NETSUITE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

ERP is the acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning, which is a software system that unifies and automates core business operations and processes including HR, finance, financial planning & analysis, and operational processes, to help companies organize, coordinate and evaluate both external and internal activities.

ERP offers a single solution to manage all departments and processes.

The typical roles that administer the system are:

• Chief Financial Officer
• Financial Controller 
• Accountants 
• Sales & Marketing Directors

The main difference between the ERP system and using multiple software applications is that an ERP allows you to manage large amounts of data in a centralized solution, which makes analysis and gathering insights from the data easier and more efficient.

With an ERP system, you receive full integration and communication across all departments in real time – avoiding missing information and saving time on manual consolidation of data.

Who uses NetSuite? It’s an amazing fit for businesses that:

• Generate revenue between 25M and 500M.
• Have a full-time accounting team of 2+ people.
• Are currently on QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics or Sage that are growing and need a scalable, robust ERP and easy to use software.
• Have transactions with the need for multiple currencies, languages and/or subsidiaries.
• Need a flexible system to integrate with other business-critical apps (like expenses, taxes, demand planning, etc.).
• Need real-time reporting and transparent data integrity.
• Need to reduce the month-end to under 5 days.
• Want to reduce the amount of customizations to a minimum.

Before searching for products and implementation partners:

1. Take a deep dive into the company operations to understand business requirements (why you think you need an ERP). Select the processes that need to be automated. 
2. When you gain solid knowledge regarding your business requirements and improvement areas, it’s time to evaluate your business plan. Some software isn’t scalable, so you will need a new platform if your business grows.
3. Once you know exactly what the company needs, it’s easier to make a realistic comparison between the different solutions available. Remember that the right ERP has to be flexible enough to adapt to your business, not vice versa. 

ERP Academy: Some Useful Links on ERP Comparisons:

• Microsoft Dynamics vs NetSuite
• Sage vs NetSuite

When deciding on a new ERP system always start with reviewing functionality as well as its support levels.

Consider that nowadays, we live in a world where everything needs to be faster and always available. So here are some of the most important aspects to consider:

• Mobility: In order to run your company, you need to be able to do so from anywhere, anytime. You need to have access to the software remotely.
• Full Document Management: This requirement should top the list. Documents are becoming more and more digitized than ever before and you need to be able to keep up! An ERP system should enable you to manage all digital files securely, putting you ahead of the competition. 
• Analytics: Business intelligence (BI) is vital to strategic success. Making sure your ERP system offers a built-in analytics app will help you stay on top of BI and improve your business performance.
• Modularity: ERP’s are built from modules connected to form a centralized system. Each module functionality has been built to dovetail well with the others to create a streamlined overall solution. Finding a system where you can add-on modules to meet your evolving business needs will position you well as your business scales.
• Best Practice Savvy: An ERP that claims to cater to a range of mid-sized to large businesses MUST have a library of pre-built processes, reports, workflows and other templates specific to popular industries. 
• App Availability & Ease of Integration: A great ERP must be flexible in order to connect with partner applications, creating the possibility of empowering and customizing the platform according to the company’s needs. It is important to understand what partner applications the solution has i.e what partner applications are currently available to easily integrate with the solution.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and How to select the right ERP

NetSuite is an online scalable ERP system that allows companies to run all key business processes in a single, reliable and user-friendly system.

• Over 40,000 businesses worldwide use NetSuite as a powerful cloud-based ERP.
• NetSuite has been designed with industry best practices in mind and has developed integration ability catered to various business types. Out-of-the-box, it’s the most inclusive ERP solution. 
• Its financial management system is highly praised and has won prestigious awards such as: 
  • CRM Solution of the Year (Cloud Award, 2018) 
  • ERP Category Leader (GetApp’s Q1, 2018)
  • Best ERP Systems Software (G2 Crowd Grid, 2018)

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and Why Financial teams need it

NetSuite is a flexible platform that can be applied to a wide variety of business applications. 

Top ERP Benefits include: 

• Dramatically Improved Visibility: You are capable of making informed decisions thanks to real-time reporting & global visibility.
• Reliability: It has been designed to include industry best practices and module flexibility. You can reach your information around the clock knowing that it’ll be safe since the system’s security is constantly being upgraded.
• IT Budget & Resource Friendly: This allows the user to save money in a digital framework. Plus, there is no hardware to procure, no large, up-front license fees, no maintenance fees associated with hardware or software and no complex setup.
• Cloud Computing Based: This offers the user the ability to log in and manage data from anywhere on the planet while saving money in a digital framework. NetSuite is constantly adding improvements, thanks to the bi-annual auto-updates.
• Process Efficiency Across Your Organization: In your daily operations you likely have several key processes that are fragmented. NetSuite allows you to have one integrated system where your business information seamlessly moves throughout your entire company, avoiding wasted productivity.
• Customization: NetSuite offers platforms for different business sizes and different verticals, and has developed a network of implementation partners that specialize in servicing each vertical. If you have distinct requirements or need specific features, NetSuite has a solution and can suggest an implementation partner to assist you.
• Accelerated Growth: You can rapidly expand to multiple locations and sales channels because of unified order and accounting management processes and data.
• User-Driven Innovation: You can quickly implement changes and the user community is strong.
• Bi-Annual Upgrades: Twice a year the system upgrades automatically to ensure platform security and allow for enhanced functionality.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and Why Financial teams need it

