As you grow your organization, you will need more visibility into your financial records. Because of this, it is important to have an ERP like Oracle NetSuite has was created with accounting principles as a priority. Finding information on how to structure your ERP to better improve reporting can be a challenging task for most CFO’s. This is a brief list to help keep you on the right track and potentially give you ideas on how to manage your data integrity on a new level.
Tip 1: Develop your Solution Architecture with Reporting in Mind
Reporting capabilities are one of NetSuite greatest strengths and one reason why some CFO’s decide to utilize NetSuite in the first place. Even though there are a ton of tools such as saved searches, reports, and SuiteAnalytics that help you extract the data, you should keep reporting in mind with designing solutions specific to your organization. The architecture of your NetSuite data can help make certain reports easier to create or access data. In some circumstance, more complex reporting might require a little adjustment to some of your existing solutions. This makes sense because data drives reports and the more structured data is to allow for a specific report, the easier it will be to formulate the financial reports.
Tip 2: Bookkeeping Services and Data Cleaning
Every year you face a new tax season. It is common that data gets messed up simply from human error. It might be useful to bring in a third party to help with the data cleanup and potentially even utilize their services to add bandwidth to your existing accounting team. They may be able to focus more on business processes to make their job more efficient while helping to keep data clean via automation. If you don’t have accountants in house, this is a definite must have for small to mid-sized companies using NetSuite.
Tip 3: Use a NetSuite Developer to Automate
This is probably something you have already come across. Having someone to help automate your business processes that can be automated is key to your efficiency and data integrity. Automated data inputs and processes help save your employees time and help ensure that all the important fields are always filled when necessary. A NetSuite developer will know how to write SuiteScript and know when it is more effective to use workflows. There are many types of scripts that a developer should know how to write. The basics are user event, scheduled, client, and map-reduced. However, a developer that knows how to write suitelets, restlets, SOAP, and knowledge of SuiteCommerce will set themselves apart form other developers. If a NetSuite developer knows all of these areas, they will likely be a very well rounded individual that will be able to give insights on the best method of customization.
Tip 4: Use a NetSuite Consultant to help improve your systems for all users
If you happen to be a new CFO to a company that already has NetSuite and you need to figure things out, utilizing a NetSuite consultant can help you understand the vast power of NetSuite and how it can help you be more effective in your role. They will be able to advise you on solid tax solutions, be connected with software solutions to help your financial automations, and be able to build the most complex reports.
Tip 5: Be Aware of Existing NetSuite Solutions
As your company grows, you’ll need to adapt as well. New processes or business needs may arise that require additional software solutions to resolve. It’s a good idea to have a consultant or developer by your side because in some cases it is dramatically cheaper to build a custom solution that addresses your specific needs rather than buying a robust software solution integrating to NetSuite that has way more than what you need. Nonetheless, it is a good idea to stay informed on the different software solutions that integrate into NetSuite to help resolve issues when they come up. You may also find existing solutions that NetSuite developers and consultants have built and are listed on SuiteMarkets. This is a NetSuite app store that hosts both SuiteCommerce apps and NetSuite apps. It not only helps keep you informed about software solutions integrating to NetSuite, but lists prebuilt scripting solutions that are quite affordable.
About the Author:
This blog was written by Caleb Schmitz, a NetSuite developer and SuiteCommerce Specialist at Anchor Group. Anchor Group is a NetSuite implementation partner that heavily works with NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce and all other NetSuite products. Caleb started his ERP career in SAP and transitioned into Oracle NetSuite solutions after a couple years. He received his bachelors in Mechanical engineering, worked as a production supervisor, finished his MBA in management, implemented SAP to 3 business branches, and finally moved into NetSuite development. During his free time, he enjoys writing books, mountain biking, playing rugby, and pick up football.
