The quick answer
Enter a purchase order on your outsourced purchase order form, choose the Vendor and the Assembly, set the quantity and production dates, and save. With Create WO set to Yes, NetSuite creates the outsourced work order for that line, if your account and form allow it, and shows its number in the Create WO column. Release the work order, complete any approvals your account requires, then click Receive on the purchase order. The receipt builds the assembly at the vendor's manufacturing location. For a non-WIP build, the build's value generally includes the components it consumed plus the outsourcing charge, subject to your costing and inventory detail.
The screenshots show sample data. Person and operating-company names are fictional. Use your own records and values when following the steps.
Before you start
This route starts at the purchase order. You need the Outsourced Manufacturing feature along with the purchasing, receiving, Multi-Location Inventory, Assembly Items and Work Orders features your account requires, and Advanced Bill of Materials where you use revisions. You also need a vendor that is linked to a manufacturing location, an outsourcing charge item, a bill of materials for the assembly with an effective revision where your BOM uses them, and the components at the vendor's location before you receive, so the build can consume them. In this example the assembly is a BNC-310 Garden Bench, the vendor is Hartwell Finishing Works, and its location is Contract Manufacturer : Hartwell Finishing. The vendor holds 20 LEG-140 Steel Leg Frames, 10 SLT-210 Cedar Slat Sets and 10 HDW-060 Bench Hardware Kits, and the outsourcing charge item, SVC-310 Bench Finishing Charge, costs 85.00 per bench.
The outsourced form in this account is a custom form called Outsourced Purchase Order. Yours may have a different name, or an administrator may need to make the outsourced fields available on the form you use. Several details below depend on the account: whether Create WO starts at Yes, which Status and Firmed values the new work order gets, whether production dates are required, and whether approvals apply. Check each on your own records.
01. Start the purchase order on the outsourced form
From the Transactions menu, point to Purchases and choose Enter Purchase Orders. Change Custom Form from Standard Purchase Order to Outsourced Purchase Order. The page redraws with an Approval Workflow section and an Items sublist built for outsourcing. In Vendor, choose Hartwell Finishing Works. Date reads 10/12/2026, and the header Location stays Main Warehouse, which is the buyer's own location.
02. Enter the assembly line
On the Items subtab, the new line already shows Location Contract Manufacturer : Hartwell Finishing, the vendor's manufacturing location, and Create WO Yes. Choose BNC-310 Garden Bench in Assembly. In this account the line fills with Assembly Units EA, the SVC-310 Bench Finishing Charge in Item, Quantity 1, Rate 85.00, Amount 85.00, the BNC-310 Garden Bench BOM in Bill Of Materials and BNC-310 Rev A in Bill Of Materials Revision. Your form may fill fewer of these, so choose the charge item, the BOM and the revision yourself if any stays blank. The Item is the vendor's charge, not the assembly, so Rate is the charge per assembly. Check each field before you go on.
Change Quantity to 4, so Amount reads 340.00. Enter Production Start Date 10/14/2026 and Production End Date 10/16/2026, then click Add. In this account NetSuite refuses to save the order without both dates, because the work order's components use an allocation strategy. Whether both dates are required depends on your allocation and scheduling setup, so your account may not ask for them.
03. Save and read what the purchase order created
Click Save. Purchase order PO2318 is saved for Hartwell Finishing Works with status Pending Receipt and a Total of 340.00. Receive in the button bar is dimmed.
On the Items subtab, the line keeps Quantity 4, Rate 85.00 and Amount 340.00, and Create WO now reads WO1642 as a link. That is the work order the save created. NetSuite may open the link in a separate window.
04. Open the work order and release it
Click WO1642. In this example it is Planned and Firmed for 4 BNC-310 Garden Benches, with Location Contract Manufacturer : Hartwell Finishing, Buildable 0, Production Start Date 10/14/2026 and Production End Date 10/16/2026. NetSuite does not guarantee which Status and Firmed values a work order created this way gets, so read them on your own record. On the Items subtab, the components are scaled to the quantity: 8 LEG-140 Steel Leg Frame, 4 SLT-210 Cedar Slat Set and 4 HDW-060 Bench Hardware Kit. They are on hand at the vendor, 20, 10 and 10, and none is committed yet.
Click Edit, change Status to Released and click Save. The order reads Released with Buildable 4. Releasing is a separate step from firming, and it is what makes Receive usable on the purchase order. If your account releases new work orders automatically, this step is already done.
The components are now committed as far as the stock at the vendor allows, here 8, 4 and 4. How many you can build depends on your commitment settings and on that stock.
05. Receive the purchase order
On the Outsourcing subtab, Linked Purchase Order links back to PO2318. Open it. Receive is available now, so click it.
