This article is relevant if you are using NetSuite and you need to obtain cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other Cryptos) pricing.

Background

Since 2013, my NetSuite Systems Integration firm, Prolecto Resources, Inc., has been an early pioneer with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the NetSuite platform. In 2013, we developed a Built for NetSuite application called the Bitcoin Transaction Coordinator (BTC4ERP) which allows for the acceptance, payment, and basic accounting for Bitcoin.  My 2015 demonstration video is still relevant today.

The industry around Cryptocurrency has grown to include Bitcoin as well as a myriad of other Cryptos which include more than payment services. Since 2013, we have led a number of NetSuite implementations for important Cryptocurrency industry participants:

1. Payment Platforms: we implemented companies that help other organizations accept Bitcoin and other cryptos.
2. Mining: we implemented organizations that mine crypto and need to account for the revenue earned.
3. Exchange Services: we implemented organizations that earn revenue by offering full exchange and markets for trading cryptos and fiat currencies.
4. ATM Services: we helped organizations with their ATM supply and payout strategies and accounting.
5. End Companies: for organizations that wish to hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheet and use it in their operations to accept payment and pay bills, we assist in the accounting and payment processing.

Note, click on images to get a better understanding of the capacities offered by these tools.

Supporting NetSuite Crypto Capacities

Since 2013, I have written a number of articles that demonstrate how to account for Cryptocurrency using the NetSuite platform. I challenged the way others have tried to implement Crypto — especially those that think of Crypto as inventory. The most relevant of these articles are as follows:

• 2021: NetSuite Crypto Tranche Accounting Manager
• 2020: Determine Bitcoin Crypto Gain / Losses Using NetSuite Tranche Applicator
• 2017: Contrasting Bitcoin as an Asset versus a Foreign Currency in the NetSuite Accounting System

We are not new to this game.  We have earned our understanding and skill by addressing Cryptocurrency from multiple angles. 

Crypto Pricing In NetSuite

Fundamental to working with Cryptocurrencies in NetSuite is pricing. The market for Cryptocurrencies is always active. There are many sources for obtaining prices. In the early implementation of BTC4ERP, we produced a server-side approach to obtain prices from Coinbase, Bitpay, Bitstamp, and BitcoinAverage. I discussed this as early as 2013 in my article, Capture Bitcoin Exchange Rates in NetSuite. While this service is still up and running, as the market grew for Cryptocurrencies, so did the need to support more than Bitcoin.

Our approach is to treat Cryptocurrencies as a currency in the NetSuite platform. In the early days, NetSuite limited the number of currencies that could be defined — thus we would have to hijack a native government-issued (fiat) currency to represent Bitcoin.  However, we were delighted when NetSuite opened up the currency definition to allow you to produce currencies that are not necessarily fiat types.

Scalable NetSuite Crypto Pricing Service

Once we started to serve crypto industry leaders such as exchanges, the need for the number of cryptos and pricing became more demanding.  We needed to support the accounting and pricing for thousands of cryptocurrencies. We needed to take care of concerns that included historical prices. Thus, we were required to think about the challenge in terms that would allow for growth and flexibility.

Consequently, we built a complete NetSuite hosted service that is free of license charge to our clients that offer the following:

1. Cryptocurrency Definitions: allow for the creation of a large number of cryptocurrencies using flat files.
2. Cryptocurrency Extensions: NetSuite’s concept of currencies is limited to government-issued types. We needed to extend the currency concept to be able to shift the decimal point right or left, use non-ISO-based currency symbols, and indicate if the currency is a Stablecoin (a type of Cryptocurrency that pegs the price to a fixed amount).
3. Price Sources: Using a NetSuite plug-in approach, we can retrieve prices from any market source. To date, we have worked with CoinMarketCap and Coinbase. With the framework ready to go, if a different price source is required, it’s quick to activate a new price feed.
4. Pricing Pairs: retrieving prices is a function of the base subsidiary currencies and the interested cryptos. These are all defined in a manner that allows administrators the ability to define profiles for obtaining interested price information.
5. Scheduled and On-Demand Pricing: Price profiles can be scheduled to retrieve crypto pricing as frequently as needed.
6. Exchange Price Ledger: a ledger is used to record all the crypto price sources, crypto price, and base currencies as well as the effective rate. The ledger then is used to automatically update NetSuite’s native exchange currency rate tables which drive standard foreign currency functions.
7. Scalable Price Updates: when working with NetSuite, it’s always important to remember there are processing governance considerations. When retrieving a large number of pricing updates that may contain 1,000s of currency pair prices, the updates to the database must be considered. Here we leverage our tools to Fully Automate Complex NetSuite Data Imports.
8. Historical and Spot Updates: spot prices are easy to retrieve as the market for Cryptocurrencies is always on. But suppose you need to ensure that you always retrieve prices at midnight because you seek to apply a consistent accounting policy for impairment or other measures? We allow for period offsets and other parameters that can drive the pricing service to obtain the historical price to then allow consistent measurement in NetSuite.

Leaders in Cryptocurrency and NetSuite Accounting

As a NetSuite Systems Integration firm, our core competency with accounting and technology is to assist and lead our clients to realize the promise of the platform. I personally have been an advocate of Cryptocurrencies being introduced in 2011 and was invited to speak at the very first 2013 Bitcoin Conference. I have written articles that illustrate the fundamentals for Cryptocurrency on the platform.  We provide our clients with the tools to properly account for gains and losses using Cryptocurrency.

We are different. We do not market products. Instead, all of our intellectual property is offered free-of-license-charge to our clients. We hold that the tools we have built demonstrate our superior capacity to solve existing NetSuite challenges — and that we should stand on top of our previous accomplishments to take care of client’s existing and new concerns; we thus believe in earning our client’s trust through listening and bringing everything we can to the table in a transparent fashion.

If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for notifications to new articles as I post them. If you have a particular NetSuite Cryptocurrency challenge, 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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