By: Jordan Villemaire, NetSuite Functional Consultant at SquareWorks Consulting
Helping you to optimize, customize and save time while utilizing NetSuite to manage your accounts payable and financial operations.
Jordan Villemaire, a valued member of the SquareWorks Consulting Professional Services team, brings over three years of experience implementing and optimizing NetSuite for growing businesses. Before diving into NetSuite, Jordan spent several years teaching high school biology, where she honed her skills in problem-solving and communication, which are traits she now uses to guide clients through complex NetSuite processes.
In this post, Jordan dives into practical tips and tricks to help you make the most of NetSuite. Whether you’re managing accounts payable (AP) workflows, optimizing financial operations, or simply looking to save time with everyday tasks, her advice will help you navigate NetSuite with confidence and maximize its potential for your business.
Ready to improve your NetSuite efficiency? Let’s dive into her top tips:
1. Streamline CSV imports
If you’re having a hard time with CSV imports, use either internal or external IDs instead of names for any list or record values; this includes the vendor or department name. NetSuite CSV imports are extremely particular and only accept exact name matches.
Using internal or external IDs instead of naming conventions ensures the correct unique identifier for any list or record value, which will reduce import errors.
To accomplish this, click on the pencil icon when you are mapping CSV import fields. The pencil icon allows you to toggle between names, internal IDs or external IDs for import data.
2. Save time with the global search shortcut
To save time when searching and navigating, use the Alt+G keyboard shortcut to automatically place your cursor in the global search bar at the top of the NetSuite page. If you use the search function often to search for records, this shortcut can save a lot of time. Simply type Alt and G and start typing your search query.
Set up your frequently used preferences to customize your NetSuite experience. The Set Preferences Menu can enable the following customizations:
To display internal IDs throughout all of NetSuite, you can enable this setting by going to General, then clicking on Defaults to enable Show Internal IDs. This is helpful if you frequently import CSVs or otherwise want to see internal IDs across NetSuite.
3. Customize your preferences for a better experience
Color-code your environments
In order to change the color theme of your environment, go to Appearance and click on Colors. For NetSuite users who have access to multiple different environments, consider color-coding your different environments, such as Orange for Sandbox environments, Blue for Production or Green for Release Preview.
Adjust report settings
In order to see different impacts on your financial reporting using various breakdowns, go to Analytics and choose Reporting – this will allow you to view different values in the “Report by Period” field. You will be able to change whether your reports are broken down by the following options:
- By date or by period.
- Financials Only – Select this option if you want specific financial reports reported by period. For a list of these financial reports, see Report by Period: Financials Only Reports within the Help Center.
- All Reports – Select this option if you want all applicable reports reported by period. For a list of reports that properly execute by period and those that fail, see Report by Period: All Reports within the Help Center.
- Never – Select this option if you do not want to exclude reports which can be run in both by date and by period mode.
4. Efficiently delete imported records
NetSuite users who regularly perform CSV imports are familiar with the difficulties of deleting improperly imported records, which often require mass deletions. There are no obvious ways to accomplish this within NetSuite without writing a script, which requires technical skill; the only other way is manual deletion, line by line.
Thankfully, our team has developed the following method for mass deletions:
- Get a list of the records you want to delete using a saved search or filtered list.
- Toggle the in-line editing setting to “Edit”.
3. Find an in-line editable field, like memo, and click on it within your first search result line.
4. Scroll to the bottom of your list of records, hold shift, and click on the memo field within your last search result line. This will cause all of the records in between to be selected.
5. Select 100 or fewer transactions at once to avoid any performance issues.
6. Once selected, in the far left, choose the “New” column, hover over the green person/cog wheel icon, scroll to the bottom of the list, and click on “Delete Record”.
7. This will trigger a mass deletion of all selected records. Refresh until all records are deleted and repeat as needed.
Important note: Make sure to temporarily disable the “Use Deletion Reason” setting in your enabled features ahead of performing this process if your company used deletion reasons.
At SquareWorks, our team brings years of experience with NetSuite implementation and customization, supporting growing businesses to effectively scale with the power of the NetSuite platform. We bring a hands-on, boutique experience to our customers to help them figure out how NetSuite can best work for them.
If you need more personalized assistance with your NetSuite environment to manage your accounts payable and financial functions, check out our NetSuite Implementation Services: https://squareworks.com/about-netsuite/