NetSuite OneWorld: An Admin Guide

Time to read: 15 min.
Drink Pairing: Viennois coffee.
You are a: NetSuite administrator, Controller.

Welcome back! ✌🏻…to the 3rd NetSuite admin series post. We tune it to our NetSuite Admin series to support your training process for the certification. This series wouldn’t be possible without our friends at Anderson Frank

NetSuite Administrator Series

1. NetSuite Tools – The SuiteCloud platform
2. The role and responsibilities of a NetSuite Admin
3. NetSuite OneWorld << You are here

For this post we’ll discuss:

• OneWorld – subscription types, benefits & features
• Prerequisites & things you really need to know
• OneWorld best practices
• Difference between NetSuite ERP and OneWorld license

What is NetSuite OneWorld?

Operating an international business is a substantial challenge because of the coordination needed for worldwide transactions. To encourage customer growth, NetSuite introduced OneWorld, an addition to the cloud-based ERP system. It is ideal for multi-subsidiary companies. 

OneWorld helps with global business management – it streamlines multiple subsidiary business processes while keeping each headquarters independent. The module allows the replication of standard business processes and interconnecting operations to facilitate the exchange of data, guaranteeing worldwide compliance. 

This is just the beginning. Since each subsidiary has its own legislation, it is possible to have local, regional, and headquarters visibility. Need more? Well, the variety of dashboards available save user’s time by showing the insights needed for the specific role.

OneWorld also fits two business sizes & needs:

• Mid Market: there isn’t a minimum requirement for users of this edition. Created primarily for companies with 15 to 1,000 employees. Compared to the Light edition, the cost is similar. The MM version allows you to integrate modules such as e-commerce, fixed assets, and inventory.
• Enterprise: designed for companies with more than 1,000 employees. There’s a major step between the MM and the Enterprise edition. The real difference is in price, not the features you get. 

ProTips: 

• NS Limited Edition doesn’t support the OneWorld platform. Ensure that your client is aware of that before setting up/advising them to purchase a specific edition of NS.
• It doesn’t matter which edition is a better fit for your business. All OneWorld accounts offer the same up to 125 subsidiaries, including the root subsidiary. Contact us for additional subsidiaries quote for your account. 
• Eliminated or inactive subsidiaries don’t count toward the maximum of 125 subsidiaries. 

OneWorld Benefits

• Multiple-subsidiary management: the system is capable of supporting more than 125 different subsidiaries on an international level. It allows admins to manage multiple business units and legal entities from the same intuitive dashboard.
• Multi-language: each user can decide in which language the system is to be displayed. This way, Oracle NetSuite can facilitate communication between teams of international companies. There are 24 different languages available in the system.
• Multi-currency: it’s possible to manage up to 27 different currencies and automatically update the exchange rate daily.
• International taxes management: the system covers more than 100 countries for taxes and reporting.
• Manage global compliance: connects multiple entities’ information and provides global data over business performance.
• Real-time insights: bring real-time visibility over national and international entities.
• Intercompany management: replicate internal business processes and transactions over each entity.

Features

• Global accounting and consolidation: provides the possibility to manage a true intercompany business in a scalable, customizable and safe environment. The system guarantees accurate, automated, real-time processes across every entity and at the global level as well. 
• Accounting Hub: handle entities that use systems other than NetSuite or manage specific transactions within an entity or business. Import information via CSV and assign either at account or transaction level to GL. That way, it can be consolidated as part of the overall financial statements.
• Audit and Compliance Reporting: the system supports country-specific requirements and global standards. Manage up to 90 different bank payment methods.
• Configurable Tax Engine: the scalable and flexible tax calculation engine supports any taxation rules and reporting requirements around the world. The system allows you to calculate taxes on sales and purchase transactions in real-time. The platform also covers Intrastat EU reporting obligations and file electronic reports, making outside tax engine software unnecessary to many businesses. In case you need extra help, Avalara Avatax is our #1 partner for tax compliance.

Prerequisites & things you really need to know

• • There are 2 different types of subsidiaries available in OneWorld. Each one serves different purposes: 
    • Reporting subsidiaries: ideal for subsidiaries that book annual entries just for reconciliation purposes. 
    • Operating subsidiaries: designed for those where you record transactions.
• Subsidiary licenses are only sold per country. 
• Upgrading account to OneWorld. If there are pre-existing data in the account, this data will feed the root subsidiary. Be careful while migrating information to subsidiary records, remember this data can’t be edited once it’s saved:
  • Parent subsidiary
  • Edition
  • Country
  • Currency
  • Elimination
• Subsidiary NetSuite Edition. According to the country where the subsidiary is addressed, the system will automatically populate the NetSuite edition based on it. These are the types of subsidiaries available: 

• • US – United States
  • UK – United Kingdom 
  • CA – Canada
  • AU – Australia
  • JP – Japan
  • XX – International – XX

If your subsidiary is based in a country without an edition offered, use the NS International edition. Remember to customize the underlying tax engine for each country!

• Use custom fields and scripts for specific subsidiary records. Configure the system to follow the business logic needed, either for processes or records from specific regions, or countries where your company operates. 

Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Other Custom Fields. 

Once you have selected the subsidiary as the record type, just complete the fields required and save your customization.