Yes, NetSuite is a cloud-based On Demand service provider, which means that you can access your ERP from anywhere in the world at any time. 

Most companies are migrating to cloud solutions because they want the flexibility that comes with being able to access your business from everywhere. For most businesses, a Cloud-based On Demand service works much better than on-premises services because of the ability to reduce operational costs while increasing the effectiveness of IT processes in your business.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and Why Financial teams need it

In one single database, NetSuite covers seven inter-related modules of businesses, such as:

• Revenue Recognition – NetSuite, an industry leader in financial management, has gained position thanks to this module and features like fair value allocation as part of the advanced revenue management (ARM) module. 
• Service Resource Planning supports operations and helps you drive profitability by optimizing the entire services business lifecycle.
• Project Management offers value-added features like resources, timesheet and expense management.
• Resource Management enables you to optimize your staffing and utilization by minimizing your bench and ensuring that qualified resources are working on the right projects.
• Inventory Management provides very powerful inventory management modules contributing to NetSuite’s large presence in the manufacturing industry. 
• Supply Chain Management provides consolidated, real-time data for various supply chain processes.  
• Warehouse Management is similar to a Warehouse and fulfillment app with stand out features like real-time data visibility.
• Manufacturing provides inventory, warehouse management, accounting, and financial management, order management, customer relationship management, and e-commerce capabilities.
• CRM can provide Actionable Customer Insight, High-Performance Sales Tools and Collaboration on an Enterprise Level to help ensure your organization’s success. NetSuite CRM gives you a 360° view of your customers in real-time.
• Project Accounting connects project activities with company financials, facilitates accurate accounting and billing throughout project lifecycles, provides extensive reporting capabilities and streamlines time and expense management.

ERP Academy: The Ultimate Guide to NetSuite Modules

Yes, it does. Each user has a different dashboard depending on the role permission and configuration. Roles and their permissions determine the pages that users can see in the NetSuite interface and the tasks that they can complete.

The system is totally customizable. You can modify pretty much anything including :

• Dashboards
• Templates
• Company logo 
• Time format
• Color schemes
• Fonts

The views are also customizable and can be turned into portlets and panes associated with the dashboard or fields within the software.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and Why Financial teams need it

NetSuite ERP supports and connects every department in the business, helping companies to get faster and accurate financial statements and a modem reporting experience.  

The system offers different benefits for every industry. In general, NetSuite will help you: 

• Increase workforce productivity – system automations cut off manual procedements while increasing productivity by avoiding double work, human errors and mislead communication.
• Reduce costs & IT expenses – due to its smart functions you’ll be notified for every inaccuracy in the system. Its scalable platform guarantee you won’t need to set different software to accomplish your business requirements and even brings the possibility 
• Improve decision making – going one step further, the system provides real-time reporting on a 360-degree view of the business, helping you find the information need it, whenever you need it.

NetSuite is committed to helping your business stay on top, so it is important to have a deep understanding of your business requirements in order to make an informed decision on how NetSuite can help you improve your business.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

You should select NetSuite because it is:

• fast to deploy
• easy to use
• flexible enough to support all aspects of your business
• offers multiple options and features in one solution

The other great thing about NetSuite is that the software was built solely to work with cloud technology in mind, while other competitors were adapted to this kind of platform. Also, with NetSuite’s real-time information and an internet connection, businesses can work anytime, from a smartphone, tablet or desktop. 

ERP Academy: Compare NetSuite easily with other ERP vendors

Yes, you can. NetSuite has its own templates so you won’t need to know HTML to build your own site! Its templates facilitate the whole process of delivering engaging brand experiences to online shoppers anywhere from any device. 

NetSuite SuiteCommerce is a flexible and feature-rich module designed specifically for eCommerce, which will help you:

• Drive more traffic to the store
• Convert browsers into customers
• Increase online revenue

Some of the key benefits:

• Unified operational cloud-based business system.
• Adaptable for selling from a variety of brands, languages and currencies.
• Enhances your operational business experience, creating a cross-channel content strategy to improve your experience across in-store, web, and mobile channels.

ERP Academy: NetSuite CRM+: e-commerce, marketing automation & CRM, all-in-one.

