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NetSuite Reference

expensecategory

master

The expense-category list: one row per category an expense report line can be coded to, with its default rate, whether a rate must be entered, and the account the expense posts to.

Module: FinancialsNo partition column
Grain note

no lastmodifieddate on this record — full refresh. expenseacct and expenseitem are id pointers at the account and item records, but neither is attested as a join on this page, so no edge is drawn and both are read as ids.

Notes

Browser page name is expenseCategory. hasSubsidiary is false by design: `subsidiary` is a MULTISELECT ("Subsidiaries") — one category can serve several — so an equality anchor on it would drop every shared category. The two joins the page does list target the per-currency rate satellite and a translation record, neither of which is cataloged here, so this record ships with no edges. raterequired and defaultrate are the pair that explains why some expense lines carry a rate and others do not.

What the badges mean
master
Data class: what the record holds — master data, transaction documents, control/configuration, or a documented convenience record. NetSuite has no product-family or schema axis, so this is the whole classification.

Structural facts — how the record is partitioned, not a trap by itself

Subsidiary-scoped
The record carries a subsidiary column that partitions its rows, so the generated SQL anchors it. On a few records the column is a multiselect rather than a scalar foreign key — the table notes say which (see the quirks guide).
Location-scoped
The record carries a location column — an org segment in NetSuite before it is a warehouse — and the generated SQL anchors it the same way.

Join & extract hazards — verify before you rely on this

View
A documented convenience record rather than a stored one. Land the records it stands in for instead of assuming it extracts as-is — the table notes say where the rows actually live.
In field listings, the Key chip marks a primary-key field, and the T/F chip marks a check-box column Connect returns as a 'T'/'F' string.

Fields

11 fields · 1 key

11 fields.

Table fields: position, field name, description, data type, and flags. 11 fields.
#FieldDescriptionTypeFlags
1idInternal IDNUMBER
Primary-key field
2nameCategory nameVARCHAR
3descriptionDescriptionVARCHAR
4expenseacctAccount the expense posts to (internal id) — read as an id, no page-attested joinNUMBER
5expenseitemItem the expense is billed through (internal id) — read as an id, no page-attested joinNUMBER
6defaultrateDefault rate applied to a line in this categoryNUMBER
7raterequiredA rate must be entered on the lineVARCHAR
8personalcorporatecardexpenseCategory marks a personal expense on a corporate cardVARCHAR
9isinactiveInactiveVARCHAR
10subsidiarySubsidiaries the category serves — a MULTISELECT, so no anchor is emittedNUMBER
11externalidExternal IDVARCHAR

Field provenance: hand-curated. 1 key field.

Boilerplate SQL

Starting point for reading the Connect-landed copy of expensecategory on Databricks — dates are real DATE/TIMESTAMP columns and need no conversion, and the partition anchors are already in place. This record carries no modification stamp, and the snippet says so where the watermark would otherwise go. Set your Unity Catalog location, schema, and filter values below; they’re substituted into the SQL and the copy button.

Query parameters

3 parameters not filled: <catalog>, <schema>, <id>

-- ============================================================
-- Table  : expensecategory — The expense-category list: one row per category an expense report line can be coded to, with its default rate, whether a rate must be entered, and the account the expense posts to.
-- Purpose: Column-selected read of expensecategory — auto-generated from field metadata
-- Grain  : One row per id
-- Caution: no lastmodifieddate on this record — full refresh. expenseacct and expenseitem are id pointers at the account and item records, but neither is attested as a join on this page, so no edge is drawn and both are read as ids.
-- Notes  : Auto-generated skeleton for NetSuite data landed in your lakehouse from a SuiteAnalytics Connect (or SuiteQL) extract — it never addresses live NetSuite. Identifiers are lowercase as NetSuite2.com renders them. Select-type columns hold numeric internal ids: BUILTIN.DF() display resolution exists only at extraction time, so decode ids by joining the landed list records; see quirks #display-values. Check-box columns arrive as 'T'/'F' strings; see quirks #tf-booleans.
-- ============================================================
SELECT
  t.id AS "Internal ID",
  t.name AS "Category name",
  t.description AS "Description",
  t.expenseacct AS "Account the expense posts to (internal id) — read as an id, no page-attested join",
  t.expenseitem AS "Item the expense is billed through (internal id) — read as an id, no page-attested join",
  t.defaultrate AS "Default rate applied to a line in this category",
  t.raterequired AS "A rate must be entered on the line",  -- 'T'/'F' string — compare = 'T', or CAST via CASE; see quirks #tf-booleans
  t.personalcorporatecardexpense AS "Category marks a personal expense on a corporate card",  -- 'T'/'F' string — compare = 'T', or CAST via CASE; see quirks #tf-booleans
  t.isinactive AS "Inactive",  -- 'T'/'F' string — compare = 'T', or CAST via CASE; see quirks #tf-booleans
  t.subsidiary AS "Subsidiaries the category serves — a MULTISELECT, so no anchor is emitted",
  t.externalid AS "External ID"
FROM <catalog>.<schema>.expensecategory t
WHERE
  1 = 1  -- no partition column on this record; the filters below are optional
  -- AND t.id = <id>
  -- no lastmodifieddate on this record — there is no watermark column, so incremental extraction must full-refresh it (see quirks #deletes)
ORDER BY t.id;

Verified August 2026 · Analytics Browser 2021.1 · corroborated 2025.2

Select columns hold internal ids, not display text — see decoding display values.

Relationships

Diagram of 1-hop neighbors — join details below. Document-link edges are highlighted; they chain one document to the next and are the joins newcomers most often get wrong.

Browse more Financials tables

More Financials tables

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