The onboarding @Novutech

At Novutech, our common mission is to help our customers leverage their business processes to sustain their growth thanks to NetSuite, a flexible, scalable and robust cloud ERP. To achieve this mission, we keep on welcoming new Novutechos, would they be functional consultants, developers or project managers. Today, we are more than 25 Novutechos, all driven by the same passion: to make our customers and users' lives easier. We strive to deliver professionalism and excellence in an organization where everyone is respected and can express its unique skills. Building a strong and efficient team is the key to our success and is a continuous journey that starts during the first days of our new joiners. At Novutech, we have put in place an onboarding program to welcome our new recruits and establish the foundation of a positive and long-term relationship with our organization. We want to make sure that, from the very beginning of their career at Novutech, every single talent is motivated and feels involved in the development of the company. What better feeling for a new joiner than having an incredible experience during his first days that made him think “Yes! I totally made the right decision by joining Novutech and this is going to be so amazing!” Effective onboarding is more important than ever! At Novutech, we are convinced that the successful onboarding of each new joiner is the basis for increasing our team’s cohesion and our customers’ satisfaction, thereby also benefiting Novutech’s business.

The Onboarding program at Novutech

Pre-Onboarding - Preparation for onboarding: The onboarding of new Novutechos starts weeks before their arrival. It is one of the key elements for a successful integration. Indeed, one week before the arrival of a new joiner, we inform the team about the new joiner, his roles and responsibilities.  Our onboarding approach aims at better preparing the new joiner for a smoother jump into our world, team and company. It consists of the following: First of all, a buddy is assigned to each new joiner. The role of the buddy fulfills some aspects of the onboarding process: deliver organizational knowledge, welcome and integrate new joiners into the company’s culture, provide guidance & assistance for any inquiry type during the new joiner’s first months. Secondly, every team member will have the opportunity to book a 1-to-1 meeting with the new joiner in the course of his first week. The goal is to present one topic around what we do at Novutech to introduce the company and to get to know each other.   Orientation - New Employee Welcome We pay particular attention to the first day which might be stressful and a bit overwhelming for the new joiner. For this first day we provide a special welcome and take the time needed to successfully integrate our new talent. For example, by sharing breakfast or organizing a lunch with all the team to celebrate our new joiner’s arrival. One of the co-founders of Novutech will invest time to immerse the new employee into our culture. He will present the company (customers, structure, team,..), its vision, mission and values. Afterwards, the new employee will meet his buddy and receive his IT devices and material  but also some nice goodies. The idea is that, at the end of this first day, the new Novutechos should be able to understand the way of working of the company.   1st Week - Introduction to company, people & role The first week is a crucial time to help our new joiner make his start as an employee. This is where we empower our new employee with the ability to think independently and offer the best way to make decisions autonomously.  At Novutech, when an employee first starts, their direct manager will organize a meeting to define the roadmap for the next few weeks. This gives the employee a clear idea of their objectives and what we are expecting from him.   3rd Month - Training & Feedback This process can overload a new employee with information that’s why we therefore decided to divide this process into different sessions:

• HR Overview
• Company update
• Knowledge & Expertise (Netsuite Knowledge, Business Processes, Industry knowledge, Accounting & Finance,..)
• Consulting training (Communication & Presentation, Productivity, Time Management, It & Tools,..
• Leadership training (Project Management, Customer Management,..)

We want to provide our employees with the  fundamental skills required for their roles and support their continuous learning. To that end, we have created an academy to upskill our people, through modules that include functional and technical training, certifications, mentoring, coaching programs and more. Finally, a daily review can be organized with the buddy to verify that the training is going at the right pace, to answer any training/HR-related questions or any other requests and to fine-tune the use of the tools.   6th Month - Check-in & Feedback This is a great time to look back and assess the performance of the Novutechos as well as to look to the future and discuss the new objectives and expectations.   Conclusion When the integration is well done, it builds the foundation for both the employee and the employer’s long-term success. It can improve productivity, strengthen loyalty and commitment, and help employees succeed early in their careers at Novutech.

Background

Advanced Project Budgets enable you to stay on track with cost and revenue for each project. A work breakdown structure (WBS) separates the work on a project into parts, called work items. You can assign cost and revenue budget values to every work item, save the work breakdown structure and convert it to a budget. The budget version you have saved as the baseline budget can then be compared to actuals in the Budget vs. Actual Report.

Prerequisite

You need to provision and enable the following feature (Setup>Company>Enable Features>Company>Projects): When enabling “Advanced Project Budgets”, the features “Advanced Project Profitability” and “Activity Codes” are also automatically enabled.

Functional Specification

With Advanced Project Budgets, you can:

• Create a work breakdown structure (work items) on your project and assign estimated amounts to cost and revenue. The initial work breakdown structure and its future updates will give birth to different types of budgets: Baseline and Estimate to Complete (EAC).
• See actual amounts from real transactions, which are useful for budget evaluation.
• Compare Baseline VS EAC budgets using native NetSuite reporting.
• Report across multiple projects or customers using activity codes or any other custom segment.

Process

1. First step is to create an initial work breakdown structure. To do so, on the project record, go to the “Work Breakdown Structure” tab and click the “New WBS” button:

Note that the “Budget” tab is empty waiting for a work breakdown structure to be created:

     2. When accessing the Work Breakdown Structure record, there are a few fields on main level that you can populate:

• Description (1): free form text to describe your budget version
• Margin Target (2): insert the intended margin percentage
• Timeline Type (3): you can select:
  • Global: Global timeline type is the default option. There is no date restrictions.
  • Monthly: Monthly timeline type lets you select a start and end date of the WBS. You are then able to define a cost and revenue budget for each month.

Online level you need to populate the following information:

• Name (4): enter a name for each work item of your work breakdown structure
• Project Task (5): link your work item with a project task from your project’s schedule (1 to 1 relationship)
• ETC Cost (6): enter the estimated cost for this work item on the entire project lifetime. Let’s imagine in this example I have been assigned on the project for an estimated duration of 5 hours at a unit cost of 50€, so my total cost budget is 250€
• ETC Cost: (7): enter the estimated revenue for this work item on the entire project lifetime. Let’s imagine in this example I have been assigned on the project for an estimated duration of 5 hours at a unit price of 100€, so my total revenue budget is 500€

Note that the EAC Cost and Revenue (8) are automatically populated with the same values and this is all logical since it is an initial budget. After you have entered all the work items of your WBS, you can hit “Save”.