It is no mystery that when it comes to NetSuite’s popularity as the leading cloud-based ERP platform,  the company succeeded in designing a software that would include both best industry practices and customizability. 

Here are some of the top advantages of NetSuite ERP for accounting:

• Flexibility: which can not be found in traditional on-premises software applications. Within NetSuite, if you have the correct application security you can add fields to specific record types; match your company’s business processes, and manage your business from a single system without incurring in costly integrations between systems. 
• Scalability: which helps your business growth process. You don’t need an installation to add users or modules. The only thing you have to do is to purchase the application and upload the install codes from NetSuite. At this moment, you won’t need help from consultants and IT unless you need further configuration or enhancements. 

Another part of NetSuite scalability is that during a cyclical business cycle you will be able to add users with no extra cost. This gives you the opportunity to scale up or scale down your user count whenever is needed.

• Workflow Automation: many companies put their trust in workflow and business process automation to manage their business because the standardization of the process and automation of events helps to ensure consistency in customer management and execution. Since consistency is an important requirement in running your shop, workflow automation can help your company to be more proactive in customer management by identifying problems early and providing the right action.  

• Single Application: From lead identification to the cash collection and repurchase of additional services, NetSuite has been designed to run and manage your business. To make it easier to understand, be aware that NetSuite is a unified application that provides the foundation for managing all other important aspects of a business such as customers, financials, employees, projects, service executions, etc. 
• Collaboration: provides a platform where you can easily collaborate between departments. Being able to share knowledge and information within your business can help you gain a strategic competitive advantage. In this regard, collaboration is also important when it comes to customer relationships.Having constant communication with your clients can significantly improve service delivery. With the help of NetSuite’s customer center, your clients have access to relevant information and as a result, they are continually satisfied.

ERP Academy: 

• 5 Ways you can manage auditors with NetSuite ERP
• NetSuite Business Intelligence & Billing Revenue

Since NetSuite can be customized, it can be implemented in every type of business. NetSuite meets the evolving business requirements of companies of all sizes. From small, mid-market businesses to large multinational enterprises, NetSuite empowers modern businesses, both private and public, to accomplish their growth potential.

ERP Academy: NetSuite pricing per Industry size

NetSuite merges many management and business capabilities into one platform, integrating all key business processes missing in traditional ERP systems: 

• Financials
• CRM
• Marketing
• Operations
• Human Resources Management 
• E-commerce 

Traditional ERPs often lack one or several modules that are required for a modern company to function properly, which leads to companies having valuable information in different places, leading to double work and duplicated data. 

NetSuite however, works as a unified platform for all business data, it can be the main system of reference for all the company’s departments and tie every activity, directly to the appropriate records and to the general ledger in real time.

Also, NetSuite is cloud-based, which means that employees can access and edit system information, needing only an internet connection and a device with a web browser.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

NetSuite can fit any size business as its platform is highly customizable and scalable, this means that you can tailor it to any form of business, adapting it to your business as it grows. 

Trajectory’s consultants are experts in understanding the power of NetSuite and how it can be tailored to help our customers!

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

Even though Salesforce is a CRM it can’t handle other core processes like an ERP.  

NetSuite allows integration with SalesForce (and many other platforms) so clients can take the next step without the need for migrating their CRM. 

Because of this, many companies are integrating Salesforce to NetSuite. Generally, the reason they are starting with this integration can be traced to some of the following causes:

• NetSuite has a very powerful ERP and financials component. 
• Revenue options are great in NetSuite.
• The currency reporting is better in NetSuite.
• Salesforce costs, performance or limits.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

During the implementation process, no matter how much time, money, and resources you dedicate to the project, you are still at risk of it not working out. 

Here are some examples of NetSuite Implementation Mistakes:

• Undefined Goals/Objectives: It is very easy to become overwhelmed with the whole sales process and sales pitches!. Instead of looking at the architecture of it all, focus on the final results you expect for your business processes.
• Engaging without having an articulated plan: Purchasing without a plan happens far too often. A clear plan of how the work will be done and who will do that work is key when it comes to getting service providers with consistency and qualified teams to do the work.
• Ignoring the adoption and engagement plan: Upon launching it is very common to ignore what will happen post-implementation. How your users will adapt to the new technology and a change management plan should be thought through and started as early as during the blueprinting phase of the project.
• Getting an under-qualified vendor: Having a trusted partner is essential in times of critical system failure, mandatory feature enhancements, workflow updates, resource management, and ongoing maintenance.  There are many things to take into consideration when determining how qualified your vendor is in terms of general expertise, but also whether the vendor is the right fit for your business.

ERP Academy: Guide to select the right NetSuite Consultant Implementation Partner

NetSuite syncs data every time you click save. The system feeds its dashboard and reports in real-time so you’re never stuck looking at out-dated data.

