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Deletion Scripts

The SuiteMigration Admin Toolkit safely deletes NetSuite records in bulk using a background process. This guide covers deploying the toolkit in your NetSuite account and using it.

Overview

The toolkit consists of two scripts:

  • Suitelet Script — provides the user interface to select the subsidiary, External ID criteria, record type and date filter, preview the deletion, and monitor progress. It also renders the About SuiteMigration tab.
  • Map/Reduce Script — performs the bulk deletion asynchronously in the background.

How they work together: the Suitelet collects your selection and submits a Map/Reduce task with seven script parameters. The Map/Reduce script builds a saved search from those parameters and deletes the matching records. The Suitelet then polls the task status to display live progress and the final deleted / failed counts.

Step 1 — Upload Script Files

  1. Navigate to Documents → Files → SuiteScripts.
  2. Click Add File and upload both files:

Step 2 — Create the Map/Reduce Script

  1. Navigate to Customization → Scripting → Scripts → New.
  2. Select the file SuiteMigration_AdminToolkit_MapReduce.js.
  3. Click Create Script Record.
  4. Enter the following details:
    • Name: SuiteMigration Admin Toolkit – Delete Records (or any preferred name)
    • ID: _sm_toolkit_delete_mr (mandatory — used in script)

Step 3 — Add Script Parameters

Go to the Parameters subtab and add all seven parameters below. Every parameter is of type Free-Form Text, and every ID is mandatory because it is referenced in the script.

  1. Record Type
    • ID: _sm_recordtype
  2. Subsidiary
    • ID: _sm_subsidiary
  3. External ID
    • ID: _sm_externalid
  4. Transaction Date From
    • ID: _sm_trandate_from
  5. Transaction Date To
    • ID: _sm_trandate_to
  6. Created Date From
    • ID: _sm_createddate_from
  7. Created Date To
    • ID: _sm_createddate_to

Labels can be anything you prefer. Click Save.

Important: enter parameter IDs without the custscript_ prefix. NetSuite adds it automatically.

Step 4 — Deploy the Map/Reduce Script

  1. Open the Map/Reduce script record.
  2. Click Deploy Script.
  3. Configure the deployment:
    • Title: Delete Records Deployment (or any preferred title)
    • ID: _sm_toolkit_delete_mr (mandatory — used in script)
    • Log Level: Debug
    • Status: Testing
    • Execute As Role: Administrator (or appropriate role)
  4. Click Save.

Step 5 — Create the Suitelet Script

  1. Navigate to Customization → Scripting → Scripts → New.
  2. Select the file SuiteMigration_AdminToolkit_SuiteLet.js.
  3. Click Create Script Record.
  4. Enter the following details:
    • Name: SuiteMigration Admin Toolkit (or any preferred name)
    • ID: _sm_toolkit_suitelet (or any preferred ID — not used in script)
  5. Click Save.

Step 6 — Deploy the Suitelet Script

  1. Open the Suitelet script record.
  2. Click Deploy Script.
  3. Configure the deployment:
    • Title: SuiteMigration Admin Toolkit (or any preferred title)
    • ID: _sm_toolkit_suitelet_deploy (or any preferred ID)
    • Log Level: Debug
    • Status: Released
    • Execute As Role: Administrator (or appropriate role)
    • Audience → Roles: Administrator
  4. Click Save.

Accessing and Using the Script

  1. Open the Suitelet deployment record.
  2. Copy the Internal URL or External URL.
  3. Paste the URL into your browser.

  4. The page opens with two tabs — Delete Records (the deletion form) and About SuiteMigration (product information and links).

    The Delete Records form in the SuiteMigration Admin Toolkit

  5. Select a Subsidiary — only active subsidiaries are listed.

  6. Select an External ID option — determines which records to target based on their External ID:
    • All records (Blank + All populated values) — every record, with or without an External ID
    • All populated values — records that have an External ID (any value)
    • Blank — records with no External ID
    • All populated values that match SuiteMigration — records whose External ID matches the SuiteMigration format
  7. Select a Record Type — choose an individual type or a group option:
    • All Records — deletes all supported record types (transactions + entities/items)
    • All Entities — deletes all Customers, Vendors, Employees, Items and Projects
    • All Transactions (including Journal Entries) — deletes all transaction types
    • Or select an individual record type (Customers, Vendors, Items, Invoices, etc.)
  8. Select a Date Filter option:
    • Created Date (default) — filters by record creation date. Available for all record types
    • Transaction Date — filters by transaction date. Available for transaction types only (not for Customers, Vendors, Employees, Items or Projects)
    • All Dates — deletes all records for the selected subsidiary and record type, without any date filtering
  9. If using a date range option:
    • The To date is required.
    • The From date is optional — leave it blank to delete all records up to and including the To date.
    • All dates are inclusive — both the From and To dates are included in the deletion range.
  10. Click Preview Deletion. The button stays greyed out until Subsidiary, External ID and Record Type are selected (and a To date, if a date range is chosen).

  11. A confirmation modal opens showing exactly what will be deleted, with a permanent-action warning:

    • Cancel — closes the modal, nothing is deleted
    • Delete Records — starts the deletion

    The Confirm Deletion modal summarising what will be deleted

  12. The Map/Reduce script runs in the background and a progress page is displayed.

  13. The progress page shows:
    • "Scanning records…" while the search runs
    • "Deleting: 8,400 of 20,000 records" — the percentage reflects the actual number of records processed
    • On completion, a summary: Total — Deleted: X · Failed: Y (failures shown in red)
  14. For group options, the progress page additionally shows:
    • The record type currently being processed (e.g. "Currently processing: Invoices")
    • Overall progress with status for each type (Completed / Processing / Pending)
    • Each type's own Deleted / Failed counts, with any type that had failures highlighted
    • Each type is processed one by one in the correct dependency order (payments before invoices, transactions before entities)
  15. Once all types are done, the page updates to All Records Deleted.

