Stripe prices and coupons in NetSuite

The Stripe Connector for NetSuite syncs the Stripe products, prices, and coupons that you create into the following NetSuite items:

• Price: Associated or grouped within a product
• Coupons: Used to provide discounts (such as percentage or flat amount) on an invoice
• One-time items: Used for miscellaneous billing charges

Use NetSuite to manage the item configuration, such as account, deferred revenue, reporting, revenue recognition options, and so on.

How NetSuite represents products and prices

Products in Stripe are like records that organise groups of price levels. Each price has a corresponding item in NetSuite, while a product (or group of prices) isn’t represented in NetSuite.

The connector can represent Stripe prices in NetSuite in three ways:

• Every price in Stripe creates a unique NetSuite item. This method provides detailed reporting and control over revenue recognition and revenue accounts for each Stripe price. Because this method adds more entries to your item master, it’s a good fit for businesses with a moderate number of items (less than 100) created each day. If you receive a very high volume of entries (hundreds per day), this can impact the connector’s ability to sync other monetary transactions.

• All prices use a single global NetSuite item. This method posts every price in Stripe to a single revenue account in NetSuite. This method keeps your item master simple. With this method, you can’t customise revenue recognition across different prices.

  Note

  To use this method, ask your implementation partner to enable the Enable global item workflow feature in your Stripe app settings. Consult with your implementation partner to understand all accounting and technical implications.

• Customise Stripe prices to use specific items in NetSuite. You can have specific prices use specific NetSuite items by doing either of the following: use the connector’s item matching system, or programmatically add metadata to the price. If you receive a very high volume of entries (hundreds per day), this can impact the connector’s ability to sync transactions.

Item matching system

When you use the connector, the item matching system works as follows:

1. The item matching system compares the fields you specify on a Stripe price and a NetSuite item to identify matching values. Whitespace and capitalisation don’t affect the matching process.

2. If the system finds multiple matches, the connector chooses the first match found.

3. If the system doesn’t find a match, the connector does one of the following, depending on your settings:

   • Creates a new, unique item in NetSuite for the Stripe price (default)
   • Uses a generic Stripe item

The system can only link certain item types and must match on the full data contained in each field. It can’t match partial data or strings that contain the data. For example, the connector can’t match a NetSuite field that contains an ID of 12345 with Stripe metadata that contains Item ID 12345 because the NetSuite field is missing Item ID.

Add metadata to the Stripe price

You can programmatically add metadata to the price object to specify which NetSuite item the connector can use on the invoice in NetSuite.

When creating an invoice item using the API, you can create a one-off price that’s used for a single invoice and then automatically archived. Pass the price_data and include a product ID. You can’t use metadata to specify which item to use in NetSuite; item matching for one-time prices is used.

How NetSuite represents coupons

Coupons in Stripe are represented as non-posting discount items that are applied to items in NetSuite. The connector supports multiple discounts on the invoice level and invoice line item level.

The connector can represent Stripe coupons in NetSuite in three ways:

• Every coupon creates a unique NetSuite discount item. This method provides detailed reporting for each Stripe coupon, but adds more entries to your item master.

• All coupons use a single global NetSuite item. This method posts every coupon in Stripe to a single item in NetSuite. This method keeps your item master simple.

  Note

  To use this method, ask your implementation partner to enable the Enable global discount workflow feature in your Stripe app settings. Consult with your implementation partner to understand all accounting and technical implications.

• Customise Stripe coupons to use specific discount items in NetSuite. You can have specific coupons use specific discount items by programmatically adding metadata to the coupon before it’s used. If there’s no metadata present for a used coupon, the connector does one of the following, depending on your settings:

  • Creates a new, unique coupon (default)
  • Uses a global discount item

Use coupons with revenue recognition

Coupons don’t have a revenue period. For revenue recognition, coupons are created as non-posting discounts, by default. This means the discount amount is subtracted from the total revenue recognised for the item it’s applied to.

Post discounts

You can create discounts as posting items. If your business later requires revenue recognition, you must modify the connector to make discounts non-posting. Coupons that are created as posting discounts can cause problems with revenue recognition calculation.

Stripe coupons and NetSuite discounts

There are some notable differences between Stripe coupons and NetSuite discounts:

• Because the NetSuite discount model differs from Stripe, a coupon line is reflected in NetSuite as its own line.
• While each discount is its own line in NetSuite, in Stripe you can apply multiple discounts to a single line item.
• A single line item in Stripe can result in multiple NetSuite line items.
• You can’t add a discount directly to a credit note line item in Stripe. The discount can only be inherited from the parent invoice.

Change the default account for a NetSuite item

When creating an item in NetSuite, the connector uses a default income account. You can modify the income account for the NetSuite item at any time in the Account mapping > Income section of your Stripe app settings. Changes to the NetSuite item’s configurations won’t affect the connector’s link between the price and the item.

For example, the connector creates an item that posts to the wrong incoming account. You can modify the item in NetSuite to change the income or deferred revenue account.

You can’t modify the income account for an item if it contains a transaction from a closed accounting period. You also can’t modify a discount item after it’s used on a transaction.