The receipt line shows the charge item, Quantity 4, the assembly BNC-310 Garden Bench and To Location Contract Manufacturer : Hartwell Finishing, which is where the work is done. Here To Location defaulted to the vendor's location, so no inventory transfer is made. Check the default on your own receipt form.
Click Inventory Detail under Assembly Build Helper. The window previews the build this receipt will create: Projected Value 611.00, Created From Work Order #WO1642, and the components with their quantities and quantities on hand, 8 LEG-140 Steel Leg Frame (20 on hand), 4 SLT-210 Cedar Slat Set (10) and 4 HDW-060 Bench Hardware Kit (10). You can use it to provide inventory detail such as lot, serial, bin or status, where those features are on. The Quantity cells appear as fields you can type in, but some component quantities are derived or backflushed and are not freely editable, so do not change them unless you mean to override what the work order calls for. Save keeps a change made in the helper, and Close only exits the window. Click Close here, then click Save on the receipt, and check the saved build's Components subtab.
06. Follow the build and its cost
Receipt IR3071 is saved. On its line, Assembly Build links Assembly Build #ASSYB418, and Inventory Transfer is blank because the finished benches stay at the vendor's location. If the receipt's To Location were another location, such as Main Warehouse, NetSuite would also create a system inventory transfer, not a transfer order, that moves the finished benches there.
Open Assembly Build #ASSYB418. It was built at Contract Manufacturer : Hartwell Finishing for 4 benches, created from Work Order #WO1642, with Projected Value 611.00. That is the components consumed, 8 legs at 18.50, 4 slat sets at 24.00 and 4 hardware kits at 6.75, which is 271.00, plus the 340.00 outsourcing charge. On the GL Impact subtab, 1320 Inventory : Finished Goods is debited 611.00. 1310 Inventory : Raw Components is credited 148.00, 96.00 and 27.00, one line per component in this example, and 6480 Expenses : Outside Services is credited 340.00 with Hartwell Finishing Works as the Name. Other setups can aggregate the lines by account, and actual costs depend on your costing method, units, cost layers and yields, so confirm them on the saved build.
Check the result
- PO2318 is Pending Receipt for 340.00, and its Create WO column links WO1642.
- WO1642 is Released with Buildable 4 before you receive.
- Receipt IR3071 links Assembly Build #ASSYB418 and has no inventory transfer.
- The build's Projected Value is 611.00, which is 271.00 of components plus the 340.00 charge.
Common questions
Does saving an outsourced purchase order create the work order?
On an eligible outsourced purchase order form, yes. When a line has Create WO set to Yes, NetSuite can create a linked outsourced work order for it when you save, and the Create WO column then shows the work order number as a link. The work order uses the line's manufacturing location. The link and the work order's Status and Firmed values depend on your account, form, permissions, approval settings and manufacturing preferences, so open the work order and check them.
Why is Receive dimmed on my outsourced purchase order?
Receive is commonly unavailable while the linked work order is Planned, and it becomes available after the work order is released. Open the work order from the Create WO column, edit it, set Status to Released and save. If Receive stays dimmed, check approval status, permissions, the form you use, the remaining quantity and any account workflow.
Why does NetSuite ask for production dates when I save?
NetSuite may require production dates when your component allocation or scheduling setup needs them. If the dates are missing, saving the outsourced purchase order or the work order can fail. In this example account the message names both fields. The exact requirement depends on your account and form.
What is the Assembly Build Helper for?
It opens from the receipt line and previews the assembly build the receipt will create, with each component's quantity and quantity on hand. You can use it to provide inventory detail, such as lot, serial, bin or inventory status, where those features are on. Some component quantities can be adjusted, while others are derived or backflushed and not freely editable, so check the saved build and its Components subtab.
How is the value of the assembly build calculated?
Projected Value is based on the components the build consumes plus the outsourcing charge for the quantity received. In this example that is 271.00 of components and a 340.00 charge, 611.00 in all. The GL Impact debits the assembly's inventory account and credits the components' inventory account and the charge item's expense account. Actual values depend on your costing method, cost layers, yields and inventory detail, so confirm them on the saved build.
What if I receive into a different location than the vendor's?
When the receipt's To Location differs from the vendor's manufacturing location, NetSuite also creates a system inventory transfer for the finished assemblies. It is not a transfer order. The build itself is still posted at the vendor's location. Check which location your receipt form offers by default.
Do I have to start from the purchase order?
No. You can instead start from a firmed outsourced work order and use Create PO on its Outsourcing subtab. That route uses the same setup but runs the opposite way, so the work order has to exist first.
Can I receive only part of the order?
You can receive less than the full quantity. The build covers only the quantity you receive, and the rest stays open on the purchase order for a later receipt. Check the build's Components subtab after each receipt, because shortages and inventory detail can change what is consumed.