3. Once you have saved your work breakdown structure, it is now appearing on the Work Breakdown Structure tab of the project’s record:

4. Next step is to set the work breakdown structure as a Baseline Budget:

After you have set the work breakdown structure as Baseline Budget, the Budget tab of the project’s record is now populated:

Note that there 3 different subtabs available:

• EAC Budget: it is currently equal to the baseline budget
• Baseline Budget: this is the budget you have set in the previous step
• Budget History: this gives you all the different budget versions created for the project. You can see that for the moment there is only one budget version and it’s set as both EAC and Baseline budgets:

5. After you have set your baseline budget, work can start on the project. You’ll be able to follow up on those actuals and compare them with the budget. Let’s imagine that out of the 5 hours I have been assigned on the project, I have already performed and timesheeted for 3 of them:

Actual Cost: 3*50€ = 150€ Actual Revenue: 3*100 = 300€

6. If you foresee deviations from your initial (= baseline) budget (e.g. your customer is asking a change request that will increase your workload) you will need to review and update it to align the figures with the project reality. Let’s imagine the change request is 3 hours of work, so that means my total assignment will be 8 hours instead of 5 hours initially planned and I need to reflect that in the budget the following way:

Cost Budget: 8 hours * 50€  = 400€ Revenue Budget: 8 hours * 100€ = 800€   To do so, you’ll need to create a new budget version and set it as EAC budget. On the Budget tab and Baseline Budget subtab, click “View Budget”:

Then under Actions you need to click on “Create New Budget Version”:

There you can update the Cost and Revenue Budget and set that new version as EAC Budget: Note that under Actions you can also set it as Baseline Budget. You would do that when you realize the initial baseline budget was wrongly set-up and you want to use a new baseline budget as reporting basis. Otherwise all amendments made to the baseline budget due to project’s changes (e.g. change request) should be set up as EAC budgets. After I have hit the button “Set as EAC Budget”, I can go back to the project record to have an overview of budgets history:

I have now 2 budget versions: one which is my baseline budget and another one which is my EAC budget. Be aware that NetSuite will keep history of each new budget version that you create, whether it’s marked as Baseline / EAC budget or not. So for example if you want to create one more budget version to reflect extra changes to the project (1 hour extra work), you can do that starting from the existing EAC budget:

Again I have the possibility to set that new version either as a new EAC budget, either as a new Baseline budget. After I have hit the button “Set as EAC Budget”, I can go back once more to the project’s Budget tab to have the overview of all budget versions: You can create as many budget versions as you wish and set them up as Baseline or EAC budgets. 

7. Standard Project Profitability Reports have also been updated to include Baseline vs. Actual vs. EAC reports:

Identified Pain Points

• Initial budget has to be created from the “Work Breakdown Structure” tab. All updates after that can be done either through the:
  • “Budget” tab: in that case a new project budget record is created for each new update but the work breakdown structure is not updated automatically and is thus not aligned with your latest project budget version.
  • “Work Breakdown Structure” tab: you can create new baseline or EAC project budgets through the work breakdown structure record. This guarantees that your work baseline structure is in line with your latest project budget version.
• There is no native Baseline VS EAC budget comparison within the project record. There are 2 distinct subtabs (EAC Budget and Baseline Budget) but no one single view that allows to quickly compare them. Project profitability reports exist (see above) but are outside the project record.
• Project Schedule and Budgets / WBS have to be maintained separately. So all changes that you do on one record need to be manually reflected on the other record, which is obviously time consuming.

Background

I started my studies of Business Engineering at UMons 2014. In 2017, I moved to the Louvain-La-Neuve in the Louvain School of Management in order to realize a Master degree with as Major option “Corporate Social Responsibility”. Nevertheless, I have always felt interested in new technologies. I realized some projects and also my thesis in this area. Actually, it is during my Master degree that I met the wonderful ERP world. It is in January 2020 that I’ve been graduated as Business Engineer at the Louvain School of Management.  One month later, I was recruited by Novutech to become a Business Analyst for (at that time) this very small company. But beginning 2020 means also the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Because of this, my arrival in Novutech has been delayed for one month. Indeed, instead of beginning in March, I entered inside Novutech’s family in April. So, it is in April 2020 that I start my journey in Novutech.

Why Novutech

Let me make a small parenthesis about “Why I chose Novutech ?”. I was directly attracted by the atmosphere in Novutech. Novutech was indeed composed of dynamic people which were ready to be part of a big project and dedicated to it. I always wanted to be part of this kind of project.  As a first job, I wanted to join a project where I was directly involved into and not entering in a big company. I wanted to find a company where I feel as a real member of the team. It means not entering in a too big structure. Novutech was a perfect match with this objective. 

Novutech’s Journey

Starting working in the business world during a pandemic was not an easy job for me. Not having the opportunity to meet all my new colleagues except behind a screen was a and also to learn a part of the job on my own. This new way of living was not an easy stuff but fortunately, I was well supported by the other team members and I didn’t feel alone during my beginning. At that time, we were only 6 at Novutech, thanks to this, it helps to rapidly be implicated and also adapt myself to the job. Indeed, it allows me to directly deep dive in concrete projects by doing tasks that get me out of my comfort zone. I had been directly put in contact with client, it was a big challenge for me but it helps me to grow up fast on my way of working and being independent in the job.  During my first month, I was put on a complete NetSuite implementation for Medi-Market. This project allows me to discover NetSuite especially Finance flow as it was a project which was mainly finance/accounting based. Thus, this project was a good start to jump into the NetSuite water.  After that, I have the opportunity to also be part of a big implementation for our client, Solar Screen. This implementation had a broader scope than Medi-Market. Indeed, in addition to integrate all the finance part of the company, we also should implement the Warehouse Management. In this case, I had been confronted to all the Inventory part of the system. As it was a quite new topics for me, I’d made some trainings to discover those topics.  Since those two implementations, I had the opportunity to participate in different projects, implementation and support, in various companies (UnifiedPost, Akkermansia Company, OTA Insight, etc.). Those experiences allow me to take more and more on myself and start leading some projects.  More than 2 years after my beginning at Novutech, a long journey has been achieved. I am now a Business Consultant and I had the opportunity to work for big projects but also to take the lead of some of them. During those projects, I was mainly driven by the opportunity learning more about various topics, to have responsibilities, to be totally autonomous on the way of managing my work, etc.  Thanks to this dynamic and way of working, I was able to grow up very fast and learn a lot from the Business World.

Background

Cross-Subsidiary fulfillment is a NetSuite feature available on OneWorld accounts. Once the functionality is enabled, you will have the possibility to fulfill sales orders and receive returns across multiple subsidiaries. Therefore, an order made in the original subsidiary can be sent to different subsidiary at the moment of the fulfillment. It means that you will be able to fulfill sales orders not only from locations belonging to the original subsidiary but also from all the other locations present in your NetSuite environment.  If you encounter a shortage of stock for a certain item in the original transaction subsidiary locations, it will be possible to select a location from another subsidiary where some stock is still available. Moreover, this feature allows you to choose more than one location per transaction. It means that a sales order can be fulfilled from locations in multiple subsidiaries and not only one as it is the case when the Intercompany Cross Subsidiary Fulfillment functionality is not activated. Additionally, the return process is also impacted. You can indeed create a return material authorization (RMA) linked to one subsidiary and receive the transaction lines in multiple locations belonging to other subsidiaries.   

