RSMUS.comNetSuite is known for its intuitive layout and flexibility for displaying information, but these features are often not leveraged by users. Frequently, by the time the administrators have invested the hours to get the system up and running, dashboards are forgotten or ignored. Intuitive and informative dashboards are easy to distribute to all users within your company and should not be skipped in any implementation. Below are two NetSuite tools to help disseminate relevant information throughout your company.
KPI Scorecards
KPI scorecards in NetSuite allow you to make comparisons between several KPIs over various date ranges. Scorecards can also use formulas to compare KPIs and analyze company performance. Scorecards allow the use of Excel-like formulas. This gives you a great deal of flexibility to compare the performance of different departments, classes, product lines, subsidiaries or sales teams.
To Set up a New KPI Scorecard:
- Go to Customization>Centers an Tabs> KPI Scorecards>New
- Under the Content subtab, you can add KPIs and define their comparisons, and add formulas.
- On the Date Ranges subtab, you can define multiple date ranges.
- On the Highlighting subtab, you can highlight based on criteria and thresholds to make results more visible.
- Go to your dashboards, click personalize on the dashboard screen. Select the KPI Scorecard Icon
- Click setup on the top right of the portlet, select your custom scorecard from the list.
Publish Dashboards
By publishing dashboards, you can push a desired configuration to users in your company.
Advantages of published dashboards:
- Consistent interface for users with related roles.
- Uniformity in dashboards’ can make collaboration easier.
- Saves time allowing administrators to set up one dashboard for numerous users instead of each user doing it independently.
- Management can ensure information dissemination.
- Tailored dashboards to display information that fits company and team objectives.
Before publishing a dashboard, ensure the following:
- The role you are using has permission to publish dashboards.
- You are using the same center as the end users. Centers are the layout of tabs on your netsuite screen. Different roles will typically have different centers. Administrators are in the Classic Center.
Ex: To push a dashboard to sales users, you will have to create it in a Sales Administrator role or a custom sales role with the Sales Center.
To publish a dashboard:
- Create the desired dashboard configuration.
- On the home page, go to the Settings portlet, click the Publish Dashboard.
If you want to prevent users from removing links in the Shortcuts Portlet, check the Lock Shortcuts box. With this checked, users still can add and reorder links in their Shortcuts portlets.
- On the Apply to Roles subtab, select the roles to which you want to publish this dashboard.
- Override existing user’s settings will determine whether your published dashboard will replace current user’s dashboard. If left unchecked, your dashboard will only publish to new users.
- On the Apply to Tabs subtab, select the tabbed pages that you have customized to be part of the published dashboard.
In the Mode column, choose the level of restrictions for users
- Unlocked – lets users make all changes to the selected page
- Locked – restricts users from making any changes.
- Add/Move Content – allows users to add and rearrange portlets on the selected page but they cannot remove portlets.
Please note: After you have saved a published dashboard, you cannot modify the included tabbed pages, or their restriction modes.
Please also see part 1 of this blog post, Dashboards Part 1: Tailoring your NetSuite Dashboard with Custom Reminders and KPI’s. In this first post, i discuss how to setup reminders, custom reminders and saved searches for custom KPI’s.
To learn more about RSM’s NetSuite services, Contact us at erp@rsmus.com or by phone at855.437.7202.
By: Rob Ericson – Colorado NetSuite Solution Provider
