5 Spreadsheets That NetSuite Customers are Usually Still Using (But Don't Have To Be)

Henry Sack • July 6, 2022

NetSuite is a comprehensive cloud based ERP solution, however most businesses are still using a number of different spreadsheets to manage some data silo's or advanced analytics that they don't believe can be done on platform.

In this article, we will explore some of the more common spreadsheets that we have seen our clients are still using, as well as some options that have allowed them to bring the information on platform through SuiteApps or customisations.

Org Charts

NetSuite offers users a robust set of Human Resource management tools to allow for the creation, maintenance and removal of employees and users. Whilst these records can be kept in NetSuite, there is a limitation as to who can see these records, and fear around employee's accidentally stumbling upon other employee's information that they should not be privy to. As such, many NetSuite customers keep HR information in a different solution, and keep manual Org Charts that need to be continually updated whenever people join or leave the business, or change roles internally.

TeamBlueSky have helped a number of our clients to make the most out of NetSuite Employee management functionality and ensure that the solution is configured in a way that will give people access to the information they need, whilst ensuring data is private and secure. We have also developed a NetSuite native Org Chart portlet, that allows you to get a visual representation of your organisations people, departments, hierarchies and team members.

Lease Information

Most NetSuite customers track lease information external to NetSuite, as there is not really an obvious way to keep this information on-platform. This includes information like lease details, lease commencement and expiry, key milestones and more.

NetLease by NetGain enhances NetSuite's standard accounting functionality with records and transaction types for creating, maintaining, reporting and tracking lease impacts. NetLease also manages the GL impacts of Leases, making adhering to the GASB 87 Lease accounting standards simple. NetLease automatically creates the correct GL impacts as leases are created as well as maintains the correct accounting impacts for lease payments.

Loan Information

Most NetSuite customers have a spreadsheet to track and manage the various loans their business holds. From equipment financing through to chattel mortgages on fleets and vehicles NetLoan simplifies the process of creating and managing loan payments, and gives users deep insights into payments, principal and interest ratios, amortisation schedules and more. It also helps to support good business decisions by providing transparency over the current and future state of your balance sheet by factoring in payments and timelines.

Fixed Asset Register

Whilst NetSuite does offer a Fixed Asset Management module, for the majority of our clients, it offers a $10 solution, to a $2 dollar problem. This leads to NetSuite clients taking one of two routes:

Building custom records to keep basic FAM information like asset name and identifiers, asset type, date of acquisition and disposal etc. However, this is what we refer to as a dummy record, as doing anything dynamically with this data is next to impossible. This leads to the accounting team needing to manually calculate monthly depreciation amounts and either upload as bulk journals or key them in one by one.
Tracking Fixed Asset information in a spreadsheet.

What most NetSuite clients don't realise, is that NetAsset by Netgain offers in our opinion, a simpler, yet comprehensive NetSuite Native SuiteApp that gives business what they need to manage their Fixed Assets on platform, manage all accounting impacts, such as depreciation, for a much more affordable price.

Project Management & Job Costing

NetSuite's Advanced Project Management and Job Costing modules expand the solution to provide project heavy businesses with the functionality they need to set up, track and manage complex projects. In addition to this, the Job Costing module makes it possible to track project costs at a granular level to get better access to project performance reports such as project profit and loss statements and cost to complete reporting.

However, in our experience, there is still a lot of information that needs to be tracked externally to NetSuite in order to manage projects with the level of efficiency that most complex project companies require.

Some examples of this include:

Subcontractor retentions for construction projects.
Budget comparisons
Complex Job Costs and Phase Cost reporting
Construction estimates

TeamBlueSky has partnered with Cooper Software to provide implementation services for their flagship NetSuite enhanced Projects module, ProScope.

ProScope works with the NetSuite Advanced Projects modules to provide on platform functionality for a wide range of construction and heavy industries including general contracting, specialty subcontracting, civil engineering, oil & gas and more.

The Benefits of Getting Everything on Platform

There are many benefits to getting everything on one platform. Firstly, it gives users a single source of truth for data which leads to improved visibility and decision making across the business. Secondly, it helps to improve data quality as there is no longer any need to manually reconcile data between multiple systems. Finally, it can help to reduce IT costs as there is no longer any need to maintain multiple disparate systems.

However, the most important benefit of moving away from spreadsheets and onto a platform like NetSuite is that it gives businesses the ability to scale. As businesses grow and evolve, their needs change and evolve with them. This can quickly render spreadsheets obsolete as they are simply not designed to cope with the increased complexity and scale.

NetSuite, on the other hand, is a flexible and scalable platform that can grow with businesses, giving them the ability to compete on a level playing field with much larger organisations.

In Summary

In conclusion, whilst spreadsheets may have their place in business, they should not be the foundation on which businesses build their operations.

NetSuite provides a much more robust and scalable platform that can grow with businesses, giving them the ability to compete on a level playing field with much larger organisations.

For businesses that are still using spreadsheets to track critical business information, we would urge you to consider moving to a platform like NetSuite that can give you the visibility and insights you need to make better, more informed business decisions.

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Henry Sack

General Manager

With over 12 years of experience as a NetSuite implementation consultant, Henry Sack leads TeamBlueSky’s team of NetSuite and accounting experts in his role of General Manager.

TeamBlueSky is a leading Australian NetSuite Alliance Partner whose mission is to provide critical NetSuite BPO and Payroll services to NetSuite clients who are wanting to simplify their back office processes and partner with a leading NetSuite administration expert.

TeamBlueSky have also partnered with global Suite Developer Network partners to offer local solutioning, implementation and support services for global NetSuite SuiteApps.