Functionalities

Cross-subsidiary fulfillment setup

Before using the cross-subsidiary fulfillment functionalities, you will need to enable a couple of features on your NetSuite environment. To do so, log in to NetSuite with an administrator role (you might be able to do it with another role, depending on its permissions). Then, go to Setup > Company > Enable Features. Under the Items & Inventory subtab, check the Multi-Location Inventory and Intercompany Cross-subsidiary Fulfillment boxes. Note: we advise you to make this setup in a Sandbox/demo environment first.  Then, specify the Global Inventory Relationships (Lists > Supply Chain > Global Inventory Relationship). Global Inventory relationships are rules that automatically select the locations items should ship from.   On the sales order, the cross-subsidiary fulfillment feature will make available two new fields on the item lines:

•  Inventory Location
•  Inventory Subsidiary

Cross-subsidiary fulfillment walkthrough

The first step is to create a Sales Order (Transactions > Sales > Enter Sales Orders). In this example, we are using a customer belonging to the United Kingdom subsidiary.  As you can notice, there is no inventory available in the location (London) for the item in question.   Therefore, you need to find another location where the item is available. The cross-subsidiary fulfillment feature allows us to choose a location (Dublin) belonging to another subsidiary (Ireland). Now that you have a sales order with available inventory, you can fulfill the sales order (click on the Fulfill button). On the Item fulfillment generation page, review the relevant information and select the items you wish to fulfill. Then, click Save. Looking at the GL impact on the item fulfillment, you will notice that NetSuite debits the cost of goods sold and credits the inventory. The cost of goods sold are recognized on the subsidiary where the order ships from and not on the subsidiary where the subsidiary was originally placed. After fulfilling the order, you will be able to bill it (click on the bill remaining button on the sales order). Note that the invoice takes place on the original subsidiary and location. Review the information on the invoice and save it.   Looking at the GL impact on the invoice, you will see that the trade debtors account is debited and the revenue account is credited. If any VAT was set up, the VAT account will be credited.

Cross-Subsidiary Charges

You now have revenues in the subsidiary (United Kingdom) where the sale order was placed and costs in the subsidiary where the goods were shipped from (Dublin). Therefore, intercompany cross charges take place. To use the standard intercompany cross charges functionality, go to Transactions > Financial > Manage Intercompany Cross Charges. You will then see the list of transactions ready to be cross charged. You will have the opportunity to generate those using the Generate Transactions button. Once your Cross Charge Workbench is empty, go to your journal list (Transactions > Financial > Make Journal Entries) and find the cross charge journals (Filter the Type to Cross Charge Journal). Note that one cross charge journal per subsidiary involved in the transaction is created. One the one hand, a cross charge journal will be created to recognize revenues in the subsidiary that fulfilled the sales order. One the other hand, a journal will be generated to recognize costs in the invoicing subsidiary. The Cross Charges Workbench is a standard Cross Charges NetSuite process that generates Journal entries for the recognition of intercompany costs and revenues. At Novutech, we can build customized cross charging processes (created via scripts) that generate intercompany invoices and bills. If you wish to recognize cross charges directly on invoices and bills instead of journal entries, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Note: before using the intercompany cross charges, you should set up the NetSuite intercompany features. 

Conclusion

The Cross-subsidiary fulfillment feature enables your NetSuite account to handle sales orders and returns across multiple subsidiaries. In other words, you will not be limited to fulfill your sales orders from a location belonging to the originating order subsidiary.  Regarding the recognition of your intercompany cross charges, Novutech offers the possibility to customize your process according to your needs. Do not hesitate to reach out to us and visit our website (https://www.novutech.com/) for more information. 

In short

• You will have the opportunity to fulfill sales orders and order returns across multiple subsidiaries.
• Novutech offers a custom-made process to recharge, via a set of predefined rules, the right amounts from one subsidiary to another one with intercompany bills and intercompany invoices (and not cross charge journal entries, as the standard functionalities would do).

Prerequisites: OneWorld NetSuite account & Intercompany setup (cross-subsidiary charges).

A decisive strategic decision

Implementing a new ERP is an important decision that will have a huge impact on your organisation in the long term. Whether you make that strategic decision to stimulate the growth of your business and introduce more structure into your processes or to support your already scaling company, you want to make sure to leverage all the benefits of your new ERP and get the most out of your investment. This is why you need to select an implementation partner that understands your needs, has your best interests in mind, and has the required expertise to tailor your environment according to your business processes. If you go for NetSuite, Novutech can be that trusted partner you are looking for. Why? Thanks to our team of experienced consultants and the proven implementation approach we follow for each one of our projects.

Novutech, the partner of choice for your NetSuite implementation project

The experience When choosing Novutech, you are actually choosing a diverse and experienced team which is able to understand your needs, challenge your processes, and design the best solutions to streamline your operations and boost your business. Currently, our team can rely on 17 functional consultants, with up to 10 years of NetSuite experience in almost all business areas, 5 technical consultants well versed in suitescripts, integrations, and other plug-ins, 1 expert accountant who will resolve any of your localisation issues, and a vast network of trusted partners who make it possible to optimise your NetSuite environment even further. The values Beside our functional and technical experience with NetSuite, we make a point of being fully transparent and building a strong and trusting relationship with our customers. During your project with us, here is what you can expect :

• A focus on a ready-to-go implementation, based on NetSuite’s proven and sound standard capabilities.
• Being challenged to follow NetSuite best practices, based on both NetSuite’s standard design and our own experience resulting from our 20+ implementations in the last 3 years.
• A constant and completely transparent communication throughout the whole project. We will not sugarcoat any obstacles and will always advise you the best we can in order to make sure you reach your objectives and even surpass them.
• Regular status reports and updates about timelines, risks and impacts.
• A lot of flexibility, not only in our services (consulting services, project management, training and support), but also in NetSuite (customisations, add-ons, integrations).

The approach In order to meet our common goals, we follow a structured methodology, consisting of 4 different stages.

• Engage

The engagement phase of the project is dedicated to getting acquainted with each other and getting to know your business. Thanks to detailed questionnaires, we collect the first pieces of information regarding your business and internal processes. We also kick off the project with all interested parties in order to ensure everyone is aligned and all the people involved are identified and know their role during the project.

