Using the SurveyGizmo Integration Add-On

With our latest NetSuite add-on recently added to NetSuite’s SuiteApp listings we thought a quick tutorial would be apropos. Luckily one of our amazing consultants created an online video tutorial that demonstrates this nifty add-on. Thanks Mathieu!

If you are not familiar with SurveyGizmo, you can get a free trial here. SurveyGizmo is one of the best online survey tools available. I use it all the time both professionally and personally. The options available with this tool are amazing. I highly recommend it if your company ever needs to send out surveys.

The benefit of purchasing our integration add-on is that you don’t have to switch between NetSuite and SurveyGizmo anymore. You can send, organize and compile all your results right from NetSuite!

Request a demo or purchase this add-on directly from our website, or visit NetSuite's SuiteApp store for more information!

Personalizing NetSuite

One of the best things about NetSuite is its flexibility. While many users have set up a personal color scheme, added shortcuts and KPIs there are a few other options that are often neglected but could definitely enhance your NetSuite experience.

On the center tabs click HOME then SET PREFERENCES. On that screen you’ll find a couple of neat preferences you can set for yourself (I repeat, for yourself. These settings will only affect YOU, no other NetSuite user).

Look under the first tab, GENERAL, and check out the Defaults header on the right side. You’ll find a handful of options, but today we will concern ourselves with "Show Internal IDs", "Only Show Last Subaccount", "Only Show Last Subentity" and "Only Show Last Subitem".

The "Show Internal IDs" is useful if you plan on doing CSV updates, or if you want to start dabbling in SuiteScripts. Internal IDs are the unique record keys in NetSuite, which allow you to uniquely identify a record. It really only comes in useful when you're doing more advanced technical stuff like I mentioned, but if you are going down that road, this option is indispensable.

The next three – "Only Show Last Subaccount/Subentity/Subitem" options are useful if you have really long parent-child hierarchies on your records, and you only care about seeing the last level. For instance, if you have Customer A - SubCustomer B - Contact Bob, and all you want displayed on your transactions are "Contact Bob", tick the "Only Show Last Subentity" field. Again, this is really just a personal preference and keep in mind this may cause you to see records in a slightly differently than your colleagues.

One other really useful option that I personally always have on is under the REPORTING/SEARCH sub tab. On the right side, there is "Show List When Only One Result". If you don’t have this ticked, when you run a search that only brings up a single result, NetSuite will bring you to the record, rather than displaying the regular search result screen. By ticking this box, you'll ensure you always stay in the search results screen rather than being brought to the record found.

There are many other options, of course, under SET PREFERNCES, so don't be shy about scrolling over the field names to see the pop-up help screen. You might find a few easy tweaks you really like!

Publishing a form that Contains a Saved Search

Here’s a little tip that might be helpful if you want to publish a form that contains a saved search. One of the reasons you might want to use a published form that contains a saved search is the ability to use search filters. This published form can then become available on your website or employee centre, saving search time for those users.

First of all, you need to make sure that you have the Advanced Web Search module in your NetSuite, and that the module is enabled. To enable it, go to the Web Presence section under Setup – Company – Enable Features.

It’s important to note that in order to do this, the saved search you wish to add needs to have been created using the Administrator role. If the saved search if you want to add wasn’t created using that role, then unfortunately publishing the form isn’t possible.

I hope this tip proves to be useful in your day to day business!

NetSuite Release 2010.1 Preview

I just finished viewing the Developer Preview Webinar where NetSuite unveiled their 2010.1 upgrade and wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

According to NetSuite’s release schedule, a very small percentage of customers will receive their upgrade in early March, the majority will be upgraded in mid-March, and everyone should be running 2010.1 by April 23.

Among the changes in the latest version, the webinar outlines three, with a Workflow Manager being the highlight. Basically, this brand new feature allows you to define your own custom workflow utilization for records.

For example, with Sales Orders you would have the ability to create specific conditions that need to be met before it can move onto the approval process. Perhaps phone calls need to be made, or even just ensuring that the right boxes have been checked.

NetSuite did reinforce that this new feature is a beta version. They expect it to stay like that until at least 2010.2, and are hoping for tons of feedback from users. Beta or not, NetSuite really nailed the layout and user-interface on the head with this feature!

NetSuite 2010.1 has also enhanced their SuiteBundler. When installing a bundle, there will now be a column for the status that will give you the download status and percent complete. Increased security has also been added. NetSuite customers can now create a Developer Role for someone installing their bundles as opposed to granting Full Access or Administrator rights.

Finally, enhancement were made to SuiteScripts. You will now be able to add scripts that dictate behavior in the shopping cart. For instance, if you are selling cameras 2 for 1, and the client only adds one camera to the cart, the second camera will automatically be added. Same goes for discounts, or restricted shipping access for certain addresses.

Speaking of SuiteScripts, remember that if you have had any modifications done by us, it is a recommended best practice to get them tested with 2010.1 beforehand. Contact us for more information on how we can create a test action plan for you.

Kit/Assembly Costing

A lot of people often ask how to display costing information derived from Members for their Kits or Assembly items.

Since a few versions ago, Netsuite exposed a join in Saved Searches that now allows you to build searches to get this information. In this post, I'm going to go through the steps to show you how to get this to work for simple cases.

First, you need to create an Item Saved Search as follows:
CRITERIA
Type any of Assembly/Bill of Materials, Kit/Package

RESULTS
Name
Member Item
Member Quantity
Member Item : Average Cost
Formula (Currency) with formla being {memberquantity}*{memberitem.averagecost}

At this point, you're going to have a search that outputs, for every one of your Kits/Assemblies, all of the member items and what those member items are worth for the parent, this worth basically being Member's Average Cost times the Quantity used in the Kit/Assembly.

Continuing on, you probably just want to see a single value for each Kit/Assembly. So in order to do this, you are going to add Summary Type values for the columns, as follows:

RESULTS
Name -> GROUP
Member Item
Member Quantity
Member Item : Average Cost
Formula (Currency) with formla being {memberquantity}*{memberitem.averagecost} -> SUM

If you run your search, you should now be seeing every Kit/Assembly as 1 line with a cost figure next to it. That's your costing derived from member items!

Continuing on to make this cuter, here's what you can do. In your search, go on the Available Filters tab and add "Internal ID" as a filter. Save the search and make sure to make it Public and also tick in the box "Available as Sublist View" in the search headers.

Next, go under Setup->Customization->Sublists. On the Item tab, select your Search, give it a Label, select a Tab, and tick in Kit/Package and Assembly/Bill of Material.

This will add a subtab on your Assembly and Kit items that will display the Cost. Very handy!



Now, if you use Units of Measure or if your Member items are kit or assemblies themselves, or you want the cost info to be in a field, the above will NOT work. For these more complex cases, you don't have a choice other than using Suitescript to calculate in a much more in-depth manner your costing. As luck would have it (-wink-) IT-Ration has a Add-On module that does just this! You can find this module on our Website here.