the header. Check them, then click Autogenerate.
Twelve rows appear, from 10/01/2026 to 09/01/2027, each for 200. The Order column is empty because nothing has been ordered yet. NetSuite splits the line quantity evenly across the dates. When it doesn't divide evenly, the last row gets the remainder.
Click OK to close the schedule, then Add on the line. Maximum Amount in the header becomes 51,600.00.
06. Save the blanket purchase order
Click Save. The order is BPO14, status Active. Maximum Amount is 51,600.00, the sum of the line amounts, and the Summary shows Purchased Amount, Received Amount and Billed Amount at 0.00. A blanket purchase order doesn't post to the general ledger.
On the Items subtab, the line's Quantity Ordered is 0.
07. Release the first month
Click Edit, then the line's Schedule icon. Click the 10/01/2026 row, check Release, and click OK on the row. Click OK to close the schedule.
Click Save. In the account behind this example, NetSuite creates the purchase order during the save and shows Processed Transactions: Purchase Order PO3107, Ridgeline Poly Supply, 4,300.00. That's 200 rolls at 21.50.
Some setups don't create the order on save. The released quantity waits instead: go to Transactions > Purchases > Order Items and open the Blanket PO Items subtab. Check the released row there and click Submit.
08. Confirm the order and what's left
Click PO3107. It's an ordinary purchase order, with its own approval, receiving and billing. The line is 200 Stretch Wrap 18 in at 21.50, 4,300.00, and Created From is Blanket Purchase Order #BPO14. Check To Be Emailed and the vendor's contact before you assume the vendor got anything.
Click the Created From link to go back to BPO14. Purchased Amount is now 4,300.00.
On the Items subtab, Quantity Ordered is 200 of the 2,400 on the line, so 2,200 are left to release.
Click the line's Schedule icon. The 10/01/2026 row's Order is Purchase Order #PO3107. The other eleven rows have no order yet.
Close the schedule. On the Related Records subtab, Purchase Orders lists PO3107, Pending Receipt, 4,300.00.
Check the result
- The new purchase order's line shows Created From with the blanket purchase order.
- The blanket order's Purchased Amount went up by the released order's amount. It's cumulative across every release.
- The line's Quantity Ordered equals the released quantity, and the rest is still on the schedule.
- The released schedule row's Order column links to the purchase order.
Common questions
What's the difference between Manually and At Lead Time?
Create Purchase Orders decides who releases the rows. With Manually, a buyer checks Release on each row when it's time to order. With At Lead Time, NetSuite releases rows based on the item's lead time and your planning setup. This guide only shows Manually.
How does Autogenerate split the quantity?
It divides the line quantity evenly across the dates between the schedule's start and end date at the release frequency you picked. Here 2,400 rolls became 12 monthly rows of 200, from 10/01/2026 to 09/01/2027. If the quantity doesn't divide evenly, the last row gets the remainder.
Where do I find blanket PO releases to order?
In the account behind this example, checking Release on the schedule row and saving the blanket order created the purchase order right away. In other setups the released quantity waits under Transactions > Purchases > Order Items on the Blanket PO Items subtab. Check the row there and click Submit to create the purchase order.
Does a blanket purchase order post to the general ledger?
No. It's a non-posting agreement for the quantity, rate, terms and timing. The purchase orders released from it are ordinary purchase orders, and the receipts and bills against those are what hit the books.
Should I use a blanket purchase order or a purchase contract?
Use a blanket purchase order when you know the quantity and want it delivered on a schedule, like 200 rolls a month for a year. Use a purchase contract when you've negotiated prices or quantity breaks and want buyers to pick that pricing on purchase order lines as they need it.
Why is Maximum Amount read-only, and how do I see what's left?
Maximum Amount adds up the line amounts, so BPO14 shows 51,600.00 for 2,400 rolls at 21.50. To see what's left, compare Purchased Amount with Maximum Amount, or the line's Quantity Ordered with its Quantity. After PO3107, that's 4,300.00 and 200 rolls ordered, so 2,200 rolls and 47,300.00 are still to release. The schedule shows which months have an order.