• Drive

1. Architect We organise workshops with your teams in order to dive into your operations and daily activities. We gather all the necessary information in a design document which we continuously amend with you in order to scope the project precisely and sign off on a final architecture.
2. Configure and Prototype Based on the workshops and the design document, we build a series of prototypes in a test environment, which we put to the test with your teams to ensure they allow all employees to perform their daily tasks in the most optimal and accurate way. When the final prototype stands the test of process owners, we deploy it in the live environment and prepare for go-live.

• Enable

Before go-live, we ensure the users have the necessary knowledge of the system and feel confident that they can go through NetSuite’s workflows without any complications. With User Acceptance Testing, training guides and ongoing assistance, we support users throughout their learning journey, deal with their concerns and take special care of making them comfortable with the new tool they will be using on a daily basis.

• Convert

The last step of our projects is supporting our customer during the go-live phase and making ourselves available to help them resolve any issues they may have. We also assist them with the migration of the balances from their previous software and with their first closing, and encourage them to take ownership of their NetSuite environment.  

The right people for the right job

In this day and age, implementing an ERP is a necessary step for any company that wants to survive and scale. This is such an important aspect of your growth, and which can prove very costly and painful if done incorrectly, that you need to partner with people that know what they are doing and that have the drive and knowledge to meet your ambitions. Can Novutech be that partner for you? Contact us to make sure!

Background

At Novutech, we work hand-in-hand with Fast Four, now part of Zone & Co, a full service ERP Partner specialized in NetSuite. They provide many opportunities to extend some of the features of our ERP and there are two in particular that we like to work with. The first SuiteApp, Fast Four Bank Reconciliation, automatically reconciles with bank statements everything from Bills to Invoices as well as Payments, Expense Reports and many more, and relies on a download of a statement or a transaction stream directly from the bank. The second SuiteApp, Fast Four Scan & Capture, automates the entry of Vendor Bills both from PDF Invoices and E-Invoices but also the delivery of E-Invoices to Customers. Let us find out more about them.

Functionalities

At Novutech, we are mainly working with two Fast Four SuiteApps, Bank Reconciliation and Scan & Capture, which we will introduce to you in the following article. Bank Reconciliation The Fast Four Bank Reconciliation SuiteApp allows users to automatically reconcile their bank accounts in minutes and to save hours of manual processing each day. This means less hassle, manual entry and errors. In other words, instead of users wasting hours entering and matching each line of their bank statement, this SuiteApp automatically creates and reconciles all transactions in one easy step. To do this, users simply download statements or set up a transaction flow directly from their bank to automatically create and reconcile transactions across multiple companies, bank accounts, cards, currencies and electronic payment providers. As a result, Bank Reconciliation by Fast Four provides greater control, visibility and focus on using the data rather than entering it. After this short introduction, let us dive into the key highlights of this SuiteApp.

• Automate bank transaction entry and reconciliation

The Fast Four Bank Reconciliation SuiteApp imports bank statement files and performs an automatic reconciliation process in NetSuite. Cash received generates payment transactions on customer invoices, while payments made are linked to bills, journals and other expenses based on automatic matching rules. Suggested transactions for any unmatched line are visible in the bank reconciliation screen with one click. Almost any file format is supported, including CODA, Comp53, MT940, OFX, QFX, and many more, including various country-specific formats. In addition, if a format used by the customer is not supported as standard, the application can be configured as needed by importing a CSV with a Custom Field Mapping.

• Resolve complex scenarios with one click of a button

Foreign currency payments, consolidated or split payments, and payment differences can all be processed with the click of a button, greatly enhancing the standard NetSuite functionality and significantly reducing the time it takes for users to reconcile transactions. Ad hoc transactions such as card payments or bank interest earnings can also be easily created on the fly.

• Reconcile credit cards and payment gateways

Automated reconciliation is not limited to bank accounts. With out-of-the-box configuration options, it is possible to easily automate the reconciliation of all transitions in a company, including credit card providers or payment gateways.

• Cancel Direct Debit

In cases where direct debits are used to receive payments from customers, payments can sometimes be canceled. Fast Four's bank reconciliation application automatically matches direct debit cancellations and correctly posts them to the general ledger as a new transaction type called "Direct Debit Reversal". This process automatically reopens the original invoice and displays the reason for the cancellation, allowing standard NetSuite workflows to alert users, automatically request a new payment or follow up with the customer in person.

• Allow Multi-line Journal Entries

A bank payment can be easily attached to multiple GL accounts in NetSuite with only one click. In addition to all these advantages, thanks to the Bank Reconciliation SuiteApp, plenty of operations can be managed such as Customer Payment, Unapplied Customer Payment, Vendor Payment (Bill Payment), Vendor Payment without Bill Applied (Prepayment), Expense Note Payment, Other Payment (other than AP or AR), Electronic Fund Transfer Payment, and Direct Debit Payment. Scan & Capture When it comes to the Fast Four Scan & Capture SuiteApp, it is a native Purchase-To-Pay (P2P) process automation solution for NetSuite. It automates the creation of invoices and supplier credits using OCR, without having to leave the NetSuite screen. It reduces manual accounts payable processing by 83%, eliminates risk, and enhances the existing NetSuite customizations, workflows, dashboards, and reports without worrying about integrations or external software. This application is easy to use and affordable, with remote installation and training requiring less than two hours of time. Let us now move on to the most important features of this SuiteApp.

• OCR, Machine Learning and e-Invoice Capture

By using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), supplier invoices and credits received as PDF documents are automatically created at the line level in NetSuite. The application is trained to recognize factors such as vendor look and feel, transaction date, order reference and amount, which means users do not need to create transactions, fill in data or even leave their NetSuite screen. This reduces processing time by an average of 83% and eliminates manual errors. Electronic invoices are also easy to manage using XML imports, which means that this technology can be adopted immediately and in the future as its use becomes more widespread.

• Split Screen View and Transaction Dashboard

There is no need to leave the NetSuite screen or navigate to external software to view relevant transactions and documents. Users, approvers and auditors can quickly and easily view the NetSuite transaction and the actual document received from vendors on one screen with the split screen feature. The transaction dashboard also provides a simple overview of transactions by status to allow users to quickly progress and complete tasks and move on to the next task.

• Capture Additional Fields and Extend Existing Workflows and Customizations

As the application is native, everything that is captured is driven by the NetSuite configuration. Existing customizations, additional fields, or approval workflows can be used or enhanced with confidence without having to worry about external integrations or compatibility with third-party formats.

• Order Matching, Line Recognition and Automatic Vendor Processing

Three-way order matching can be automated by including multiple orders in a consolidated invoice. Line-level recognition means that costs can be correctly allocated at the line level, even across multiple pages, without the need for manual entry or allocation. For even greater efficiency, certain vendors can be flagged for "Automatic Processing", meaning their invoices are automatically forwarded for approval, without manual intervention.

