Looking for a point in the right direction. Is there a way to create a custom xref for a lookup in NetSuite? I'd be doing the lookup with a SuiteQL Query for an integration. TIA!

If I read your question correctly, I think you’re wanting an external id https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/netsuite/ns-online-help/section_156334828635.html

Unfortunately, no. We need another area to keep the customers 'private label' part number. So we're already using the External & Internal IDs, and are trying to minimize use of Custom Fields on the actual Item Itself, so this would be like a 'lookup table' kind of thing.... clear as mud?

Make a custom record for the xref, with fields for the item and whatever else it needs to reference?

@jen thank you! That is the route that was decided on after discussing.