The quick answer
Go to Transactions → Bank → Automated Cash Application and choose the bank account in Account. NetSuite lists the account's positive imported lines that aren't matched yet, with a suggested customer and invoices where it found them. Lines marked Ready To Submit already have a customer and are checked. Expand a To Review line with +, confirm the invoice it would pay, and check it. For a No Customer line, choose the customer yourself and click Make Rule if the payor name always means that customer. Then click Submit and OK. NetSuite generates one customer payment per checked line in the background, records it in the bank account, applies it to the selected invoices (any amount left over stays unapplied), and matches and clears it against the bank line. Reconciling the statement is still a separate step.
Applying cash by hand means reading every bank line, working out who paid, finding the invoice, keying a customer payment and then matching that payment back to the bank line. Automated Cash Application does the matching from the bank data you already imported and leaves you the doubtful lines.
This walkthrough clears four receipts from 1020 Cash : Operating Checking. Two matched on their own, one is a close match that needs a look, and one comes from NWT Holdings, a trading name NetSuite doesn't recognize. A fifth line, a card processor settlement, isn't a customer payment and gets left alone. The screenshots use sample data, and the person and company names are fictional.
Before you start
Automated Cash Application only works on bank data that's already in NetSuite, from a bank feed or a statement file uploaded through Banking Import History. It doesn't import anything itself. The page shows positive imported lines that haven't been matched to a transaction yet, on a bank or credit card account.
The account needs Use Match Bank Data and Reconcile Account Statement Pages checked on its account record. The role needs access to Automated Cash Application and the banking permissions for imported bank data, plus permission to create customer payments. The setup this walkthrough follows also gives the role Invoice edit access. If the menu item or page is missing, have an administrator check the account's banking features and the role. The walkthrough uses an Administrator role.
When a receipt carries no invoice number, the accounting preference Apply Payments Without Invoice Numbers (Setup → Accounting → Accounting Preferences, General subtab, under Accounts Receivable) decides what NetSuite suggests, for example the oldest open invoices, or nothing so the payment stays unapplied. Check it before you trust the suggestions; they can differ by account and customer.
01 · Load the account's imported receipts
Go to Transactions → Bank → Automated Cash Application.
In Account, choose 1020 Cash : Operating Checking. Currency fills in from the account, USD here, and Imported Bank Data lists the account's five unmatched positive lines, Total: 5. One of them, a card processor settlement, isn't a customer payment at all.
The Status column tells you what NetSuite made of each line:
- Ready To Submit: a customer is selected and the line is checked. Harlow Fixtures, 4,850.00, matched 312 Harlow Fixtures Inc. and INV-3107. Sable Ridge Cafe, 1,275.40, matched 356 Sable Ridge Café and INV-3129. A customer shown as a link was set by NetSuite's match.
- To Review: a customer is selected but the line isn't checked. Brennan and Lowe, 2,120.00, was only a close match, so 327 Brennan & Lowe LLP sits in a dropdown you can change, with INV-3115 suggested.
- No Customer: no customer is selected, so the line's checkbox stays inactive until you pick one. That's NWT Holdings, 3,600.00, and the Card processor settlement deposit, 1,640.75.
02 · Review the suggested match and select it
Click + on the Brennan and Lowe line. Invoice Matches for 327 Brennan & Lowe LLP (1) shows INV-3115 with Original Amount, Amount Due and Applied Amount all 2,120.00. The Summary shows Total To Apply 2,120.00, Applied -2,120.00 and Unapplied 0.00, so the receipt pays the invoice exactly.
You can edit the Applied Amount, remove an invoice with the trash icon, or click View Invoices to pick from the customer's other open items. If the amounts don't line up, you can still submit; the difference is left unapplied on the payment.
This one is right, so check the line. Its status changes to Ready To Submit.
03 · Map the unrecognized payor to its customer
Point at the warning icon on the NWT Holdings line. NetSuite couldn't match a customer, and you have to pick one before it can generate a payment. Only customers that share the account's currency, and its subsidiary in OneWorld, are available.
NWT Holdings is the trading name Northwind Trading Co. pays from. In Customer on that line, choose 341 Northwind Trading Co.
NetSuite asks Make Customer Mapping Rule? The rule would associate any transaction with a payor similar to NWT Holdings and an empty memo with 341 Northwind Trading Co. Don't Make Rule sets the customer on this line only. Click Make Rule, so next month's NWT Holdings receipt matches without you.
Make a rule only when the payor text reliably means one customer. A rule on a generic payor such as a bank's abbreviated text will send the wrong receipts to that customer.
The line becomes To Review with INV-3122 in Invoice Matches. Click +: INV-3122 has Amount Due 3,600.00 and Applied Amount 3,600.00, and Unapplied is 0.00. Check the line. It's now Ready To Submit.