You can start your search on Google, contact the companies you find and ask them for a 30 min initial chat, it’s always about great fit first. Always review several proposals, you can use this NetSuite Implementation Guide, to understand what you’ll need for the project and call us to make the arrangements. 

There’s no standard NetSuite price. It will depend on your business needs. However, on our NetSuite pricing page, you can review the estimated cost according to industry sizes.

NetSuite cost is determined by 5 key factors: 

• Industry type and company size
• Quantity of user roles
• Modules required
• Customizations required
• Implementation complexity

NetSuite allows users to design their right ERP, offering three different suites designed to fulfill your business needs. These are:

• NetSuite Limited Edition is NetSuite pricing for small businesses. It is ideal for companies that have a single legal entity and do not require more than 10 user licenses and have less than 50 employees. 
• NetSuite Mid-Market Edition is the right fit for companies that require more than 10 named users and/or have two or more legal entities that need to perform consolidated financial reports across multiple currencies. 
• NetSuite Enterprise Edition is designed for companies with more than 1,000+ named users. 

Each of the NetSuite editions is identical in terms of the underlying code base and deployment model. Therefore, as your company grows and scales you simply adjust your NetSuite subscription size or include new users, features and modules to meet your needs. The transition is seamless. 

With NetSuite you never have to worry about a system migration once you’ve outgrown your current edition, you simply change your pricing model.  

ERP Academy: NetSuite cost factors

In order to add modules/features, you have to pay an extra amount for the additional modules/features and integration. Any additional module/features are provided by various Third Party companies (NetSuite Partners), the ones who develop and maintain the extra module. They sell the extra modules to you through NetSuite.

Some of the most popular add on partners include:

• FloQast is the fastest and most accurate way to close your books. 
• Avalara helps unify sales tax automation, use tax calculation, document management, and returns preparation under a single platform.
• Dell Boomi is a popular & reliable integration partner for NetSuite. 
• Adaptive Insights, the world’s first business planning cloud, is another NetSuite partner. It allows you to broaden and enrich NetSuite solution capabilities.

ERP Academy: 

• NetSuite Pricing and how to save in implementation
• 8 must-have NetSuite partner apps

NetSuite offers different software editions depending on your business requirements. The price will depend on the edition type you choose for your business. 

• NetSuite Limited Edition
• NetSuite Mid-Market Edition
• NetSuite Enterprise Edition

Each of the editions includes the following features:

NetSuite CRM Includes:

• Marketing Automation
• SalesForce Automation / Opportunity Management 
• Case Management / Customer Service Management
• Partner Relationship Management

NetSuite ERP Includes:

• General Ledger
• Accounts Receivable
• Accounts Payable
• Acceptance of Credit Cards, ACH, EFT
• Bank Management & Reconciliations
• Multi-Currency & Multi-Language
• Item & (basic) Inventory Management
• Project Management (basic capabilities)
• Order Management
• Purchasing
• Employee Center (Time & Expense Management)

In case, you happen to have a CRM license that you’re happy with, NetSuite allows you to integrate your current CRM with the system.  You can choose to get just NetSuite ERP!

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite and Why Financial Teams Need It

The sky’s the limit! NetSuite is a totally scalable solution which supports any number of users ranging from one to thousands.

• NetSuite Limited Edition: if you have up to 10 users this edition will suit perfectly. 
• NetSuite Mid-Market Edition: geared for organizations with 11 to 50 users.
• NetSuite Enterprise Edition: for an organization with more than 50 users, with no upper limit.

The great thing about NetSuite is that your ERP grows side by side with your business, which means that you can also add as many users and roles as you wish, according to your current needs.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

Add-on modules deliver additional functionality for specialized needs without the need for customization. 

There are many different add-on modules available. For our clients, we identify when an add-on module is a good business decision during the requirements discussions and project scoping, so you’ll know early if an add-on module will benefit your business.

Top 6 Popular Add Ons and their Key Benefits:

OneWorld:

• Enable the management of multiple subsidiaries, business units, and legal entities.
• Support consistent processes across countries.
• Support global compliance of internal and external processes.
• Provide real-time global business insight.

MultiBook Accounting: 

• Optimize the financial close process with concurrent posting to all books as your business transaction occurs, rather than waiting for ‘after the fact’ until the end of the period to replicate data entry and post adjustments.
• Ongoing compliance to make the necessary customizations in your accounting processes. 
• Real-time visibility to see accurate flash report financials for any book, anytime.
• Effective financial management across the enterprise with subsidiary book relationship mapping capabilities to perform financial reporting and analysis accurately.

Advanced Procurement:

• Reduce work and errors associated with multiple buyer/vendor phone conversations and emails for every purchase.
• Enforce compliance by requiring purchases to be made only through contracted vendors.
• Minimize transaction costs by consolidating multiple requisitions into fewer purchase orders.
• Take advantage of negotiating quantity-based terms and discounts for bulk purchases.