• Support for Virtually any Language and Character Set

It is worth mentioning that OCR technology can recognize and process almost any language and character set as standard. Through the Scan & Capture SuiteApp, whether managing thousands of supplier invoices, or just a few, this application is a faster, more efficient and more enjoyable way to process invoices.

Conclusion

At Novutech, we mainly work with the two Fast Four SuiteApps, Bank Reconciliation and Scan & Capture, which we regularly recommend to our customers. We are therefore accustomed to dealing with these applications and are able to provide expertise on their implementation and utilization. Please feel free to reach out with any further information or query.

In Short

Sources https://www.suiteapp.com/Fast-Four-Bank-Reconciliation https://www.suiteapp.com/Fast-Four-Scan-Capture

Background

When you sell a product together with consultancy / professional services, NetSuite allows to create a project from the sale transaction (sale order, opportunity or estimate) you have booked in the system.
That way the sale transaction and the newly created project are linked together and all billing operations will be done directly through the sale transaction.
In this article we will do an end to end flow starting from a sale order creation to the invoicing of the related project work.

NetSuite Configuration

Permission
The “Create Projects from Sales Transactions” is required to create projects from sales transactions (“Full” level available only):

Item
To be able to create a project from a sale transaction, you need to have a least one item on the sale transaction that is configured correctly.

On the item record:

• The “Create Project” must be checked.
• You also have the ability to either select a default template to be used when creating a project for that item or either define the work breakdown structure of the project directly on the item.

End-to-End Flow

Let’s consider a sale order where you sell a server (hardware) to your customer together with a few hours of professional services (estimate of 4 hours at a unit price of 100€ per hour) for the server installation and configuration:

Now a project should be created to manage the professional services part. For that you can use the “Create Projects from Sales Transactions” page. Go to Transactions > Customers > Create Projects from Sales Transactions.

There you will see all sales transactions (sales orders, opportunities and estimates) that are not in one of the following statuses: canceled, closed or pending approval.
First you need to select the sales transaction(s) you want to create a project for. Then you have the ability to:

• Modify the project name
• Refer a project template based on which the project will be created
• Refer a parent project if you want to establish a specific project hierarchy
• Select a project manager

Once you’re done you can click on “Submit”. You will then be redirected to the list of projects. The newly created project is the most recent one in the list. If you have created it using a template, you might see a yellow banner at the top of the project record alerting you that NetSuite is still busy building the project according to your template. You can click on “Reload” until the banner disappears.

On the Sales Order you can see the link with the newly created project:

Looking at the project record, I have one task where I have assigned a resource to perform the server configuration for a total planned work of 5 hours at a unit price of 120€/hour:

NetSuite automatically created a forecast charge for the assignment I have just made:

You now need to reflect that updated data on your sales order and link it to your forecast charge. To do that you need to edit the sales order and “Refresh Items from Project”:

When clicking that button, NetSuite will first remove all project items and then re-source them from the project to display the most up to date information:

On the forecast charge you can now see that it’s linked to the sales order:

Please be aware that you need to do that before actual charges are generated on your project. If you don’t, actual charges will not be linked to the sales order and you won’t be able to invoice them.
The resource has now finished the configuration and entered 5 hours in his timesheet. An actual charge (charge-based billing project) has thus been created and can be invoiced through the sales order by clicking the button “Next Bill”:

That will redirect you to an invoice record containing the server (hardware) and the charge related to the professional services. You can save the invoice and send it to your customer:

Note that the status of the sales order is now “Billed”:

Let’s now imagine that something was wrongly done during the initial configuration and that 2 additional hours of professional services is required to fix that. You have then updated the assignment to 7 hours of planned work, which updated the forecast charge automatically generated by NetSuite.

The resource has now performed the additional 2 hours and entered them in his timesheet, which resulted in a new actual charge. The Sales Order status is now back to “Pending Billing”:

However you can’t invoice the new actual charge since the button “Next Bill” is not available. That is because the 5 hours displayed on the sales order have already been invoiced, so NetSuite considers there is nothing more to be billed. You have to “Refresh Items from Project” once more to be able to invoice the new actual charge:

Conclusion

Creating Projects from Sales Transactions allows you to combine products delivery and professional services management in an efficient way and have your billing operations handled through one single record. There are still some manuals steps to perform in order to keep the sale transaction in synchronization with the project and allow for a proper invoicing but we can reasonably hope for future improvements of the functionality in the next NetSuite releases.

Who is Yoga Room?

“Yoga Room” is a company offering a wide range of Yoga lessons through a large variety of subscription options, either onsite or online. They manage several yoga studios, including stores selling Yoga equipment, in Belgium, France and Portugal.

They have recently acquired a new subsidiary in France and just finished a successful fundraising campaign despite their studios having been closed for more than 200 days because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

The reason for change

With 7 studios in Belgium, France, and Portugal, and no real comprehensive management software, Yoga Room needed a tool able to centralise their accounting and business processes, as well as supporting their ambitious international growth. NetSuite OneWorld’s set of functionalities seemed to be a perfect fit for this mission.

One year later, Yoga Room already acquired two additional subsidiaries and opened 3 new locations, confirming they made the right decision.

Why choosing NetSuite?

Yoga Room selected NetSuite as their ERP solution for the following reasons:

• A cloud-based ERP system implemented and deployed globally across all entities.
• A unified and integrated platform to run all business processes to replace the current legacy systems.
• Scales with the projected exponential growth of business and its needs.
• Reduces the use of Excel and manually intensive processes within the business.
• One source of truth.
• NetSuite offers a full suite of financial modules including multi-taxation, multi-country or powerful financial reporting.
• Third-party systems integration capabilities.

About the NetSuite implementation

NetSuite was sold to Yoga Room as an out-of-the-box solution, with a fast-track implementation of standard core finance, procurement, and sales capabilities. In addition to that, some effort was dedicated to the integration of the wellness services-focused management software Mindbody.

The implementation required the implementation partner, Novutech, to be flexible in order to adapt their project management approach to effectively run a sprint Out of the Box implementation.

The specificities of the project meant that the focus needed to be given to key user training and fast adoption by Yoga Room’s accounting team, which was successfully accomplished as Yoga Room were able to quickly take ownership of their NetSuite environment.

 

"NetSuite fit perfectly for our group because this ERP simplifies the centralization and the processing of accounting and financial data for multiple companies in differents countries, while being compliant with local legislation. In the end, we get a single and clear reporting that includes data from each point of sale in a single, standardized dashboard, regardless of its location and the company ."

Benjamin, Head of Finance & Administration

"Novutech has enabled us to implement the software quickly and reliably and  make the necessary customizations. Novutech also advises us on the most optimal way to use the software or on functions that are useful to our business. They are always available and very  reactive, especially for urgent topics. Their team is also friendly and attentive, which makes the working relationship very pleasant and constructive.

