The quick answer
Go to Lists > Marketing > Promotions > New and click Item Promotion. Check This Promotion Can Be Automatically Applied and pick a Discount Item for Accounting. Under What the customer needs to buy, choose Spend A Minimum Order Amount Or Buy Specific Items, check Specific Items, add the item and leave Item Quantity at 1. Under What the customer will get, enter Discount Rate 100 with %, add the same item, and set Apply Discount To to Cheapest Discountable Item. Enter a coupon code and save. Then test it on a sales order: one unit gets nothing from it, two units get one free. The promotion discounts units already on the order, so the rep or customer still adds both. If other promotions hit the same item, their Combination With Other Promotions settings decide which ones can stack.
The screenshots show sample data. Person and company names are fictional. Use your own items, prices and promotions when you follow the steps.
Before you start
You need:
- SuitePromotions and Auto-Apply Promotions turned on. Both are under Setup > Company > Enable Features, on the Transactions subtab. Without Auto-Apply, a rep has to add each promotion on the order by hand.
- A role that can create promotions and enter sales orders. This example uses Administrator.
- A discount item for the promotion to post through. This example uses one called Promotion Discount. It has to be available to the order's subsidiary, and the promotion has to be valid for the order's currency, audience and sales channel.
- The Automatically apply promotions box on your sales order form. It sits on the Promotions subtab. It was checked by default on the form in this example. On yours it may start unchecked, so check it before you add lines.
The example store sells the TR-40 Trail Backpack at 180.00 and already runs two automatic promotions on it, both Combinable: $40 off each TR-40 Trail Backpack (TRAIL-40), and Buy a TR-40, get $90 off a second (TRAIL-90). The test orders are for Summit Trail Guides with -Not Taxable- lines, so tax stays out of the math.
01. Start a new item promotion
Go to Lists > Marketing > Promotions and click New Promotion. Some accounts have Promotions under the Commerce menu instead. The page lists five promotion types. A buy-one-get-one is a discount on items, so click Item Promotion.
02. Set the name, dates and combination
Name it TR-40 Trail Backpack - Buy One, Get One Free and use the same text for Description. Set Start Date to 06/01/2026 and End Date to 06/30/2026, the window the promotion runs in. If the boundary days matter, test an order on the first and last day.
Under Combination With Other Promotions, keep Combinable Promotion so it can stack with the two promotions already running. Check This Promotion Can Be Automatically Applied, and pick Promotion Discount in Discount Item for Accounting. The discount item records where the discount posts. The rate you set below decides how big it is.
03. Define buy one, get one
Under What the customer needs to buy, choose Spend A Minimum Order Amount Or Buy Specific Items and check Specific Items. Add TR-40 Trail Backpack to the items list and click Add. Leave Item Quantity at 1, so the customer has to buy one backpack to qualify. Repeat Discount Incrementally stays unchecked here, so an order gets one free backpack at most. Check it if every pair should get one free, so 4 backpacks get 2 free and 6 get 3.
Under What the customer will get, enter 100 in Discount Rate with % selected, add TR-40 Trail Backpack to that items list too, and choose Cheapest Discountable Item in Apply Discount To. One unit meets the buy condition and the discount goes to another eligible unit. With a single backpack there's no second unit to discount, so it gets nothing from this promotion.
On the Coupon Codes subtab, keep Coupon Code Type at Multiple Uses and enter TRAIL-BOGO in Coupon Code. The form asks for a code even for an automatic promotion, but nobody has to type it on the order. Leave Audience at Everyone. Usage Limits is where you'd cap how often a customer can use it. Click Save.
04. Test with all promotions combinable
Go to Transactions > Sales > Enter Sales Orders, select Summit Trail Guides, and add TR-40 Trail Backpack with Quantity 1. Open the Promotions subtab. With one unit, only $40 off each TR-40 Trail Backpack applies, with Purchase Discount -40.00. The other two need a second backpack. On the Items subtab the promotion adds a Promotion Discount line of -40.00, and the order total is 140.00.
Click the item line, change Quantity to 2 and click OK. The line is now 360.00, and on this form the promotions are recalculated right away, before you save. The Items subtab shows three Promotion Discount lines: -180.00 for the free backpack, -90.00 for the second-unit promotion, and -80.00 for $40 off each of the two. Other forms can show the discount differently, so check the amounts rather than the layout.
The Promotions subtab lists all three as Applied. The $40 promotion shows Rate -40.00 and Purchase Discount -80.00, the $90 promotion -90.00, and the buy-one-get-one Rate -100.00% with -180.00.
That's 350.00 off a 360.00 order. The Summary total is 10.00. Combinable did exactly what it says, and it nearly gave two backpacks away.
