NetSuite is a highly customizable, extensible suite of financial tools including ERM, CRM, HR & Payroll and more. The level of flexibility combined with powerful integrations and the ability to create and run custom scripts makes for a solid, but somewhat complex, accounting software. But once you learn, the possibilities are virtually endless, and businesses and global companies are sure to see the benefits in both the short and long term.
Pros
- Highly adjustable
- Powerful budgeting, forecasting and reporting
- Complete solution (HR, project management, inventory, etc.)
Cons
- Complex to set up and operate
- Can be very expensive
- No premium or hybrid solutions
Netsuite at a Glance
Best for enterprises and global companies
Price Range: $999+
Main features: Finance and Accounting; calculation; Revenue recognition; financial planning and reporting; global accounting and consolidation; compliance
Apps: Web, iOS, Android
Integrations. extensive
NetSuite Ease of Setup and Use
NetSuite is an extremely powerful financial management solution that is highly customizable. Enterprise customers will likely need to invest in either hiring a NetSuite developer or investing in training their existing IT departments. Likewise, the learning curve for finance staff is likely to be quite steep, depending on the size of the company.
That said, workflows are well thought out, features and functions are rarely hidden, and while it's not the most intuitive software we've tried, it manages to pack a huge amount of information into a surprisingly readable interface. One key feature to speed up navigation is the SuiteFlow Workflow Manager, a drag-and-drop workflow builder that simplifies a huge number of tasks, such as data entry or report generation.
It may take some time to set up and get used to, but once you do, there are actually very few obstacles and a range of solutions to streamline your workflow.
NetSuite by Oracle Pricing and Plans
Due to its modular nature, pricing is not listed on the NetSuite website. Instead, you should contact a representative to get a quote for your specific business needs. However, all subscriptions start at $999 and go up from there to $99/month per user.
While it's more expensive than some competitors like Intacct or QuickBooks Enterprise, NetSuite includes financial management, inventory and warehouse management, project management and HR & Payroll, meaning you won't need to pay for additional software that makes your overall operational. costs are reduced.
NetSuite Features
As mentioned, NetSuite includes a wide variety of financial management software: enterprise resource planning (ERP), business administration, customer relationship management (CRM), human capital, professional services automation (PSA), email and more.
Businesses looking for deep integration between operations, management, finance, human resources, marketing, and more are likely to find what they need with NetSuite.
General Ledger and Expense Tracking
NetSuite allows you to greatly customize the General Ledger. A directory can be divided into any number of custom segments, such as profit center and product line, with an unlimited number of subsidiaries, departments, and locations. Manual entry can be significantly reduced with custom add-ons and multiple book capabilities with a rules-based engine that maps transactions between primary and secondary charts of accounts.
Expenses and Accounts Payable also benefit from a lot of automation: calculating discounts, handling exceptions from inconsistent invoices and orders, paying bills, and more. Each vendor and individual transaction can be enriched with invoices, product receipts, vendor contracts, and more. In addition, the SuiteApps marketplace makes it easy to find ready-made third-party add-ons for various use cases.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is just as solid. The Reminders section of the platform is particularly useful here, as it facilitates actionable items such as receiving orders, active purchase contracts, claims that need approval, vendor return authorizations, and more. The system is built to manage supply chains and inventory across continents and time zones so that the physical distance between products doesn't cloud your overall view of operations.
Replenishment tasks such as checking stock levels and reordering stock can be automated for multiple locations. Traceability features exist at all levels, so you can track shipments, orders, lots, and even individual serial or product numbers. The same granular view exists for repositories; you can organize sites into hierarchies and create subsites and bins for product-level management.
Billing and Invoicing
It should come as no surprise that billing is equally powerful with NetSuite. A unified framework supports transactions, subscriptions, usage-based models, and others, with support for recurring billing
Payments can be accepted via electronic fund transfers, credit and debit cards, PayPal, online bill payments, and almost every payment method on the planet, thanks to the ability to implement custom scripts and make use of custom integrations and third parties and add-ons . Paid file formats are supported in the US, UK, Canada, France and Germany. There are over 20 formats supported out of the box and you can create any number of custom formats.
Net takes global billing to a whole new level, and while the payments system is complex (the payments and payment processing manual is 326 pages long), there's really nothing it can't handle.
NetSuite Integrations
is so popular and so powerful in terms of integrations that it supports an entire ecosystem of companies and developers that design, build, and market custom plugins and solutions. is designed for extensibility; If an integration does not exist, you can create one.
NetSuite Mobile Apps
has mobile apps for iOS and Android, although the balance between usability and functionality is a bit unbalanced here. The iOS app has a 2.5 rating on the App Store, with most complaints centered on the complexity of the interface, a constant stream of bugs, and a lack of key features. The company responds quickly to negative reviews in each case and promises performance and UI updates, but has so far been slow to deliver.
If mobile support is essential to your daily financial operations, you may want to check out the competition.
Netsuite Customer Support
NetSuite provides basic customer support for each user and additional support for larger companies (with bigger budgets). Support is divided into Basic and Premium. Prime members only receive phone support for Level 1 (Critical) issues, such as if your entire system goes down. Otherwise, it is an online ticket based system. Premium subscribers get 24/7 phone access for Critical and Significant issues and 8/5 access for less significant and minor issues.
There is also a comprehensive and extensive knowledge base with a huge number of support articles, help topics and training videos. As we mentioned earlier, the full module tutorials can be a little intimidating, regularly exceeding 300 pages, and unfortunately the natural language search in the support center isn't great. As a result, you can sift through manuals and online help topics to find exactly what you need.
Bottom Line
NetSuite is powerful, customizable, extensible, but also very complex. Support is somewhat limited for Prime members, subscriptions can be expensive, and the mobile apps are in serious need of updating. However, businesses looking to consolidate costs and manage global operations with deep, data-driven insights, global compliance, complex supply chains and warehousing, plus advanced ledger, invoicing, invoicing and billing will find NetSuite of great use.