Benjamin, Head of Finance & Administration

Do you want to know more about our expertise and how we run NetSuite implementations? Contact us!

We are already in the middle of March, and shortly all NetSuite customers will be upgraded to the 2022.1 version and will be enjoying some fresh enhancements and new functionalities within their NetSuite environment.

Background

As part of their goal to consistently optimise their customers’ business operations and further automate their financial processes, NetSuite left nothing to chance and carried out a wide variety of improvements ranging from core accounting activities to banking, inventory management or within SuiteAnalytics. 

Whether you have already familiarised yourselves with the enhanced functionalities in a Release Preview account or not, the following features selection will give you some insight into NetSuite’s upgraded possibilities and how they will help your company grow.

Functionalities

We tested NetSuite’s 2022.1 new or enhanced features and picked a couple of them that we found interesting for you to discover:

1. CSV Import “Imported Employee Expense”

Do your employees use a corporate credit card and you would like to have these expenses imported in NetSuite as an Employee Expense Report/Claim? From now on you can import these expenses into NetSuite via a simple CSV Import, add them to an Employee Expense report and let your employee categorise or just review them before they get posted to the employees corporate credit card and the relevant expense accounts.

This feature supports multi-currency receipts from different source types (Visa, Master Card,...)

2. Electronic Bank Payment SuiteApp Enhancements

This release also brings us some updates to the Electronic Bank Payment SuiteApp, the most important ones:

• Process Payments for Vendors from Primary and Secondary Banks:
  A new Entity Bank dropdown field has been added on the EFT subtab for the following transaction types: Bills, Bill Credit, Commission, Expense Report.

This gives the user the flexibility to select the correct Bank account details on the bill,
some of your vendors might have multiple bank accounts and depending on the invoice or subsidiary they might need to be paid to a different bank account. 

• Auto Process Payment File Administration (PFA) Stuck in Queue
  Gone are the days that your payment batches are stuck in the processing queue!
  A new scheduled script, Auto Process Queued PFA, will process PFA records stuck in a payment queue. When the script runs, it sets the status of the stuck PFA to failed and automatically processes the next PFA in the queue.

3. New 360 Dashboards

NetSuite has promised us some exciting new dashboards on SuiteWorld 2021. It looks like we will be seeing the Cash 360 Dashboard and Project 360 Dashboard in this New Release.

It is currently unclear when these dashboards will become available but we will make sure to keep you posted!

4. Monitor Vendor Performance

Because every transaction is tracked, analysed and included in a vendor scorecard, NetSuite users can easily monitor key performance indicators such as defect rate, on-time deliveries and cost.

You can easily access these performance scores when you are creating a new purchase order or directly on the Item Record on the Vendors subtab.

5. Support for Project Intercompany Cross Charge Request

In this release NetSuite is reintroducing the Project Intercompany Cross Charge Request feature. This feature  provides you the ability to cross- charge amounts between subsidiaries linked to a specific project and is fully integrated in the period-end process.It enables you to set amounts in a currency that you can use for intercompany cross-charges reflected in the Intercompany Cross Charges list.

First you create a “Project Intercompany Cross Charge Request” record where you specify the Project, To Subsidiary, Amount, Currency and a Trigger on when this should get cross charged (For example: Project completion).

As part of the period-end process you can access the “Cross Charge Workbench” to generate/post the pending Cross-Charge Journals:

Once generated, you can find these postings in a separate transaction type called
“Cross Charge Journal”:

6. SuiteAnalytics enhancements: Dataset Linking in the Workbook UI 

As part of the previous release (2021.2) NetSuite announced the all new  “Dataset Linking” feature that gave us the option to connect two datasets with common data (Budget and Actual for example). The major downside of this new feature was that this could only be done via SuiteScript. 

Building on the previous release NetSuite is now making this feature a lot more accessible/useful by giving the user the option to link these Datasets in the Workbook UI with this below simple screen:

Are you and your team interested in learning a bit more about SuiteAnalytics and see how you could use this feature in your Business?
Ask us about our “Analytics Workbooks Package” that will provide training about different functionalities of the Analytics Workbook (Pivoting, Charting, Dashboard Portlets,...)

Novutech is there to assist you during every new release cycle

If these features tickled your interest, have a look at the more detailed release notes to learn more about the exciting new updates offered in the new release.

As your preferred NetSuite partner, we would like you to stay updated with the latest available features coming in every new release. 

You would like to know the full impact that this New Release will have on your NetSuite Account? We have put together a “New Release Pack” that will prepare you fully for this New Release and help you get the most out of the new features NetSuite has to offer. 

Interested in other accelerators and optimization packages like Belgium or France Localization, Banking integration with Isabel, Electronic Payments with Structural Reference or simply another way of managing dunning in NetSuite? Discover our packages today, and get a quote on it rapidly and in full transparency, in order to upscale your NetSuite experience tomorrow! 

Background

In order to save significant amounts of income and expense, you can use budgets for financial planning purposes. In NetSuite, each budget covers a year and permits the entry of an amount per account for each accounting period in the year. Budgets provide information for reports and can also be used to control transactions using saved searches.

In this article we will show you how the budget works on NetSuite. How to import a budget and finally how to activate the new release Expense Commitments and Budget Validation that helps users of NetSuite to control the transactions.

Functionalities

Set up Budget 

The budget in NetSuite covers a fiscal year. You can enter an amount, per account, for each period. You need to use GL accounts, which is the lowest level, which is sometimes seen as a limitation by quite some customers (contact us if you are facing this challenge, and let’s find a better solution together!). In NetSuite OneWorld, budgets are specific to a subsidiary and fiscal year. If the Multi-Book Accounting feature is enabled, each budget is for an accounting book and subsidiary pair for a year.

Specific budgets can be created for Customers or Projects, items, classes, departments and locations.

You can set up your budget by choosing the subsidiary and the year. Thereafter, it is necessary to determine a budget category which groups the budget (example: Budget 2022, Forecast 3+9 2022). The budget category is the key that helps you create a budget by department for example. 

The next step to create a budget is to choose a Budget category type. The first budget category type you can choose is global. That means that the budget will be in the currency of the parent company. The second budget category type is local. That means the budget will be in the currency of the subsidiary.

Import Budget

NetSuite also offers the possibility to import a budget using a CSV file. All you must do is fill the template that you can find in transaction > Financial > Set Up Budget > Import

After scanning and importing your budget. You should do the mapping between your file’s fields and NetSuite’s Fields.

After running the import of the file, it’s necessary to check that the import is complete and that there are no errors.

Actual vs Budget Report

By importing your budget on Netsuite, you will have access to a lot of reports. One of them is the Budget vs. Actual Report. This report allows you to compare between what was budgeted and what was achieved :

Companies can also use Analytics to compare between consumed amonts (Actual+Commited) and the budget using different views (Table, Pivot and Charts).

