Outbound Transaction Consolidation

Consolidation determines how NetSuite records are grouped into outbound EDI transactions. When you receive a single 850 Purchase Order that creates multiple Sales Orders (for example, due to ship-to address splitting), consolidation controls whether the connector sends one outbound document per Sales Order or combines them into a single EDI envelope.

Consolidation Methods

The connector supports four consolidation methods, configured per Enabled Transaction Type on the Customer record.

Parent 850

All records originating from the same inbound 850 Purchase Order are grouped into a single outbound envelope.

Use case: Your trading partner expects one 856 Ship Notice that includes all shipments from a PO, regardless of how many Ship-To locations or fulfillments are involved.

Example: An 850 PO splits into 3 Sales Orders (one per Ship-To). Each Sales Order generates an Item Fulfillment. With Parent 850 consolidation, all 3 Item Fulfillments are combined into a single outbound 856.

Ship To

Records are grouped by ship-to address. Sales Orders with the same shipping address (or DC Number) share an outbound envelope.

Use case: Your trading partner requires separate ASNs per Ship-To location, but you may have multiple Sales Orders going to the same location that should be combined.

Example: An 850 PO splits into 3 Sales Orders across 2 Ship-To addresses. Ship-To A has 2 Sales Orders; Ship-To B has 1. With Ship To consolidation, you send 2 outbound 856s: one containing both fulfillments for Ship-To A, another for Ship-To B.

Sales Order

Each Sales Order gets its own outbound envelope. Records created from the same Sales Order (for example, multiple Item Fulfillments from partial shipments) are grouped together.

Use case: Your trading partner requires one outbound document per Sales Order, but partial shipments from the same SO should be combined.

Example: A Sales Order has 2 partial Item Fulfillments. With Sales Order consolidation, both fulfillments are combined into a single outbound 856.

None

No consolidation. Each NetSuite record produces its own outbound EDI envelope, processed immediately when the record reaches the ready state.

Use case: Simple 1:1 processing where each fulfillment or invoice should generate a separate EDI document immediately.

Example: Each Item Fulfillment generates its own 856 the moment it ships.

Note: When Consolidation Method is set to None, the connector processes records synchronously via the User Event script. All other consolidation methods use the scheduled Map/Reduce script for batch processing.

How Consolidation Works by Transaction Type

855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment

856 Advance Ship Notice

810 Invoice

When Does the Connector Send Outbound Transactions?

The connector waits until all related Sales Orders are ready before sending a consolidated outbound document. This ensures your trading partner receives complete information.

What the Connector Waits For

Handling Cancelled or Closed Orders

If a Sales Order is Cancelled or Closed, the connector treats it as complete and won't wait for it. For example:

• An 850 PO creates 3 Sales Orders
• SO1 is cancelled, SO2 and SO3 are fulfilled and invoiced
• The connector will send the 856 and 810 with just SO2 and SO3 — it won't wait for SO1

Ensuring All Records Are Included

For 856 Ship Notice and 810 Invoice, the connector also verifies that all fulfillments or invoices are included before sending:

This prevents partial shipments or invoices from being sent prematurely when you have multiple fulfillments or invoices being processed.

Configuration

Setting the Consolidation Method

1. Navigate to the Customer record in NetSuite
2. Go to the Orderful subtab
3. Under EDI Enabled Transaction Types, find or create the entry for the transaction type (855, 856, or 810)
4. Set the Consolidation Method field:
   • None - No consolidation (1:1 processing)
   • Parent 850 - Group by inbound PO
   • Ship To - Group by shipping address
   • Sales Order - Group by parent Sales Order

Which Method Should I Use?

Transaction Types That Support Consolidation

Troubleshooting

Outbound transaction stuck in Pending

Symptoms: The Orderful Transaction record shows status "Pending" but the transaction is not being sent.

Check:

1. Readiness gate: Verify all related Sales Orders have reached the required status. Navigate to the linked Sales Orders and check their status.
2. Completeness gate: For 856 and 810, verify all downstream records exist and are linked. Check the Orderful Transaction's related records list.
3. Auto-send disabled: Verify the Enabled Transaction Type has "Auto Send" checked.

Missing records in consolidated envelope

Symptoms: The outbound 856 or 810 is missing some expected records.

Check:

1. Records may still be processing in a later batch. The scheduled script processes up to 500 records per run.
2. Check if the missing records have a different Ship-To address (Ship To consolidation) or parent SO (Sales Order consolidation).
3. Verify the missing records are linked to the same inbound 850.

Cancelled SO blocking outbound

Symptoms: Outbound transaction won't send because a related SO was cancelled.

Resolution: As of version 1.20.81, Cancelled and Closed SOs are treated as terminal statuses and will not block outbound transactions. Ensure you're running the latest connector version.