RSMUS.comNetSuite’s upcoming 2014.2 update has a lot of improvements across many areas. Your favorites will depend on what portions of the product you use most. Here are the five that I am most excited about:
- Custom Fields in Duplicate Detection
Clean data is the best way to ensure your reporting is accurate and one of the best ways to keep your data clean is to catch duplicate records before they enter your system. NetSuite has long allowed duplicate matching on address, phone number and email among others but now you can match duplicates on the custom fields created for each record type. This should open up a lot of options for companies that struggle with identifying duplicate records. Now if NetSuite can just make that duplicate merge function a little more streamlined…
- Context in System Notes
NetSuite tracks changes to records within system notes to create an audit trail history of that record. This is useful to find out who changed a record and when it happened but it until now you couldn’t tell how the change was made. Clients that leverage .csv uploads or web services integrations know how hard it is to track down the details of a record edit when the change could have been made through these channels. Searching through import history or XML logs is time consuming. Now NetSuite will tell you the exact context of a change inside of system notes, saving you time and your sanity.
- Fulfilling Orders Across Periods
If you ever ship product across accounting periods you may have run into an issue where a fulfillment gets “stranded” in a closed period. If you enable “Update Transaction Date Upon Fulfillment Status Change” it will update the fulfillment date when the status is updated to “Shipped,” even if the previous period is closed.
- Billing Groups
If you are billing groups of clients on a regular basis you may spend a lot of time segmenting your billing queue to bill the right people for the right items. This new function will give you the ability to create static or dynamic customer groups. Once the group is setup you can setup a schedule and define what to bill (sales orders, expenses, time, item). If you are a service organization billing time and expense monthly this could save you several hours a month.
- Address Records
NetSuite has been promising customizable addresses for a while now and they’re going to deliver it in this update. Many clients track default addresses above and beyond shipping and billing or have to define specific delivery instructions. That has been difficult to maintain in NetSuite’s address functionality. Now you will be able to add custom fields, create custom forms and even create form-level scripts. Congratulations “addresses” on becoming a legit record type!
Honorable Mention: The new UI may be the biggest update that everyone will see but opinion seems to be split between those who love the clean look and those who are worried about too much space between fields. I love that it’s HTML 5 and based on responsive design which should enable more impressive improvements in this area for future releases.
For assistance with training or customization related to the NetSuite 2014.2 release, please contact RSM at erp@mcgladrey.com or by phone at 855.437.7202. RSM is a nationally recognized NetSuite Solution Provider with more than 30 years of ERP implementation experience.
By: Josh Ferguson – Minnesota NetSuite Solution Provider
Josh Ferguson
Josh first implemented and administered NetSuite in 2007. He has been with RSM since 2012 and is currently a Director in our NetSuite consulting practice.