This article is relevant is you are a NetSuite user and you are having trouble with your financial statements.

General Ledger Account Missing on Balance Sheet, Income Statement or Cash Flow

We have had this question come up a number of times when our clients designed their own NetSuite financial statements.  A  client created a custom Financial Row Layout assignment so they could roll up particular number of GL accounts into a custom heading.  All is good.  But for some unknown reason in the future, an account disappears from the report.

The issue generally comes up because the account was renamed. Normally, this is not a problem in your day-to-day interactions with NetSuite.  The platform uses the underlying database ID to reference general ledger accounts and the GL name and the number are simply descriptive information that can change at any time.

Best Practice for Account Section Definitions

When ever we help our clients define financial statements that will have custom roll ups, we generally try to use structures that provide for the most flexibility and prepare for future growth.  NetSuite provides a list of native Account Types that can not be changed.  If you can roll up on this structure, you are in good shape. It’s easy to reference.  For example, if are saying that account is of type Cash, then adding another account of this type can easily roll up under the “Cash” balance.  Reference this out-of-the-box structure if it is convenient.

However, the more common case is when you want to group a few accounts together under a new financial statement row heading.  First, ask yourself if  these accounts can be a sub account of a parent account?  If so, that is easy to produce within the Account definition screen and NetSuite will want to roll it up when you have an outline view of financial balances.  The big weakness though is that you can post a journal entry to the parent GL account and that may not be desired.

Use NetSuite Account Sections, by Number and Share

To get the most flexibility, we typically recommend that you reference all the accounts that will be in a custom roll-up by Account Number, not by Account Name. In our experience,  account numbers rarely change; but the account descriptions tend to be refined more often.   See image which illustrates different techniques.

Next, if an account section will be referenced in more than one report, and you need more than report layout, we recommend you “Share” the section row so that you can define it once and use it many times.  Should the Section Row need refinement, it will appropriately update all other financial statements that utilize it.

If you are looking for better help with your custom financial statements, or your overall NetSuite system, contact us.

Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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