This article is relevant if you have a complex end-of-period NetSuite operation and you would like to facilitate the accounting close.
Background
When it is time to close the accounting books in NetSuite, the system wants you to go through a series of steps to lock parts of the application. The general approach is to navigate to Setup, Accounting, Manage Accounting Periods and click the “Checklist” to get to a page that, depending on the specific NetSuite configuration, may offer (the following is a simplified list) a Lock A/R, Lock Payroll, and Revalue Open Foreign Currency Balances task options.
However, the list is not extensible — meaning, what do you do if you have more operations to perform to close the books besides the ones that were offered by NetSuite?
While there are some frameworks to help close the accounting books, such as Blackline, Reconart, and Floqast, these are generally targeted to larger accounting departments. While some have integrations to NetSuite, they are built as external applications designed to coordinate the larger accounting practice which may involve outside reconciliation and spreadsheet work.
However, what if there are a number of actions that must be performed in NetSuite itself to help close the books?
Leverage the NetSuite Framework to Create Topical Accounting Close Checklists
For one of our clients that worked with our team to craft a custom commission application (see recent article Overcome NetSuite Commission and Royalty Challenges for background), the work to close the books required a number of operations that included manual workflows due to the manner for which exceptions and commission draws were being tracked.
While the general approach is to improve training and documentation and build yet more automation, we found that the client continued to ask our staff to help with the close. We could see that the accounting department needed a step-by-step operation that was specific to the accounting period in question so they could hold the practices without a dependency on our team. Both Mathieu L. and Carl Z., two of our consultants, went to work on the challenge.
Mimic NetSuite’s Close Accounting Books Approach
Thus, our team decided it was best to mimic the way that NetSuite provided a close accounting books application.
The client effectively needed to run some reports and some custom scripts we created in a particular sequence. Some included saved searches and data gathering. Some included crafting a snapshot of the commission situation to facilitate reporting and payouts.
By using some custom records and NetSuite Suitelets, we were able to create a templated approach to help facilitate the commission close process. At the end of each period, the client would perform the work in the tool to go through the motions. At any moment, we could see if the practices were being followed as the status of each task was recorded.
Click on the images to get a feel for the application.
The general pattern here can be applied to any complex topic that needs a step-by-step operation right from within NetSuite. Note, this is in contrast to the way that NetSuite thinks of “tasks” by the way.
A Contrast to an Exception Based Framework
Note, some of our readers know that we have a very powerful framework that is designed to handle exception-based processing. In the 2018 article, Learn How to Build Scalable NetSuite Sales Order Practices, we illustrate a different manner to work on transaction-based practices to orchestrate general business operations. In this article, we are helping with periodic (less frequent) practices that are closer to a template-driven task list.
Enhance your NetSuite Accounting Operation
The power of the NetSuite platform is the ability to create rapid custom applications. While our firm excels at creating NetSuite applications, we also understand that our clients’ staff need be able to use the tools in the day-to-day and period end work. It’s no surprise that we would help our clients close their books using additional task management tools right from within NetSuite. Thus, this simple pattern discussed above can be applied to any topic — we can then chain together and orchestrate practices that may otherwise be institutionalized in people but not formally tracked otherwise.
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If you are ready to tackle your period-end close practice and you believe this pattern is helpful, 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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