Before you trust a rule, you'll want to see what it does. Test rule shows you which payments the rule would pick up, without saving or changing anything. Once you're happy, you can run the rule over the payments you've already received.
Test a rule
You can test a rule while you're still building it. You don't need to save it first.
In the rule builder, add at least one condition.
Click Test rule at the bottom of the panel. Two tabs open:
Enrolled: the unmatched payments the rule would pick up right now, newest first.
Test a transaction: all your unmatched payments on the selected bank accounts, each marked enrolls (the rule would pick it up) or does not enroll (the rule would ignore it).
The Enrolled tab:
The Test a transaction tab:
Wondering why a payment was ignored? Click it. You'll see each condition, whether it passed, and what the payment actually contains. For example, Counterparty name contains "ACME" — got "Acme Ltd" tells you the capitals don't match. Click Back to full list to return.
Click Back to rule to carry on editing. Nothing you've entered is lost.
Test rule checks which payments the rule picks up, not what it does with them. It doesn't show which invoices would be matched, and it ignores the amount range, the customers you chose, the match strategy, adjustments and your other rules. So "enrolls" means "the rule will look at this payment", not "the rule will match it".
Run a rule over payments you already have
A new rule only handles payments that arrive after you save it, plus any payment you open. To catch up on unmatched payments you already have:
Make sure the rule is Active and has at least one condition.
Tick Also apply to past unmatched transactions on this save at the bottom of the rule builder.
Click Save rule. You'll see Rule created. Applying it to past transactions in the background.
The rule then works through all the unmatched incoming payments on its bank accounts, however old they are. Payments that a higher-priority rule would handle are left to that rule.
Turn Auto-apply off first. If Auto-apply is on, every match the rule finds in your old payments is posted to NetSuite straight away. Run it with Auto-apply off, check the results in Review & reconcile, then switch Auto-apply on.
The text under the checkbox shows how the last run went:
Applying to past transactions in the background…: still running.
Last applied on 13 Oct 2026 · 12 matches created: finished.
The last run over past transactions failed. Tick to retry on this save.: something went wrong. Tick the box and save again to retry.
Good to know
The checkbox only applies to the save you tick it for. It isn't remembered, so the rule won't keep re-running over old payments.
You can't tick it if the rule has no conditions (Add at least one condition to apply the rule to past transactions.) or is switched off (Activate the rule to apply it to past transactions.).