NetSuite Bill Capture: What it is, costs, and alternatives

Invoice capture should be simple, but for many businesses, manual corrections and slow approvals turn invoice management into a bottleneck, especially at scale.

NetSuite Bill Capture helps businesses automate invoice processing by extracting key details and matching them to purchase orders, making it a natural option for NetSuite users. For those with more complex AP workflows, exploring third-party invoice capture tools is also a natural option to consider.

Let’s break down what to look for in an invoice capture solution, how NetSuite Bill Capture compares, and how businesses can improve efficiency without disrupting their existing workflows.

What is NetSuite Bill Capture?

It reduces manual data entry by allowing users to email or drag-and-drop invoices directly into the system. Using AI and optical character recognition (OCR), NetSuite Bill Capture extracts key invoice details like vendor name, purchase order number, item details, quantity, and pricing.

Beyond data extraction, NetSuite Bill Capture integrates with accounts payable workflows by automatically matching invoices to purchase orders (POs) and receiving documents. This ensures invoices are accurate before payment processing, helping businesses avoid overpayments, duplicates, and fraud.

How does NetSuite Bill Capture work?

NetSuite Bill Capture is designed to automate invoice processing and reduce manual tasks. In order to streamline the accounts payable process, its key features include:

• Automated invoice capture: AI-powered OCR scans invoices from email or drag-and-drop uploads and extracts key details.
• Intelligent data recognition: The system improves accuracy by learning from past invoices, reducing manual corrections.
• Two- and three-way PO matching: NetSuite's 3-way match can match POs with receiving documents to verify pricing, quantities, and totals.
• Approval workflows: With SuiteApprovals, invoices can be routed to the right approvers, with automated reminders and mobile-friendly approvals.

How to access NetSuite Bill Capture

To use NetSuite Bill Capture, you’ll need an active NetSuite ERP subscription, as this tool isn’t available as a standalone product. Since it’s an add-on module, businesses need to specifically subscribe to it or use it as part of NetSuite AP Automation. If invoice approvals are needed, companies should also enable SuiteApprovals, which allows them to create custom approval workflows.

How much does it cost?

NetSuite Bill Capture is priced as an add-on module, meaning its cost depends on a company's existing NetSuite setup. NetSuite's pricing model includes a core platform license, optional modules, and user count, along with a one-time implementation fee for setup. Since pricing varies by business size and needs, you’ll need to contact NetSuite for a custom quote.

What are the benefits of invoice capture?

Beyond automation, invoice capture offers several benefits that enhance AP operations. Here’s what businesses can expect:

1. Reduces manual workload: Automating invoice capture minimizes time spent on data entry and corrections, allowing AP teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
2. Speeds up invoice processing: Automatic PO matching reduces the time spent reconciling invoices and verifying charges.
3. Improves financial accuracy: By reducing human input errors and ensuring invoice data is captured consistently, businesses can avoid discrepancies in financial reporting.
4. Enhances cash flow control: Faster invoice matching and approvals help businesses manage outgoing payments more predictably, reducing late fees and optimizing cash flow.

Main challenges of invoice capture in NetSuite

While NetSuite Bill Capture offers powerful automation features, some businesses encounter limitations that affect efficiency and scalability. Here are the main challenges to consider:

1. U.S.-only availability and currency limitations

NetSuite Bill Capture is only available in the U.S. and only supports the USD dollar. Businesses that operate internationally won’t be able to process non-USD invoices through this feature. This makes it less practical for global companies that need multi-currency support or invoice processing outside the U.S.

2. Lack of customization

NetSuite’s invoice capture has limited support for standalone bills (those without POs) and provides only a few customization options, making it less adaptable for complex AP workflows. This often leads to businesses performing manual workarounds or looking to third-party solutions to fill the gaps.

Specially, NetSuite’s invoice capture:

• Does not provide support for serial/lot numbers, bins, inventory tracking, or mandatory line-level custom fields for standalone bills
• Does not allow for customization of their Review Scanned Bill page

3. Limited file format and upload restrictions

File format and size restrictions may or may not be an issue, depending on how a business handles invoices. Companies processing high volumes or receiving batch invoices in multi-invoice PDFs may find the lack of support for those formats inefficient. However, businesses that already standardize invoices in PDF, JPEG, or PNG and submit them individually might not experience major disruptions.

