This article is relevant if you need to search on NetSuite record elements that have changed.
Background
Recently, when working with one of my consultants, he was trying to associate a line ID with the information that changed on a vendor bill. He did see line ID offered up in the saved search. In the discussion, I realized he was missing a simple blind spot in his understanding.
NetSuite System Notes Search
NetSuite offers up an audit trail of how records come into existence and how they are updated. For the most part, the NetSuite system note log is helpful. There are times, however, that information about records is not logged. For example, on a customer record, if you modify a credit card on the sublist, that is not logged.
NetSuite provides a way for you to search the System Notes. The System Notes search tool appears to allow you to go across the entire database of system note logged changes. This is the first place you go to when searching the system notes. Yet, it isn’t necessarily well connected to the business records.
Transaction System Notes
Changes on transaction lines can be seen by clicking the History link. The link will take you to a URL that looks like the following:
https://xxxxx.app.netsuite.com/app/accounting/transactions/history.nl?id=339&line=1
Note, if you use this URL without the line ID, such as the following:
https://xxxxx.app.netsuite.com/app/accounting/transactions/history.nl?id=339
You will see all the changes for that record.
However, what is valuable is that from a Transaction search, NetSuite offers up a Line System Notes AND a Systems Notes join table. With the Line System Notes, we can target the line area of changes and thus it becomes easier to associate a Line ID to any result set. The basic lesson is to be curious to see if you can search system notes from the business record first and join through to get the information you seek.
NetSuite Records that May Not Support System Notes
We heavily use timesheets in my NetSuite Systems Integration Practice. When viewing a single timesheet record, the user interface does not offer up a change audit log (System Notes). This may lead you to believe that time records are not logged for changes. Yet, if you perform a System Note search, you can indeed find the changes.
Remember, we must always check our assumptions when working with the NetSuite platform — here, a missing familiar user interface element, the Systems Information tab, may lead one to an incorrect conclusion.
Deleted Records and System Notes
NetSuite offers up a deleted records search. This may become valuable to you should you need to hunt for information that was removed via a record delete operation. However, it appears that once a record is deleted, the information is no longer available in the System Notes search. Thus, in my mind, System Notes appear to be tightly connected to the business record — if the business record disappears, so do the related system notes.
Help with NetSuite System Notes
This article was designed to help you get oriented with NetSuite System Notes. If you found this article helpful, feel free to be notified when new articles are released. System Notes can be tricky to search when looking for a particular pattern. If you have a challenging System Note concern, let’s have a conversation.
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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Is it possible to access the System Notes record to compare OLD/New sales prices to identify where a % difference has occurred in order to alert the product team that a price update may be incorrect?
I can get the old/new prices as a VIEW link, but can’t seem to access the detail to allow a comparison on specific price levels.
Hi Fraser,
I am speculating. But you may be able to dissect the URL for the drill down history mode and possibly get some control over the output. I have found being curious unlocks undocumented capacities.
Marty
Does NetSuite keep System Notes for Inventory Detail on a transaction?
ie: Adjustments tab on Inventory Adjustments or Items tab on Sales Orders?
We have come across transactions that seem to have been edited after other transactions have been created and pulled inventory related to it, thus ending up with negative inventory On Hand quantities.
Hello Ben,
We have found that we solve diagnosing negative inventory situations by using this stock ledger sublist which we provide to all NetSuite clients for the asking. This may be more helpful than system notes for these types of concerns because you can see the exact time and transaction that drove it negative:
https://blog.prolecto.com/2016/11/18/how-to-netsuite-stock-inventory-movement-and-in-transit/
Marty