Suitebilling:

• Consolidated invoices including a one-time, project-based and subscription charge.
• Scheduled changes for pricing and subscriptions with effective dates and pro-rating.
• Multi-currency flexibility for subscriptions. 
• Real-time reporting including audit logs and change tracking.
• Flexible generic and customer-specific subscriptions with volume, tiered and flat pricing models.

SuiteCommerce: 

• Accelerate your time-to-market by quickly launching a full-featured online store.
• Provides an optimized online experience on any device.
• Easily add new features and functionality to your site as they become available.
• Support both individual (B2C) or business (B2B) customers from the same platform.
• Integrates e-commerce activity directly with your operational business systems with a single cloud-based platform. 

Advanced Inventory: 

• Tighten control over your full inventory lifecycle across multiple locations.
• Slash costs for procurement, warehousing, shipping, and fulfillment.
• Boost customer satisfaction by eliminating stock-outs and speeding up delivery times.
• Continuously monitor and improve performance with real-time dashboards and analytics.

ERP Academy: The Ultimate Guide to Oracle NetSuite Modules

Every implementation is unique. Depending on the project requirements, the process may be a bit different.  A normal Trajectory implementation looks like a dream come true:

1. Engage: our priority is to exceed your expectations. We’ll dedicate our time to understand your business goals, operational processes, and objectives.
2. Understand: we will investigate your company’s operations to understand the main problems that the business faces, its unique requirements and the most appropriate solutions. 
3. Blueprint: our objective is to solve your teams’ operational problems. To reach that goal, we’ll design a cloud solution based on in-depth research, end-user surveys, and interviews.
4. Build: once the project has been approved, our consultants and developers will customize the system to suit your business.
5. Deploy: part of the implementation is to test and train your team to facilitate smooth system adoption. 85% of our clients successfully embrace their ERP after only 3 months. 

Once the project has finished and your team feels confident enough to manage the system, the next logical step is to continue our relationship as a solution partner. We’ll be your back-up for any future questions, and keep you updated with best practices.

ERP Academy: Maximizing the value of your NetSuite Implementation

In terms of implementing NetSuite, if your requirements are standard, Trajectory offers a quick 100-Day Implementation option, in order to minimize business disruption. 

The 100-day NetSuite implementation plan adheres to Trajectory most beneficial practices and standards, in order to: 

• Deliver a best practice-based solution
• Maximize solution implementation ROI
• Facilitate smoother end-user adoption 

Trajectory can help you organize and prioritize your requirements concerning all of your key business processes into an actionable game plan for evaluating cloud solution options. As certified partners, As certified partners, Trajectory will put together a competitive total project cost in order to appropriately set your expectations. to appropriately set your expectations.

Trajectory project teams are compromised dedicated NetSuite certified developers and consultants who can support you throughout the entire implementation process. They will get to know your business and requirements and can assist from requirements gathering through implementation, training, Go-Live, and even with post-Go-Live support.

Whether your NetSuite solution will need customizations will be dependent on your business requirements and objectives. NetSuite does have out-of-the-box solutions for many common industry types such as professional services, software & tech, logistics, marketing & education. If your business processes are standard then it is likely that NetSuite will have a solution that is right for you. If not, Trajectory can assist with any required customizations you need.

Add-ons (SuiteApps) can help a company adapt the system to their internal processes, or add functionality that the company needs and the system doesn’t have out-of-the-box. 

In case NetSuite does not have a SuiteApp for your favorite third party, you can utilize the Boomi connector to integrate NetSuite with other solutions.

It’s impossible for a single ERP to offer every single functionality that all companies need. Therefore there’s always going to be something that the system cannot do “out-of-the-box”. This is true for every existing ERP in the world, not just NetSuite.

More than an ERP, NetSuite is an extensive platform. Apps can be developed to either add new functionality or enhance what the system already does. 

ERP Academy: The Ultimate Guide to Oracle NetSuite Modules

At a general level, data is migrated into NetSuite via csv import by record type. NetSuite provides generic import templates in order to do this, but Trajectory often provides customized import templates to clients based on their system’s specific configuration. 

Migrating data into NetSuite involves undertaking an iterative Extract-Transform-Load (E-T-L) process: 

1. Identify Data to Migrate: First, determine the data that you will need to populate the appropriate required ERP fields in order to support your business processes and ultimately provide the required reporting you need to effectively run and monitor your business. 
2. Locate Source Data: Then, determine all the source systems that house this data and identify the minimum number of data fields needed to achieve the outcomes identified in step 1 above.
3. Extract and Cleanse Source Data: Extract the data from the source system(s) to see what the data will look like when exported. Clean-up the data so that it is accurate and so that duplicates are removed.
4. Transform Source Data: Populate the csv import templates with the data to be migrated and ensure that the data meets the import file field formats and standards.
5. Load Source Data: It is recommended that source data is loaded into a sandbox environment first to ensure it populates in the ERP system correctly. This process will identify any errors in the data formatting etc. If possible, load entire data sets to uncover any challenges amongst all variants of the data as early as possible. 