05. Make one promotion Item Line Exclusive
Go back to Lists > Marketing > Promotions, click Edit next to $40 off each TR-40 Trail Backpack, change Combination With Other Promotions to Item Line Exclusive Promotion, and save. An item line exclusive promotion can't share an item line with another item promotion.
Enter a new sales order for Summit Trail Guides with 1 TR-40 Trail Backpack. The $40 promotion still applies on its own: -40.00, total 140.00. Change Quantity to 2. Now it shows Not Applied. The $90 and buy-one-get-one promotions apply together for 270.00 off, more than the 80.00 the $40 promotion would give alone. NetSuite applies the combination that gives the bigger discount.
The total is 90.00.
06. Make the buy-one-get-one Exclusive
Edit TR-40 Trail Backpack - Buy One, Get One Free the same way, change Combination With Other Promotions to Exclusive Promotion, and save. An exclusive promotion doesn't combine with other promotions on the order.
Enter another sales order with 1 TR-40 Trail Backpack. The $40 promotion applies, -40.00. Change Quantity to 2. Only the buy-one-get-one is Applied, at -180.00. The $40 promotion shows Not Applied, and the $90 promotion isn't listed here at all. It never applied on this order. On your form a promotion that loses out may show as Not Applied instead. 180.00 off beats either of the other promotions alone.
The Items subtab has a single -180.00 discount line, and the order total is 180.00: one backpack paid, one free.
Check the result
- One TR-40 Trail Backpack gets only the $40 promotion in every round: -40.00, total 140.00.
- Two units with all three promotions combinable: -80.00, -90.00 and -180.00, total 10.00.
- With the $40 promotion Item Line Exclusive: it shows Not Applied, -90.00 and -180.00 apply, total 90.00.
- With the buy-one-get-one Exclusive: it applies alone at -180.00, total 180.00.
Save the order and reopen it to confirm the promotions and discount lines stuck. Changing a promotion only affects orders evaluated afterwards. Open orders keep the promotions they had until someone edits them and the promotions are recalculated. If an integration sends orders with prices already discounted, automatic promotions can discount them a second time, so check imported orders too. On taxable orders, test that the discount item's tax setup matches the item before you rely on the totals.
Common questions
Why doesn't my buy one get one promotion apply when the customer buys one?
With Item Quantity at 1, one unit meets the buy condition and the discount needs a second unit to land on. So the order needs two of the item before the buy-one-get-one applies. In this example one TR-40 Trail Backpack got only the $40 promotion, and two got one free.
What's the difference between Combinable, Exclusive and Item Line Exclusive?
Combinable Promotion can stack with other eligible promotions. Item Line Exclusive Promotion can't share an item line with another item promotion, but it doesn't block promotions on other lines. Exclusive Promotion doesn't combine with other promotions on the order. On the two-backpack order that meant 350.00 off, then 270.00, then 180.00.
Why does a promotion show Not Applied on the Promotions subtab?
Either it no longer meets its criteria, or it lost out to a better combination of promotions. Here the $40 promotion was Applied with one backpack, then showed Not Applied with two because, as Item Line Exclusive, it couldn't share the line with the $90 and buy-one-get-one promotions. Check Status Information to tell the two cases apart.
Do customers have to enter the coupon code for an automatic promotion?
No. With This Promotion Can Be Automatically Applied checked and the order eligible, NetSuite applies it without anyone typing TRAIL-BOGO. The code stays on the promotion, so a rep can still add it on the Promotions subtab when automatic application is off.
How does NetSuite choose between several eligible promotions?
It applies the eligible combination that gives the customer the biggest discount while respecting each promotion's combination setting. That's why the $90 and buy-one-get-one pair (270.00 off) beat the item line exclusive $40 promotion (80.00 off). An exclusive promotion wins only when it's worth more than the best combination it would replace.
What does Repeat Discount Incrementally do?
It makes the offer repeat for each further qualifying set of units. Unchecked, as in this example, an order gets one free backpack no matter how many it has. Checked, 4 backpacks get 2 free and 6 get 3, so test those quantities before you go live.
Should I use an Item Promotion or a Free Gift Promotion for buy one get one?
An Item Promotion discounts units that are already on the order, so the customer or rep adds both and one comes off at 100%. A Free Gift Promotion adds a separate gift item when the order qualifies. Use the gift version when you want NetSuite to put the free item on the order for you.
What's the difference between multiple-use and single-use coupon codes?
A Multiple Uses code like TRAIL-BOGO is one shared code, limited by the promotion's audience and usage limits. Single Use codes can each be redeemed once, and are usually generated or imported in bulk and handed out one per customer. This example only uses a multiple-use code.