• Subsidiary Bank accounts. Either credit cards or bank accounts are restricted to one subsidiary. 
• Tax code provisioning feature. To obtain the automatic tax code feature, first, you need to install International Tax Reports in the account before creating the subsidiaries. 

Tax Reports SuiteApp supports international transactions. It creates a nexus between the new subsidiary country and the VAT/GST tax codes needed.  The system will create only a few default tax codes for those accounts without the Tax Reports SuiteApp set up.

• Period End Journal Entries. Once the feature has been enabled for at least one subsidiary, you won’t be able to disable it.
• Entity transactions can’t be changed once the primary subsidiary is selected on the record.
• You can’t delete subsidiaries where the ID is equal to 1. The first subsidiary in the account is the primary one. It’s related to every account that shows up in the COA.
• Logo usage: you can set up a specific logo per subsidiary to be displayed on every page in the system. It is also possible to select a specific logo for fields without affecting any page in the account. Any logo must be in JPG or GIF format. Be careful! For printed versions, the logo is determined by the selection in the subsidiary logo field. 

OneWorld Best Practices

Accounting & Finance

Tip 1: Squeeze your Chart of Accounts

COA is vital for any company’s accounting process. It separates business liabilities, expenses and revenue to simplify the way we measure the overall financial health. Most NS users understand the importance of the COA. They don’t know how to manage its important capabilities when you bring multiple subsidiaries into the system.

• Standard default accounts in the system are very helpful and simple to manage. Use them every time it is possible instead of importing them.
• If you need to create a new account, don’t forget to add an external ID. This will make the journal entry import easier by creating a GL account number.
• Instead of creating different GL accounts for every subsidiary, channel or department, use segments for financial reporting.

Tip 2: Financial Management like a Pro

Identify commonly used reports, KPIs saved searches, shortcuts or any other function needed for the particular roles in your business. Once it’s done, you can start building the proper Dashboards for the different roles involved in the company. Dashboards are incredibly important when it comes to facilitating access to certain operations. It helps to keep control over transactions and a magnificent time saver.

As an Administrator, you can build templates and replicate them for multiple users. You can either:

• allow individual users to have a specific dashboard.
• customize the access from a specific user to another user dashboard.
• copy the template and use it for complete teams with the same requirements.

ProTip: Great NetSuite Admin uses the specific role dashboards to control data access, improve user experience and streamline all company processes. 

Manufacturing and Supply Chain

Tip 3: Take advantage of Phantom Assemblies for Material Requirement Planning, Production and Supply Chain

Phantom Assemblies are wonderful when simplifying the configuration for a particular manufactured product or  Bill of Materials (BOM) management. They are typically non-stackable items generated by using components in manufacturing.

Use the phantom BOM feature to enable users to manage assemblies. Define which assemblies will be dragged from the stock and which ones will be completed as part of the work order. Once you set up the feature, the Phantom Assembly option will show up on the work orders and assembly. To do this, just go to the Setup menu:

Setup> Company > Setup Tasks> Enable Features (Assembly items / Work Orders) 

Tip 4: Roles and System Setup

Defining the roles that will be used in the system is a vital part of implementation work. Roles control the information access that users have. It’s the first filter we apply to secure our data. Define the roles in the system according to user responsibilities and job requirements. Carefully map it out to guarantee you are assigning the right permissions to the right person.

Don’t give yourself a headache by creating separate roles for everyone in the company. Group them according to similar characteristics such as teams or departments. Use the Global Permissions feature to define the custom role that requires more access than the rest of the group.

As an advice, we want to recommend you always use custom roles instead of the standard ones. Standard roles can’t be modified over time. Custom roles will help you have an easier and safer environment in the long term.

After you set up the roles, copy and paste the URL from a specific role and use it in another role scenario. If the configuration is correct, the system will automatically explain which permission is needed to access the required information. This way you can test your user roles 

Difference between NetSuite standard & OneWorld licenses

NetSuite offers 3 different versions of their system:

1. CRM: ideal for customer management, sales process coordination and marketing automation.
2. ERP: is the NS basic and most frequently sold license. It offers all the capabilities of the CRM but with a strong inventory and financial management. 
3. OneWorld: is the ERP version for companies that operate in multiple countries.

The only difference between OneWorld and a standard ERP license is the possibility to manage multi-subsidiaries in the same platform. The standard version is still a  complete resource management software. 

Our pals from AndersonFrank researched NS Market Trends. They discovered that 50% of the consultants surveyed perceived up to a 20% increase in their salary. On the other hand, 3% reported their salary increased by 100%. As NetSuite partners, we’ve crafted the ERP academy to guide you through business best practices. During the next few months, we will cover what you need to do to obtain the NetSuite Administrator certification.

Our readers recommend: 

• Retraining as a NetSuite Administrator: To know the difference between NetSuite and  NetSuite OneWorld is just a tiny part of the process. Our pals from AndersonFrank will teach you where to find the right resources, how to enter the market and give you insights you definitely should consider.
• The Complete NetSuite Implementation Guide: Planning your NetSuite OneWorld implementation process? Follow our methodology to deliver a successful, on-time project – checklist included.
• NetSuite cost factors – How to save money on your ERP: NetSuite OneWorld pricing is based on 5 main characteristics. Learn how NS calculates the cost of a company’s license and pay close attention to our consultants’ advice on how to save money.