Repeat steps 3-5 as many times as it takes for the data to load cleanly. It’s critical to not only load the data, but also validate that it appears in the desired business processes and reports as expected.

The best practice is to start data migration related tasks at the beginning of an implementation, as they typically take more time than expected and require detailed work that is critical to the success of the entire project. Configuring the system is one thing, but it’s the quality and accuracy of the data that makes the system functional. It must be done properly and on-time for Go-Live to be successful.

ERP Academy: NetSuite CSV Import | ERP Data Migration Process

YES! The safety of your data is NetSuite’s number one priority. The cloud environment is optimized to provide the best security possible. The data will always be yours!

• Protected by 128-bit domestic SSL encryption 
• 64-bit international SSL encryption
• Different passwords needed for the system itself and your database
• Backup servers in various physical locations

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

Even though NetSuite contractually commits to a 99.5% uptime (and has historically maintained 99.8%!) that doesn’t help you if your own internet provider decides to take a vacation. 

• Check if your company has a second internet provider, as many companies do provide that important back-up. 
• Keep entering using Excel, and push what you’ve entered into NetSuite once you reconnect.
• Access from any other device. Which means you don’t need to be at the office – go to your local Starbucks for internet while your internet provider is busy getting services restored.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

NetSuite provides 128 bit SSL encryption. SSL creates a secure connection between a client and a server, over which any amount of data can be sent securely. 

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

NetSuite provides role and permission-based security that allows administrators to control visibility, actions, and data. There are approximately 20 default roles, each of which can be modified by the clients.

ERP Academy: What’s NetSuite & Why Financial Teams need it

NetSuite enables you to implement IP address level security. Using IP Address Rules you can restrict employee access to certain computers for logging into their account. This ensures that your most sensitive roles, e.g. controller, are only accessed on your premises or at the controller’s home.

Yes. The audit trail lists all the accounting entries for each transaction. The audit trail lets you verify information, track changes and search for errors or suspicious activity in your financial accounts.

Trajectory Inc can help you! Our objective is to bring valuable ERP solutions to help your business grow! We also provide test drives and demos to facilitate your decision making.

NetSuite has a relational model, which means it provides a declarative method (users can specifically type the information that they are looking for into the search tool) for specifying data and queries.  

• The system is presented in an object model for API programming. 
• It offers a consistent model to select information and create relations through its query tool, Saved Search.
• It has an optional ODBC connector for a read-only database view. This view will be limited depending on the role of your database connection.

NetSuite’s database is customizable, which means you can extend it with custom fields and tables to make it a powerful application development environment.

Always seek help from a certified NetSuite Partner for post-project support (ideally for implementation too).

The installation is considered complete once it is team tested and every detail has been checked and you have signed off on the fact that what was promised in the requirements has been delivered.

You can not control when the upgrades take place as they are done automatically for you by NetSuite. Typically, the scheduled downtime for an upgrade is during a time that will not interfere with your business. 

You can check the New Release portlet offered by NetSuite to learn more about when your system’s upgrade is scheduled and how you can log in to the preview site to see how you can use NetSuite’s new and improved features prior to the upgrade. 

Trajectory consultants are constantly monitoring upgrade dates and keeping customers notified of upcoming changes. As a complimentary service, our consultants review the Release Notes and assess whether our clients’ environments will be impacted.

Yes, NetSuite offers multiple views for mobile devices. In fact, NetSuite has improved support for mobile devices to facilitate your working experience. NetSuite for Android makes it easy to keep track of time, key business metrics and expenses whenever needed.

The tech support provided will depend on the type of agreement you reach at the time of purchase. NetSuite offers a full range of support offerings, from Basic to Premium and each option provides specific service levels. 

No matter what SuiteSupport level you select, NetSuite provides the SuiteAnswers portal, which delivers a comprehensive knowledge base, online case submission and much more. NetSuite clients normally rely on Certified Consultants and partners for on-demand and quality support.

ERP Academy: 7 ways to find ERP support beyond NetSuite

Your software license is provided by NetSuite, under their standard Terms of Service. You will sign a NetSuite Subscription Agreement, and you’ll pay NetSuite directly. 

For our clients, we facilitate that process, ensuring that your NetSuite quote/proposal contains only what you need. The software agreement is between you and NetSuite directly.

Customers can export their data to Excel or to a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file via their NetSuite application. NetSuite also provides ODBC access for direct access to the database.

