Unplanned Expense Amortization

One question I heard a couple times last week at NetSuite SuiteWorld:

How do I enter expenses that need to be amortized for which I don’t know the amortization dates yet?

This is actually really simple:

1) On the vendor bill, code the expense line directly to the appropriate prepaid account. Do not enter an amortization template, start date or end date.
2) Once the amortization date range is known, create a journal entry that debits the expense account and includes the amortization template, start date and end date and credits the prepaid account used on the source transaction.

After #1, the expense will appear on the deferred expense waterfall under the “Unplanned” column. This should make sense – the expense amortization hasn’t been planned yet! After #2, the expense will move from the “Unplanned” column to the appropriate period(s).