In most cases, ExtendSync attaches emails to NetSuite without issue because the sender and recipient already exist as entities (Contacts, Customers, Vendors, etc.) on the record.
However, in certain outlier situations, NetSuite may be unable to set required Author or Recipient fields, especially when one or both email addresses aren’t associated with the attached record.
This article explains:
Why this happens
How ExtendSync works around it
What to expect when viewing such emails in NetSuite
How to customize your view for clarity
👀 Want a quick fix?
Skip to the View Tips section below to learn how to adjust your NetSuite view to see the actual sender and recipient email addresses.
Technical Discussion
When saving an email, NetSuite requires the following four values:
Author Entity
Author Email
Recipient Entity
Recipient Email
Under normal circumstances, users attach emails to NetSuite records that already have the sender or recipient's email address associated with them.
For example, if joe@xyz.com sends you an email you would attach it to his contact record in NetSuite.
In those cases, ExtendSync and NetSuite work as expected if you are manually attaching an email.
In certain outlier cases, one of the required entity fields may not be able to be set by NetSuite.
For example, if a user sends an email and attaches it to their own Contact record NetSuite will not be able to resolve the recipient entity since it does not exist on the Contact record.
Try this for yourself by going to a NetSuite contact record and send the email to someone unrelated to the Contact.
How ExtendSync Handles Missing Sender or Recipient
To ensure that your email is not rejected by NetSuite ExtendSync may need to set the sender or recipient as a known entity. Fortunately, ExtendSync is able to overwrite the email address which is why we recommend implementing the view tips and just moving on.
NetSuite Requirement:
Author (entity) must exist under Acme Corporation
Author email: joe@xyz.com
ExtendSync Logic:
Checks if joe@xyz.com exists as a Contact under Acme Corporation.
❌ Not found → ExtendSync substitutes the Author as “Acme Corporation.”
ExtendSync overrides the Author Email to use joe@xyz.com.
Email is attached successfully, and NetSuite displays it as:
Field | Value |
Author (Entity) | Acme Corporation |
Author Email |
✅ Result: Email appears under Acme Corporation, but the Author Email correctly shows joe@xyz.com.
If your messages are on Autopilot the behavior is different than below. See this section for more info.
Behavior for outbound emails
When attaching to a NetSuite record where the recipient's email address is not found on the record being attached to, NetSuite would normally not allow the email to attach.
ExtendSync works around this limitation by attaching the email with the current entity Name as the recipient and replacing the email address with the actual email address of the recipient from the sent email.
Below is a way to visualize this in NetSuite. If you open a customer record and then compose a new email you will see that the recipient list is restricted only to those contacts of the company. The Netsuite API enforces this same rule and therefore the email attached by ExtendSync would fail. In order to ensure that ExtendSync attaches the email successfully the App sets the entity to that of the record it's being attached to. Since the NetSuite API does allow an override of the actual email address the App does send over the proper email.
Behavior for inbound emails
When attaching to a NetSuite record where the sender's email address is not found on the record being attached to NetSuite would normally not allow the email to attach. ExtendSync works around this limitation by attaching the email with the current entity Name as the sender replacing the email address with the actual email address of the sender.
Emails on Autopilot
Because emails on Autopilot are attached via a background process ExtendSync may not always have access to the same email details as if the user were manually attaching an email. The attach behavior varies depending on the record type the email was attached to.
👀 We highly recommend that you customize your view settings as per below, The email address of the sender and recipient should be used for the best visibility as to the sender and recipient.
🔵 When no matching NetSuite records are found
If no matching NetSuite records are found with the sender or recipient email (or they are inactive) then NetSuite defaults Sender/Recipient fields to the Admin that configured Autopilot (because their token/secret is used for logging in to NetSuite).
🔵 Attaching to entity records with Autopilot
If the message is attached to an entity record the following logic takes place to set the author and recipient fields.
The author field is set to the 1st record found when matching the following records with the sender's email.
Below preference order is followed in case of multiple matches.
Employee > Contact > Customer > Vendor > Partner >JobThe recipient is set as the entity the message is attached to.
🔵 Attaching to activity or transaction records with Autopilot
If the message is attached to an activity or a transaction the following logic takes place to set the author and recipient fields.
The author field is set to the 1st record found when matching the following records with the sender's email.
Below preference order is followed in case of multiple matches.
Employee > Contact > Customer > Vendor > Partner >JobThe recipient field is set to the 1st record found when matching the following records with the recipient's email. In the case of multiple recipients, autopilot uses the first recipient returned by Outlook API for record search.
Below preference order is followed in case of multiple matches.
Employee > Contact > Customer > Vendor > Partner >Job
View Tips
The default view of the message record does not show the Author's email. Customize your default view and add
Author Email
To
This will then allow you to work with email addresses rather than entity names. If desired remove the Author and Primary Recipient to free up space.