You need to contact a NetSuite Solution Provider. Most companies prefer to have an ERP partner instead of hiring an internal consultant because of the different levels of support (development, consultation, integration, etc.).

Hiring an employee is always challenging. Are they the right fit? Are they as capable as they make themselves out to be? How quickly will they add value? Are they willing to stay long term in your organization to be worth their investment? These are the basic challenges that any company has when hiring a new employee. Especially one that needs to possess both technical and business savvy. 

When contacting a NetSuite Solution Provider Partner, you don’t need to worry about expertise or time to value. You’ll always get value for what you pay for.

Some of the most popular value-added SuiteApps are:

• FloQast: The Holy Grail for financial teams. FloQast accelerates and automates Close Period processes. Allowing financial teams to segment tasks and to see in real-time the team’s progress in order to prevent delays in month-end close related processes. 
• Avalara: Ideal for tax management and sales automation. It covers +12.000 tax jurisdiction, providing accurate tax calculations in real-time with every transaction.
• Boomi: Market-leading integration tool that facilitates the integration of almost any app with NetSuite.
• Expensify: Streamlines the calculation, organization, forecasting and approval management related to business expenses.

NetSuite provides multiple ERP support packages at an additional price to your subscription. Below is an overview of all the plans & benefits. For the most proactive support, give us a shout. 

• SuiteSupport: basic
  • Allows for 8am – 6pm local phone support, SuiteAnswers, case submissions, and critical access
  • Reactive
• SuiteSupport: Premium
  • Premium builds onto the basic by adding  24/7 support for high severity issues, phone case submissions, 24/7 non-critical access, and commerce response services
  • Reactive
• Advanced Customer Support: Advice
  • Allows for 24×7 email support while advising and building new solutions to challenges that you are faced with
  • Reactive
• Advanced Customer Support: Monitor
  • Building onto the “Advise” services, NetSuite will do an initial review of your environment and assign a named customer success manager. They will also proactively provide you with release awareness and monitor performance on a quarterly basis.
  • Borderline reactive
• Advanced Customer Support: Optimize
  • Building onto the “Monitor” services, NetSuite will provide passes for learning (on-demand and public classes). They’ll also proactively (annually) review your NetSuite environment and identify areas for improvement.
  • somewhat proactive
• Advanced Customer Support: Architect
  • Building onto the “Optimize” services, NetSuite will involve solution architects and assign a dedicated technical support team.
  • Super proactive
• Advanced Customer Support: Platform
  • Basically removes the educational courses, proactive monitoring, and initial/annual reviews from the “Architect” support model. 
  • Reactive vs proactive

ERP Academy: Guide to select the right NetSuite Implementation Partner

The top problems financial teams face with NetSuite are:

• Boring UI: 

1. NetSuite’s UI seems dated. It takes some training for a person to become productive on it.
2. Although NetSuite has a wide range of customization options, these are usually complicated to understand and most of the time require the experience of a consultant.

• NetSuite’s support costs are generally high

1. Support plans are a little pricey – in our opinion, it’s always better to work with a partner, as consultant shops specialize in working within various industries and have the muscle of experienced professionals behind them.

What it is/Purpose: 

A Chart of accounts is a created list of accounts used by an organization to define the class of items to which money is spent or received. It provides a way to record all transactions to asset, income or revenue, expense, liability, or equity. Typically a chart of accounts is set-up in NetSuite via CSV import or accounts can be setup manually one at a time.

Setup Tips

Every account has a specific configuration including the following attributes: account type, account number, currency, subsidiary, department, class and/or location. It is recommended that these values are populated prior to file import. 

Detailed Example (preferably steps)

• To create a single account you must go to Set Up > Accounting  > Chart Of Accounts > New

Remember, a saved search is a long-lasting search definition, that can contain numerous advanced search filters and resulting display options.

NetSuite saved searches can be used in many scenarios to gather any type of information contained in the system. You can highlight specific values, restrict access, utilize complex formulas to get results, and many other things.

Make it simple by following these steps:

1. Go to List > Search > Saved Search > New
2. Select the search type 
3. Name your search, define your criteria and column results.
4. Click on “Save & Run”.

Saved searches are like clay, you can build them in a very custom way and include almost all the data that’s in NetSuite. With saved searches, you can create scheduled reports that generate at specific intervals, highlight specific results and most importantly, work with formulas to generate insights.. 

Reports have limitations in terms of customization. Reports have an orientation mainly dedicated to the financial area of NetSuite, and a more user-friendly interface. There are over 100 pre-canned reports that you get as part of the NetSuite subscription.

ERP Academy: a detailed overview of Saved Searches vs Reports

Subsidiaries are the basis of a company classification architecture and the core of NetSuite setup. You can create up to 124 subsidiary records, in addition to the parent/root subsidiary, for a total of 125.