How to choose the right invoice capture software

Whether you're evaluating invoice capture solutions for the first time or already using NetSuite but curious about other options on the market, the key is knowing what to look for. The right tool should streamline accounts payable, minimize manual work, and integrate seamlessly with your existing workflows—whether that includes NetSuite or not.

Here are the five most important factors to consider when choosing an invoice capture solution.

1. Intelligent invoice capture and automation

The best invoice capture software eliminates tedious data entry by automating invoice scanning and extraction. AI-powered OCR should accurately pull vendor names, invoice numbers, and amounts with minimal errors. Some systems also use machine learning to improve accuracy over time, reducing the need for manual corrections.

Look for a tool that supports:

• Multiple invoice formats (PDF, email, scanned documents) for flexibility
• Auto-matching with purchase orders to prevent discrepancies
• Smart learning capabilities that recognize recurring vendor invoices

2. NetSuite integration and workflow efficiency

If you're keeping NetSuite as your ERP, you’ll need an invoice capture system that integrates smoothly without adding extra steps. It should:

• Sync invoice data to NetSuite in real time to eliminate manual transfers
• Support automated GL coding and approvals, reducing time spent on invoice reconciliation
• Handle two- and three-way matching for PO-based invoices
• Prevent duplicate entries and misclassifications during data sync

3. Approval flexibility and vendor collaboration

A rigid approval process can slow down AP operations. The system should adapt to your company's approval structure while keeping vendor interactions seamless. Look for:

• Automated approval workflows to ensure invoices reach the right approvers without delays
• Role-based routing allows customization based on invoice amount, department, or vendor
• A vendor self-service portal reduces back-and-forth emails by letting vendors submit and track invoices themselves

4. Compliance, security, and fraud prevention

Since invoices deal with financial transactions, your system needs security and compliance measures with tax regulations. A strong invoice capture tool should:

• Provide audit trails that log every invoice action for transparency
• Detect duplicate invoices and fraudulent activity before payments are processed
• Support tax compliance to reduce regulatory risks

5. Cost, scalability, and ease of adoption

A tool that meets your needs today should also scale as your business grows. Consider:

• Pricing model: Is it per invoice, per user, or a flat subscription?
• Scalability: Can it handle an increasing invoice volume without high fees?
• Ease of use: Does the system have an intuitive interface that minimizes training time?

By focusing on automation, integration, flexibility, security, and scalability, you can ensure your invoice capture software drives efficiency without adding complexity.

How Ramp Bill Pay aligns with key invoice capture features

Before choosing an invoice capture solution, it's important to assess whether it meets your business needs—especially if you're using NetSuite as your ERP. Ramp Bill Pay is an AP automation solution designed to streamline invoice capture and payments, providing greater control over AP workflows.

Here’s how Ramp Bill Pay compares across key invoice automation features:

Beyond these core capabilities, Ramp also offers deeper automation and customization to optimize NetSuite workflows:

• Custom field integration: Imports most NetSuite custom fields for coding, with required fields auto-enabled and optional ones configurable.
• Multi-entity support: Works with NetSuite across multiple entities. Subsidiaries from your accounting system can have a default bank account for payments, a corresponding cash account in NetSuite, and a default AP account for bill tracking.
• Bill sync and payments: Pull bills from NetSuite into Ramp and pay them directly via Ramp Bill Pay.

With these features, Ramp serves as both a standalone AP automation platform and a NetSuite integration, offering deeper functionality than most standard invoice capture solutions.

Why the right invoice capture solution makes all the difference

The right invoice capture solution should integrate smoothly with your workflows, eliminate inefficiencies, and scale with your business. NetSuite Bill Capture provides a solid automation foundation, but those needing more flexibility can also integrate with third-party solutions.

That’s why businesses turn to solutions like Ramp to help teams process invoices faster with fewer errors.

But don’t take it from us—Frank Byers, Controller at The Second City, switched from NetSuite’s built-in invoice capture to Ramp and saw invoice processing speed double:

“When we moved to (Ramp) Bill Pay, I was hesitant because we were promised the same type of functionality as our previous technology, which didn’t work. But Ramp’s OCR works seamlessly—it not only recognizes the vendor but reads each individual line item and uses accounting rules to code them correctly.”

Investing in a flexible, high-performing invoice capture tool means faster approvals, fewer errors, and better financial control. Speed up invoice processing with Ramp Bill Pay.