04 · Submit the batch
Leave the card processor settlement unchecked. It's a settlement deposit, not a customer payment, so it shouldn't become one. Click Submit.
Generate Payments shows 4 To be Generated and 1 Excluded from Batch. Unchecked lines are the excluded ones. Click OK.
Each generated payment belongs to one customer. If a single receipt pays invoices for several customers, handle it outside Automated Cash Application.
05 · Follow the payments being generated
Generation runs in the background. Processed Records lists the four lines, Total: 4. Right after submission in this recording, line 1 is In Progress and the rest are Not Started.
Click Refresh. Every line is Complete with Result Success, and Created Customer Payment shows Payment #5207, #5208, #5209 and #5210. If a line fails, its reason shows in Error Message. Fix the customer, invoice or required field it names, and check whether the bank line is still waiting on Automated Cash Application or Match Bank Data.
06 · Check a generated payment
Click Payment #5209, the NWT Holdings receipt. The payment is Deposited, for 341 Northwind Trading Co., with Account 1020 Cash : Operating Checking and Date 09/24/2026, the same date as the bank line. It's recorded in the bank account itself, not Undeposited Funds. The Summary shows Applied 3,600.00 and Unapplied 0.00.
On the Apply subtab, Applied To is 3,600.00, and the applied line is invoice INV-3122 with Amt. Due 3,600.00.
If your forms or accounting preferences require a department, class or location on customer payments, check the generated payments here. NetSuite may create them without those values, and you'll have to fill them in.
07 · Confirm the receipts are matched and the rule is saved
Go back to Transactions → Bank → Automated Cash Application and choose 1020 Cash : Operating Checking again. Only the card processor settlement is left, Total: 1. The four receipts were submitted, and each generated payment was matched to its bank line and cleared, so those lines no longer show here.
Matched and cleared isn't reconciled. You still reconcile the statement under Transactions → Bank → Reconcile Account Statement, and the settlement deposit still needs matching on Match Bank Data.
Click View Customer Mapping Rules. The new rule maps Payor Similar To NWT Holdings to 341 Northwind Trading Co. and is Active. You can edit it, deactivate it or delete it from this list.
Common questions
What do Ready To Submit, To Review and No Customer mean?
Ready To Submit means the line has a customer and is checked, so it goes into the next batch. To Review means it has a customer, usually a close match NetSuite wasn't sure about, but nobody has checked it yet. No Customer means no customer is selected, so the line can't generate a payment until you choose one.
Why can't I select a line on Automated Cash Application?
Its checkbox stays inactive while the line shows No Customer. Choose a customer in the line's Customer field and it becomes selectable. Only customers that share the account's currency, and its subsidiary in OneWorld, show up in that list, so a missing customer usually means a currency or subsidiary mismatch.
What does Make Rule do on a customer mapping rule?
It saves a rule that ties a payor, and optionally a memo, to the customer you picked. The next imported line with a similar Payor and Memo gets that customer automatically. Don't Make Rule sets the customer on the current line only. Skip the rule when the payor text is generic or shared by more than one customer, because it'll keep sending those receipts to the same customer.
Which invoices does Automated Cash Application apply a payment to?
The ones listed under Invoice Matches when you submit. If the bank line carries an invoice number, NetSuite matches on it. If it doesn't, the Apply Payments Without Invoice Numbers accounting preference decides what gets suggested, such as the oldest open invoices or nothing at all. Expand the line and read the Summary first: whatever shows as Unapplied stays unapplied on the payment.
Do the payments go to Undeposited Funds?
No. Each payment is recorded in the bank or credit card account you chose on the page. Payment 5209 in this walkthrough sits in 1020 Cash : Operating Checking with status Deposited, so there's no separate deposit to make for it.
Where do I see the payments Automated Cash Application created?
On Processed Records, which opens after you click OK on Generate Payments. Click Refresh until each line shows Complete. The Created Customer Payment column links to each payment, here Payment #5207 to #5210, and Error Message explains any line that failed.
Why did a bank line disappear after I submitted it?
NetSuite matched the generated payment to that bank line and cleared it, and the page only lists lines that aren't matched yet. Matched and cleared isn't the same as reconciled. You still reconcile the statement under Reconcile Account Statement.
What setup does Automated Cash Application need?
Imported bank data for the account, from a bank feed or a file uploaded through Banking Import History, and Use Match Bank Data and Reconcile Account Statement Pages checked on the account record. The role needs access to Automated Cash Application and the imported bank data, and permission to create customer payments. If the page or the account is missing, have an administrator check the banking features and the role.
What happens to bank lines that aren't customer payments?
Leave them unchecked. A card processor settlement, interest or a transfer shouldn't be assigned to a customer just to make it selectable. Unchecked lines are excluded from the batch and stay on the page, and you match them to the right transaction on Match Bank Data instead.