Expense Commitments and Budget Validation

Organizations must be able to budget and report expenses by accounts and segments. After budget approval, all expenses must be validated with the budget to avoid overspending. The Expense Commitments and Budget Validation SuiteApp allows users to:

• Create budgets for specific account, segment, and period combinations.
• Validate purchase orders, purchase requisition and supplier invoices with the budget.

This new release of NetSuite put together two saved searches to control the expenses of the company. The first one brings up the budget of the Budget Category chosen in the budget preferences. The second one brings up the consumed amount (Open Purchase Orders and Bills). The comparison of these two saved searches is called the Budget Control.

Budget control :

If you want to set up the Budget Control, go to : Budget >Set up> Budget Control

Budget control helps you customize the controls to be done when recording a transaction. On this page you will find all the messages that will appear to the user when saving a transaction, but also parameters that allow you to save or not save a transaction when the budget is exceeded or does not exist.

Budget Control Action: This field helps you select the action when you exceed the budget. You have two options : Warn Only (Get a warning message on saving a transaction) or Prevent save ( Get an error message and the application  prevents from saving the transaction)

Enable Threshold Warning: a warning appears on the transaction line when the budget remaining meets the threshold set using the % Threshold Warning field.

You can also choose the warning message for each situation like in the following screenshot:

For example, if the amount of a transaction exceeds budget, this popup window will appear after clicking on save on the Purchase Order or Vendor Bill Transaction:

Budget preferences

In this page, you can set up the preferences you want to apply. Enabling the Budget Validation is the first thing to do to apply control over your transactions. You can also choose the Budget Category that will be applied to the expense validation and choose the budget control for validation. It’s also important to choose the applicable segments.

Conclusion

Budget Management is one of NetSuite's most practical features. Not only does it allow you to track sales and expenses, but also thanks to the new release, precise budget control is now possible. Companies can also use Custom Budget in order to use custom segments which is a limitation when using a standard budget. As of today, it is not yet possible to carry over the unused budget to a later month. This reforecasting is a recurring request from several companies that use the expense commitment and budget validation.

Thanks to the budget features, companies can create budgets for specific customers or projects, items, departments, classes, locations, subsidiaries or any combination of these criteria. They can also create interactive reports using Budget Reports and SuiteAnalytics and also control their expenses using The Expense Commitments and Budget Validation.

Interested in improving your Budget Management ? Novutech will be more than happy to advise you and help you optimise your use of NetSuite.

My journey started when I was 7, I left my native country Djibouti to Belgium. I had to face a new culture, environment and language. Thanks to my adaptation abilities, I managed to learn French quickly which allowed me to integrate Belgian culture and have a classic educational trajectory.

Background

Finishing secondary school, I decided to pursue a career in the economic sector. Therefore, I started a bachelor degree in business administration at HEFF (Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer). 

This first experience made me learn financial basics, new economical skills and comprehension such as in the micro and macroeconomics, economic conditions. 

I also reinforced my knowledge in the analysis in the financial statements which helped me to improve my critical mindset, my attention to details and also to figure out what’s behind everything I was working on. At this point, I already had an overview of what was the work as an auditor which would be my following step in my student career. 

Before ending my bachelor, I had the opportunity to take part in an entrepreneurial project. Indeed, with the help of four other students we raised funds and school furniture in order to help a non-profit organisation based in Morocco whose purpose is to take care of single mothers and orphans. We had the chance to visit their facilities located in Morocco and meet all different people that we were trying to help. On one hand, it brought me entrepreneurial skills, organisation skills, social skills but on the other the most important is that this experience made me grow as a person and understand how lucky I am.

After my bachelor graduation, I decided to join ICHEC (Institut Catholique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) and start a master’s degree. I had to make a choice between multiple areas of learning and my heart made me go for a master’s degree with the option of chartered accountancy and auditing. 

During these two years at ICHEC, I extended and deepened knowledge that I already had acquired while I was in Francisco Ferrer. Throughout this academic journey, I had a lot of practical work to provide that taught me to collaborate with teammates, to respect deadlines, to defend my opinions but most of all to listen to others and accept that people may have different ideas than me. 

I assume that all this learning was made to get me ready for the working environment and the different types of work I would be in charge of.

In order to complete my academic career successfully, I had the possibility to pursue a professional internship in auditing.

During this internship, I got the chance to put into practice all the knowledge that I acquired in the past. It was at this moment that I understood that there was a gap between the professional world and the world of studies.

As a matter of fact, even if I had a strong economic background thanks to the classes I took, I had to confront the theoretical part of my learning with the practical aspect of the work.

It was thus quite naturally that I adapted to this new environment. It seems to me that is this way that I developed new skills that I couldn’t have learned at school such as; to think out of the box, time management, to multitask and be able to manage several files at the same time, and I think one of the most important is the customer relationship.

Indeed, the reason why I think the customer relationship is one of the most important qualities in the business world is because we interact on a daily basis with them. We need to be aware that they expect a lot of us, they count on our experience to provide an optimal service but also to suit their expectations. 

In the light of these factors, being aware of all responsibilities that are required, I gave my best to fulfil the customer needs. In order to achieve my goal, I improved my accountancy knowledge, I became familiar with financial analysis tools that I needed to use and finally I worked on my communication skills aiming to make it easier to understand the issues they could face within their businesses.

After my internship and my graduation, I had the chance to keep working in the same audit company for one year and a half. Actually the length of the internship was not enough, that is the reason why I immediately accepted the offer to continue working. Obviously I was thirsty for learning but it was also the work environment I had and especially the trust and the respect I earned from my superior.

Armed with this first successful experience in the audit field, I was ready for a new professional challenge. That was the moment that I discovered Novutech and I recognized myself in their values and their vision. As new technologies represent a massive part of this business, I always wanted to combine my economics’ skills with them. 

That is why I decided to join Novutech as a business analyst.

@Novutech

My journey at Novutech started on August 2021, the 9^th. I was surprised by the warm welcome that the company reserved me. I was immediately put at ease by all the collaborators that were already warned from my coming. Everything was made to make me comfortable so I could take my bearings quickly. My greatest astonishment was to know that a team building was planned a month after my arrival so that the new members of the team could get to know the old collaborators better.

My first two weeks were dedicated to external and internal training which allowed me to get a first overview of the NetSuite ERP and a lot of its functionalities. Besides the fact that they provided me with numerous support for my acclimatisation, they made themselves available to answer my questions.

My arrival coincided with the one of a new customer for which we had to implement the NetSuite ERP and this project was assigned to me. This gave me the opportunity to follow all the steps from scratch to the final product. What better way to get into my new position? Currently I am still working on this project.

