Kit & SLN Item Handling

The Orderful NetSuite Connector supports kit items — parent items composed of multiple component items — across the full Order-to-Cash lifecycle. There are two distinct approaches to handling kits, depending on how your NetSuite environment is configured:

Approach 1: NetSuite Kit Items

When your NetSuite environment has Kit/Package or Assembly items properly configured, kit handling requires no additional setup. The connector treats kit SKUs like any other item:

1. Inbound 850: The trading partner orders a kit SKU. The connector adds the kit item to the Sales Order just like an inventory or assembly item.
2. Fulfillment: NetSuite natively explodes the kit into its component items for picking and packing.
3. Outbound 855/856/810: The connector generates outbound documents using the kit and component data from NetSuite's native item records.

This is the simpler and recommended path when kit composition is consistent and managed in NetSuite's item master.

Approach 2: Use SLN

The Use SLN feature is an advanced mode for situations where native NetSuite kit items don't fit. Common reasons to use this approach:

• No kit items in NetSuite — The NetSuite environment doesn't have Kit/Package or Assembly items configured
• Trading-partner-specific kit composition — Different trading partners define different components for the same kit, making the inbound 850 (not NetSuite) the source of truth
• Split-warehouse fulfillment — Kit components need to be fulfilled from separate warehouses, which NetSuite's native kit items don't support

How Use SLN Works

Instead of adding a kit-level item to the Sales Order, the connector reads past the primary PO1 line item and adds the SLN component items directly as individual Sales Order lines. It stores the kit identity and component ratios in custom fields on each line, so it can reassemble the kit structure when generating outbound documents (855, 856, 810).

Key Terms

Configuration

Use SLN is controlled by a single flag on the NetSuite Customer Entity record:

To enable:

1. Navigate to the Customer record in NetSuite
2. Locate the Orderful subtab (or custom fields section)
3. Check the Use SLN checkbox
4. Save the record

Once enabled, Use SLN applies to all inbound and outbound transactions for that customer.

Inbound 850: Purchase Order to Sales Order

When an 850 contains SLN segments and the customer has Use SLN enabled, the connector skips the kit-level item and writes component items directly to the Sales Order.

Detection

A PO1 line item is processed as an SLN kit when both conditions are met:

1. The customer's Use SLN flag is enabled
2. The PO1 line item contains an SLN loop (one or more SLN segments)

If either condition is not met, the PO1 line is processed normally using baseline item data.

How Components Are Created

For each SLN segment, the connector creates a separate Sales Order line:

Example

An 850 Purchase Order contains:

PO1 Line (Kit):

• Item: KIT-001 (UPC: 600002672008)
• Quantity: 2 (two kits ordered)

SLN Components:

Resulting Sales Order Lines:

Each Sales Order line retains the kit reference (KIT-001) and kit count (2) so that outbound documents can reconstruct the original kit structure.

Outbound 855: Purchase Order Acknowledgment

When generating an 855 for an order with SLN kit items, the connector groups the component lines back into kit-level structures.

Process

1. Group by kit — All Sales Order lines sharing the same kit reference are grouped together
2. Calculate kit quantity — For each component, the connector divides the total acknowledged quantity by the items-per-kit ratio from the original SLN
3. Build PO1 + SLN — The 855 PO1 uses the original kit item identifiers and the calculated kit quantity. Each component appears as an SLN segment with its per-kit quantity.

Kit Quantity Calculation

Kit Quantity Acknowledged = Total Component Quantity Acknowledged ÷ Items Per Kit

Example: If 8 units of BIC00012 are acknowledged (items per kit = 2), the kit quantity is 8 ÷ 2 = 4 kits acknowledged.

The connector uses the minimum kit quantity across all components to determine how many complete kits can be acknowledged.

Outbound 856: Advance Ship Notice

Kit handling in the 856 is the most complex step because the connector must reconstruct kit relationships from flat Item Fulfillment lines in NetSuite.

Process

1. Group packed items by kit — Fulfilled items are matched to their original kit reference from the Sales Order
2. Calculate packed kit count — For each component, the connector calculates how many complete kits were packed: packed quantity ÷ items per kit
3. Apply minimum rule — The number of kits shipped equals the minimum packed kit count across all components in the kit (the bottleneck component determines the kit count)
4. Build Item HL + SLN — The 856 Item hierarchical level uses the kit item identifiers and the calculated kit count. Each component appears as an SLN segment with its per-kit quantity.

Divisibility Requirement

Packed quantities for each component must be evenly divisible by the items-per-kit ratio. If a component's packed quantity is not divisible, the transaction will fail with an error:

Invalid packed quantity for item "[item ID]": [quantity]. The packed quantity must be divisible by the number of items per kit.

Example of valid packing (2 kits, each containing 2× Item A, 1× Item B, 3× Item C):

Kit count shipped = minimum(2, 2, 2) = 2 kits

Example of invalid packing:

Partial Kit Shipments

If only some kits are packed and shipped, the connector handles this correctly. The minimum rule ensures only complete kits are reported:

Kit count shipped = minimum(2, 1) = 1 kit. The remaining Item A units are not included in this shipment's kit count.

Outbound 810: Invoice

When generating an 810 Invoice for an order with SLN kit items, the connector follows a similar grouping and calculation pattern.

Process

1. Group invoiced items by kit — All invoice lines sharing the same kit reference are grouped
2. Calculate kit quantity invoiced — The connector looks up the original items-per-kit ratio from the Sales Order and divides the invoiced quantity by that ratio
3. Build IT1 + SLN — The 810 IT1 loop uses the kit item identifiers and calculated kit quantity. Each component appears as an SLN segment with its per-kit quantity.

Kit Quantity Calculation

Kit Quantity Invoiced = Total Component Quantity Invoiced ÷ Items Per Kit

The items-per-kit ratio is derived from the original Sales Order: ordered quantity ÷ kits count.

If an order is invoiced across multiple Invoice transactions, the connector sums the invoiced quantities for each component before calculating the kit total.

Choosing the Right Approach

Troubleshooting