Why Does NetSuite Show More Licenses Used Than Provisioned?

Historically, NetSuite permitted the use of one Vendor record as a "free accountant" access. This specific Vendor record could be assigned any permission level, including Administrator, without incurring a license fee for the client. The primary purpose of this access was to enable partners and external accountants to provide their services within NetSuite without requiring the customer to purchase an additional license.NetSuite later discontinued this "free Vendor access" policy due to instances where it was used as a regular license for internal employees. Following this change, partners and accountants were required to use standard NetSuite access, subject to regular licensing terms (though discounted seats might be available).However, accounts that were already utilizing this free Vendor access at the time of the policy change did not lose it. This grandfathering was likely due to technical limitations. Consequently, for long-standing NetSuite customers, it is possible for their account to be using all provisioned seats (e.g., 20 users) while the legacy Vendor login remains active and in use, effectively adding an extra user beyond the provisioned count.In such a scenario, if a regular user seat is removed, the total active user count will decrease by one (e.g., from 21 to 20 users), but the account will still be at its provisioned limit, with the legacy Vendor login persisting. Customers in this situation typically prefer to retain this "free" legacy license.