Aside from this project, I am also involved with other clients on optimization and support topics. It consists in providing solutions to questions that could arise from the use of the system. This aspect of my function allows me to be confronted to special cases and thus to increase my NetSuite knowledge. 

What I appreciate the most in my job is the contact with the client, the fact of being able to meet their needs by trying to simplify as much as possible their understanding of the tool that we are using. 

I recognize myself in the values of Novutech such as transparency, team spirit, excellence. In my opinion these are the prerequisites for the exercise of my function.

Career perspectives

At first, I aspire to become as quickly as possible autonomous in order to provide an irreproachable service and especially to be able to advise the customer as well as possible. Once this objective is achieved, I would be ready to perform new functions requiring greater responsibilities. Finally,  in the medium-short term, I aspire to evolve within the organization. 

Background

In NetSuite, the subsidiary hierarchy of a company is a particularly important principle since it represents the basic structure of an environment. 

The subsidiary hierarchy is determined at the creation of a NetSuite environment. The possibility to modify the parent company (and therefore the subsidiary hierarchy) is possible but not straightforward. In this article, we will see how to perform this modification. 

A company might have several reasons to change the subsidiary hierarchy such as: 

• A company was acquired and a new parent company should be established.
• The parent company must be changed to another subsidiary in the hierarchy. For example, subsidiary number two becomes the parent subsidiary. 
• You want to elevate a subsidiary in the hierarchy.

For example, subsidiary number three becomes a regional subsidiary rather than a local subsidiary.

Note that a subsidiary hierarchy change requires specific features to be activated and might have important impacts on a NetSuite environment. Please carefully read the Potential impacts of modifying a subsidiary hierarchy in NetSuite section to know more about those impacts. 

Impacts and functionalities

Potential impacts of modifying a subsidiary hierarchy in NetSuite

In NetSuite, the subsidiary configuration is one of the most important notions and involves relationships all over the environment. 

If you wish to change your parent company, you should operate with caution and be aware of the impacts (https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91150) that it might imply. Therefore, please read the potential impacts (license agreement) that this change can entail :

• Modifying entries in the Subsidiary Hierarchy can have significant legal and financial consequences. Please be certain you are authorized to make such changes and consult with the appropriate stakeholders in your business before proceeding.
• At a minimum, Oracle recommends that you read the official documentation and review and download all documents that may be relevant to these modifications, including but not limited to Financial Statements such as the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Trial Balance, and audited reports from prior periods on both Consolidated and Subsidiary Levels, as well as Consolidated Exchange Rates.
• To ensure modifications are implemented correctly, make the modifications first in a Sandbox Environment and then thoroughly review all Financial Statements and Consolidated Exchange Rates to ensure the modifications had the anticipated consequences before deploying the modifications in a Production Environment.
•  The consequences of implemented modifications are outside the scope of any support made available to your organization by Oracle, and your organization is solely responsible for the effect of such modifications on your organization’s use of the product and for any costs or expenses arising from or related to such modifications, including but not limited to the cost of any required data fixes.
• Areas of the product that may be affected by such modifications include but are not limited to the following
  •  Existing financial statements may be lost with no possibility of recovery
  • Subsidiaries may get inactivated
  • Consolidated/Budget Exchange Rates may be irreversibly recalculated
  • Elimination Subsidiaries may get different parent Subsidiary
  • Auto-Elimination Journals may post to the incorrect Elimination Subsidiary
  • The Include Children (Subsidiaries) option may include a different set of Subsidiaries than before
  • Granted restrictions on roles may change
  • Reporting may not provide correct results if crossing Subsidiary Hierarchy Modification change date
  • Customization and scripts utilizing Subsidiary may begin to fail

If you have questions before making such modifications, you may contact us or open a support ticket to request assistance from Oracle.

Required features and permissions

Creating a new parent company is not as straightforward as adding a new child subsidiary. In order to be able to add a new parent company, the “Allow Subsidiary Hierarchy to be Modified” option should be activated. To do so, go to Setup > Company > General Preferences (https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91458) with the administrator role. Then, click on the calendar icon to set the last day of the modification period.

Note: The “Allow Subsidiary Hierarchy to be Modified” general preference is a date field. Use this field to specify the last day of the subsidiary hierarchy modification period. The modification period can be a maximum of 30 days long. After the specified day, you can no longer modify your subsidiary hierarchy. However, you can set the preference again.

If you are not using the administrator role, a set of permissions is needed to enable the “Allow Subsidiary Hierarchy to be Modified” general preference. Those permissions are the following:

•  On the Lists subtab of your role, you must enable the Subsidiaries permission with an edit or full level. You must also have access to all subsidiaries.

• On the Setup subtab, you need to have a full level Set Up Company permission to set the “Allow Subsidiary to be Modified” general preference. You should also have full level Subsidiary Hierarchy Modification permission to modify the subsidiary hierarchy structure. Besides, you should have access to all subsidiaries.

Solution

Once you have entered a modification period in the “Allow Subsidiary to be Modified” preference field, you can modify the subsidiary hierarchy and change the parent company (https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91459/kw/subsidiary%20hierarchy%20change).

1. Go to Setup > Company > Classifications > Subsidiaries (Administrator).
2. Click Edit next to the subsidiary you wish to move in the hierarchy.
   Note: You cannot set a new parent directly on a new record. If you want to create a new record as a new parent, you must first save the record. Then, in edit mode, position the new parent within the hierarchy. You cannot make an elimination subsidiary the parent subsidiary
3. In the “Parent Subsidiary” list, move the subsidiary to the new place in the hierarchy. To set the subsidiary as the parent company, select the blank line above the parent company.

4. Read the license agreement (see Potential impacts section above) that includes impacts associated with subsidiary hierarchy modification.
5. Click Save.
   Note: Depending on the amount of data NetSuite has to process, saving the hierarchy change may take up to 30 minutes.
6.  Click List in the top right corner of the page.
7. View the updated subsidiary hierarchy on the Subsidiaries list page.

If you wish to add a brand-new parent company, you should first create a new subsidiary, save it, and then repeat the steps mentioned above. To add a new subsidiary, go to Setup > Company > Subsidiaries > New. 

Conclusion

NetSuite offers the possibility to modify the parent company and therefore change the subsidiary hierarchy. To do so, a few features and steps are required. Moreover, a license agreement should be accepted before performing the modification since it might represent important risks to your NetSuite environment. After reading and accepting the license agreement, you will be able to change the subsidiary hierarchy.  

In short

• Possibility to modify the parent company and the subsidiary hierarchy. 
• Carefully read the license agreement and evaluate the potential impacts    
• Tip: make the modification in a Sandbox environment first.

Sources 

https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91150

https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91458

https://netsuite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/91459/kw/subsidiary%20hierarchy%20change