This article is relevant if you’re looking to gain more control over NetSuite’s Print Pick Ticket utility.
Background
Hector Cardenas, Operations Practice Leader at Prolecto Resources, encountered a seemingly straightforward request from a client: They needed to control the selection and sequencing of pick ticket printing to better plan their daily warehouse picking operations. This type of request is fundamental for any organization with a sizable inventory to ship.
While NetSuite is robust out-of-the-box, seasoned users will recognize a limitation: NetSuite’s list-oriented tools for bulk operations, such as the Print Pick Ticket screen, are not open to the full range of customizations enabled by NetSuite’s powerful platform. This screen, like others in its category, is restricted in its flexibility, pushing administrators to do what they can within these confines.
Customizing Pick Ticket Printing: Enhancing Warehouse Operations Efficiency
In many warehouses, particularly those without a formal Warehouse Management System (WMS), relying on NetSuite’s Pick Ticket tool can introduce operational inefficiencies. Efficiently managing pick tickets is critical for day-to-day operations, especially for meeting customer shipping guarantees. However, NetSuite’s native tools often fall short of offering the flexibility needed, leaving businesses to optimize pick-ticket processes with limited customization options.
Critical Limitations of NetSuite’s Native Pick Ticket Tool
Indeed, here are some of the frustrating limitations of the provided native NetSuite Print Ticket Tool:
- Filter and Data Visibility Restraints: NetSuite’s native Bulk Pick Ticket tool offers limited filter options and data visibility. For example, if you need to print Sales Orders that meet specific criteria, like “Print all Sales Orders that are fully committed with only one item,” the standard Pick Ticket tool falls short. If the available filters don’t match your needs, you’re left with few alternatives.
- Data Limitations: NetSuite’s Advanced Template structures restrict the data elements available on Pick Ticket PDFs to those found on the sales order header. If you need to see line-level data, you’re out of luck with the default setup.
- Printing and Reprinting Hurdles: Users often face challenges when attempting to reprint Sales Orders, especially when trying to reprint all pick tickets generated on a specific day or time.
Click the image to gain a better understanding of these limitations.
Introducing a License-Free Prolecto Solution: Query Renderer with Mass Print Functionality
To address these challenges, our firm developed a flexible approach using our existing license-free Prolecto Labs tools, delivering a powerful and easy solution with no development effort.
- Tailored Data Sets with SuiteQL: Leveraging Prolecto’s SuiteQL Query tool, we crafted complex data elements tailored to our clients’ specific business requirements. By fully utilizing NetSuite SuiteQL (SQL-driven) data structures, our business analysts created detailed and precise data elements that exactly matched our client’s needs. This allowed us to prioritize items by ship-complete, single and multi-line commitments, and sort orders by bin number. A critical complexity we tackled was correctly handling commitments on Kit Items, including partial component commitments — a task that would be nearly impossible with basic saved searches as a building block.
- Enhanced Mass Print Functionality: Our enhanced Query Renderer tool, designed to replace saved searches, now includes mass print functionality, enabling warehouse operators to easily select and print Sales Orders. Whether using NetSuite’s native PDF templates or our license-free Prolecto Content Renderer Engine (which supercharges Advanced PDFs as they should have been), the process is seamless. PDFs are batch-generated, stored in NetSuite’s File Directory, and links to individual and combined PDFs are emailed to the requesting user.
- Customized Pick Ticket: Using our Content Renderer Engine 2 (CRE2) Lab, we created a custom pick ticket based on the client’s existing Advanced Template. We improved bin availability data on the printed pick ticket by sequencing bins by priority. Offering multiple bin availability on Pick Tickets helps pickers find items even if they aren’t located in the first bin suggested.
- Automated Bulk Print Functionality: With the right Sales Order selection query, the Prolecto Query Renderer can also automatically generate Pick Ticket PDF batches hands-free. These scheduled deployments allow jobs to be printed before warehouse workers arrive, enabling them to start their day immediately.
Click the images to view the full screen and gain a deeper understanding of these capabilities.
Empowering Non-Developers to Solve Complex Problems
The good news is that many of the license-free tools we’ve developed are specifically designed to bypass the need for scripting, making it easier to tackle complex business challenges in the NetSuite environment. These tools allow our Business Analysts to address requests without requiring a developer’s expertise. Often, once our clients see how we solve problems using these tools, they can tackle their own challenges independently, without needing us to guide them step-by-step.
By leveraging Prolecto Labs, we empower NetSuite users—even those without a technical background—to solve complex problems confidently.
Get Access to Tools and NetSuite Leadership
Hector Cardenas, our Operations Practice Leader, exemplifies the kind of leadership that defines our firm. His deep expertise in NetSuite and thorough understanding of business operations allow him to make insightful assessments and navigate towards best-in-class solutions—whether out-of-the-box, through third-party offerings, or by leveraging Prolecto’s robust set of Labs tools.
I want to thank Hector for his efforts in this article. He was passionate about this solution and took the initiative to draft this piece to ensure I fully understood its value so we could share it with you. Hector leads a team of dedicated business analysts who are committed to maximizing the value of the NetSuite platform, driving operational efficiency and execution.
Prolecto Labs enhances basic NetSuite functionality, overcoming user obstacles and empowering them to solve problems without heavy development. Our Labs tools are available to our customers license-free. We’re committed to listening, engaging with our clients’ business challenges, and designing solutions that draw upon our extensive intellectual asset library and decades of experience, all built from real-world client situations using NetSuite’s SuiteScript extensibility platform.
We value the opportunity to earn your trust through our thought leadership and hands-on work. If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for more articles as I publish them. If you’d like to discuss your NetSuite pick-ticket challenges, 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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