Supported Record Types

Group options

  • All Records — all transactions plus Projects, Customers, Vendors, Employees and Items
  • All Entities — Projects, Customers, Vendors, Employees, Items
  • All Transactions (including Journal Entries) — all transaction types listed below

Entities (Created Date filtering only)

  • Customers — customer
  • Vendors — vendor
  • Employees — employee
  • Items — item
  • Projects — job

Transactions (support Created Date and Transaction Date)

  • Invoices — invoice
  • Customer Payments — customerpayment
  • Credit Memos — creditmemo
  • Vendor Bills — vendorbill
  • Vendor Payments — vendorpayment
  • Vendor Credits — vendorcredit
  • Checks — check
  • Deposits — deposit
  • Cash Sales — cashsale
  • Cash Refunds — cashrefund
  • Cash Expenses — cashexpense
  • Credit Card Charges — creditcardcharge
  • Credit Card Refunds — creditcardrefund
  • Purchase Orders — purchaseorder
  • Transfers — transfer
  • Journal Entries — journalentry
  • Journal Entries matching SuiteMigration Trial Balance push — journalentry_sm

Record Selection Criteria

Records are deleted based on the following filters, all combined with AND — a record is deleted only if it satisfies every applied condition:

  • Subsidiary — always required; matches the selected subsidiary
  • External ID — the selected External ID criteria (see below)
  • Record Type — the selected record type, plus any type-specific condition (see below)
  • Date Filter — the selected date range, if any

External ID conditions

  • All records (Blank + All populated values) — no External ID filter is applied
  • All populated values — externalid IS NOT NULL
  • Blank — externalid IS NULL
  • All populated values that match SuiteMigration — External ID matches {org_id}__{source_id}__{prefix}_{id} with prefixes cmp_ / txn_ / itm_, or begins with sm_net / sm_rebuild / sm_manual

Special record types

Three record types are not standard NetSuite record types — they are Checks or Journal Entries identified by a SuiteMigration External ID pattern:

  • Cash Expenses — stored as a Check; identified by an External ID ending __cex_chk
  • Transfers — stored as a Journal Entry; identified by an External ID ending __trf_jrn
  • Journal Entries matching SuiteMigration Trial Balance push — stored as a Journal Entry; identified by an External ID containing sm_net / sm_rebuild / sm_manual

To keep them separate, the plain types explicitly exclude them:

  • Checks — excludes External IDs ending __cex_chk
  • Journal Entries — excludes External IDs ending __trf_jrn, and those containing sm_net / sm_rebuild / sm_manual

Note: because these three types are defined by having a SuiteMigration External ID, selecting Blank with them correctly returns no records — a record with no External ID cannot be one of them.

Date range details

  • Only one date range is used at a time, selected via the Date Filter dropdown.
  • Transaction Date is only available for transaction types. It is not available for Customers, Vendors, Employees, Items or Projects.
  • In a group deletion where Transaction Date is selected, entity types automatically fall back to Created Date.
  • Created Date searches datecreated for entities and transactions, and created for items.
  • The From date is optional — leave it blank to delete all records up to and including the To date.
  • All dates are inclusive — both the From and To dates are included in the deletion range.

Required IDs Reference

The following IDs are hardcoded in the scripts and must match exactly:

  • Map/Reduce Script — required ID _sm_toolkit_delete_mr, final system ID customscript_sm_toolkit_delete_mr
  • Map/Reduce Deployment — required ID _sm_toolkit_delete_mr, final system ID customdeploy_sm_toolkit_delete_mr
  • Parameter – Record Type — required ID _sm_recordtype, final system ID custscript_sm_recordtype
  • Parameter – Subsidiary — required ID _sm_subsidiary, final system ID custscript_sm_subsidiary
  • Parameter – External ID — required ID _sm_externalid, final system ID custscript_sm_externalid
  • Parameter – Transaction Date From — required ID _sm_trandate_from, final system ID custscript_sm_trandate_from
  • Parameter – Transaction Date To — required ID _sm_trandate_to, final system ID custscript_sm_trandate_to
  • Parameter – Created Date From — required ID _sm_createddate_from, final system ID custscript_sm_createddate_from
  • Parameter – Created Date To — required ID _sm_createddate_to, final system ID custscript_sm_createddate_to

The Suitelet's own script and deployment IDs are not referenced in the code — you may use any IDs for those.

Troubleshooting

  • "Script not found" / task fails to submit — the Map/Reduce Script ID or Deployment ID does not match the Required IDs Reference.
  • "Missing required parameters: record type or subsidiary" — one or more parameter IDs don't match the Required IDs Reference, or the parameters were not saved on the script record.
  • "A delete task is already running" — a previous Map/Reduce deployment is still processing. Wait for it to finish.
  • Progress completes but no Deleted / Failed counts shown — the counts are passed via N/cache; the page falls back to a plain "Completed" message. Check the Map/Reduce execution log for the Summary audit entry.
  • Deletion returns 0 records — check your filter combination. For example, Blank External ID with Cash Expenses, Transfers or SM Trial Balance JEs correctly matches nothing (see Record Selection Criteria).
  • Records fail to delete — usually dependent records or references block deletion. Check the Map/Reduce execution log for Delete Failed entries.

Contact support@suitemigration.com if you need help.