Consigned Inventory Management: New Feature with Significant Transaction and Feature Exclusions

What changed

NetSuite introduced the Consigned Inventory Management feature, which lets you track inventory that remains vendor-owned until sold. Ownership transfers automatically at the point of sale, meaning you only pay for consigned items when they are fulfilled to a customer.

Item record changes

• New Allow Vendor Consignment checkbox on item records. Supported item types: regular inventory items, lot-numbered items, and serialized items. Assembly items are not supported.
• New Consigned Inventory subtab on item records exposes the following columns:
  • Quantity On Hand (Consigned), Value (Consigned), Average Cost (Consigned)
  • Quantity On Hand (All Inventory), Value (All Inventory), Average Cost (All Inventory)
• Average Cost columns display zero for items not using the average costing method.
• If Advanced Item Location Configuration is enabled, the Consigned Inventory subtab is removed. Instead, select the Consigned Inventory view on the Locations subtab under Purchasing/Inventory.

Inventory status

Consigned item quantities are assigned a specific consigned inventory status. You cannot change an item's status between consigned and non-consigned after assignment. This is a one-way gate — plan your status configuration before receiving inventory.

Bin support

Bins are optional for consigned items. Consigned and non-consigned items can coexist in the same bin by default. If you want segregation, create dedicated bins with distinguishing labels — there is no system-enforced separation.

Reporting

A new Consignment Purchases workbook is available for monitoring inventory levels and tracking items across purchasing and billing flows.

Mutual exclusions and limitations

This feature has a notably long incompatibility list. Read carefully before enabling:

Feature-level conflicts (mutually exclusive)

• Assembly Items — you cannot enable Consigned Inventory Management if Assembly Items is enabled, and vice versa. This is a hard block.
• Warehouse Management / NetSuite WMS SuiteApp — cannot be used together.
• Brazil Localization SuiteApp — contact your account manager to verify customization requirements before enabling.

Unsupported transaction types for consigned items

You cannot add vendor consigned items to these transactions:

• Inventory Transfer
• Inventory Worksheet
• Bin Transfer
• Bin Putaway Worksheet
• Standalone Vendor Bill
• Standalone Vendor Return Authorization
• Cash Refund
• Credit Memo / Standalone Credit Memo
• Blanket Purchase Order
• Inbound Shipment

Manufacturing workflows and processes are also not supported.

Purchase contracts

A single purchase contract must contain either consigned items only or non-consigned items only — no mixing on the same contract.

What to do

1. Audit feature dependencies first. If your account uses Assembly Items or WMS, this feature cannot be enabled. Check via Setup > Company > Enable Features.
2. Review any SuiteScript or integration logic that creates or modifies the excluded transaction types (Inventory Transfer, Inventory Worksheet, Bin Transfer, etc.). If you plan to add consigned items, those code paths will fail on these transactions.
3. Plan inventory status assignments carefully. Once an item is marked consigned or non-consigned, the status cannot be changed. Any automated scripts setting inventory status need to account for this constraint.
4. If using Advanced Item Location Configuration, update any saved searches, SuiteScript, or SuiteAnalytics references that target the Consigned Inventory subtab — it will not exist. Query the Locations subtab with the Consigned Inventory view instead.
5. Check custom saved searches and reports that reference on-hand quantity or value fields. The new (Consigned) and (All Inventory) columns may need to be added to get a complete picture.
6. Brazil Localization users: Do not enable this feature without first consulting your account manager about customization requirements.
7. Test bin workflows if you plan to segregate consigned inventory into dedicated bins — the system does not enforce separation, so any bin-assignment logic in scripts or workflows needs to handle this explicitly.

Note: Oracle's documentation does not specify which NetSuite release introduced this feature. Verify availability in your account's release notes or feature list under Setup > Company > Enable Features > Items & Inventory.