To create a multiple subsidiary hierarchy, you must define the parent/root subsidiary first, then the child structure. It’s crucial to understand that you cannot change or delete the parent subsidiary configuration once it is setup.

Yes, you can! NetSuite has a robust Import Assistant feature that helps to import diverse types of data using CSV import files. The assistant will guide you in identifying the data types, mapping it into the system and finally importing it. 

Access the Import Assistant by going to: 

• Set Up > Import/Export > Import CSV Records 

ERP Academy:  A guide to NetSuite CSV imports

Contract Renewals run as a script that creates renewal transactions scheduled, a renewal sales order is generated for contracts that are within 90 days of its end date. The renewal sales order includes any renewal contract items from the expiring contract that extends to the contract end date.

You can generate a renewal transaction for specific contracts on demand by clicking the “Renew Now” button on the contract record. This button is available for contracts that satisfy the following conditions:

• Contract is not inactive.
• Contract status is Active or Renewal Rejected.
• Contract has at least one item that is not perpetual.
• Contract has at least one item that is not excluded from renewal.
• Contract has at least one item with an end date that matches the contract end date.

To generate a renewal transaction for a contract:

• Go to Contract Renewals > View Records > Contracts
• Click the View link next to the contract for which you want to generate a renewal transaction.
• Click the “Renew Now” button.

NetSuite provides a standard report where you can review budgets vs actuals. 

This report displays in the standard form and includes the amount, budget amount, amount over budget and % of the budget. Also, it can be customized to add specific columns, filters, sort the data based on specific criteria and to determine the audience of the report.  

To review the report you must go to: 

• Reports > Banking/Budgeting > Budget vs. Actual 

NetSuite has a Period Close Checklist feature that helps you to close a period with some easy steps such as: Close A/P, Close A/R, review negative inventory and many more. 

To open this feature go to: 

• Setup > Accounting > Manage Accounting Periods 

Select the accounting period that you need to close by clicking on the blue icon with the magnifying glass. You will then find the steps to close the accounting period. 

ERP Academy: the guide to month end in NetSuite

Approve resource time recorded against a project to process payroll and bill customers for billable charges. When you use the Project Management and Time Tracking features, a project manager or designated time approver can approve time transactions entered against projects.

To approve time-related to a project:

• Go to Transactions > Employees > Approve Time
• Select an employee or All.
• If you use Time Tracking, check the Approve box for time you want to approve. 
• Click Submit.

At the top-right of your home screen, there’s a link called “Personalize”, click on it and a toggle menu will appear with options for customizing your dashboard. Depending on what type of information you wish to add to your dashboard, drag and drop the portlet and place it on the page.

Once it’s done, you must configure the portlet to give it a specific function, clicking on the three dots icon on the portlet and click on Set Up. 

e.g. You want to have a Saved Search on your home page.

A user is an individual who has access to a NetSuite account. Generally, most users are employees, but vendors, partners, and customers can also be users.

Users need to be setup in the NetSuite system through the creation of employee, vendor, partner, or customer records. For users to have access to NetSuite, their records must include an email address, which serves as their user ID. 

Users must also have a password to access NetSuite. Administrators can send an access notification email that includes a link that lets users create their own passwords.

Every extra user license typically costs $99 per month.

Yes you can! The file cabinet lets you restrict folders access by class, department, location, subsidiary, and by groups which is a custom classification that works for contacts, customers, employees, partners, projects, and vendors (not mixed, separated by type), dynamically, using a saved search that will add any entity that fits with the criteria or static, selecting specific people. Also you can create private folders, the contents of which only you can view.

NetSuite has different kinds of audit trails depending on the record type. The system provides audit trails for transactions, entity records, login (that keep track of when and where account users log in), saved searches and reports, among others. 

The audit trail functionality displays a series of options such as users, date range, account, and more to define what the user wants to review to identify the following actions: create, change or delete.   

To run the transaction audit trail go to: 

• Transactions > Management > View Audit Trail

To run the login audit trail go to:

• Setup > Users/Roles > View Login Audit Trail 

To run the saved search audit trail go to:

• List > Search > Saved Searches > New 
• Select Analytics Audit Trail
• Use the Record Type list to specify the record types to be included in the search. You can specify any combination of the following record types:
  • Financial Layout – Select this option to find the changes made to financial report layouts.
  • Report – Select this option to find the changes made to saved custom reports.
  • Report Schedule – Select this option to find the changes made to report schedules.
  • Search – Select this option to find the changes made to saved searches.

To run an Entity audit trail please go to: 

• Go to any entity list, e.g. Employees
• On the top-right corner, you’ll find the Audit Trail link 

NetSuite Dashboards can be customized with shortcuts, portlets, reminders, calendars, and more. 

For any particular role and activity, you can add personalized widgets to your own home page or add all the standard widgets for a specific role. You can also add specific reports among other customizations to suit your home screen needs.