NetSuite’s 2021.2 release is about to start rolling out to customers, and it includes a broad range of enhancements.
Many of the enhancements will be of interest to NetSuite customers, regardless of the industry they operate in – and some will be of specific interest to customers using industry specific functionality to support their business operations.
In this article, we cover what we believe to be the most interesting functionality improvements that customers should be looking at and considering for use within their business. Or you can download the full NetSuite 2021.2 release notes below.
Banking – Automated Cash Application
This is a big one for anybody using NetSuite’s Bank Reconciliation or Account Reconciliation functionality!
You can import bank lines that do not have matching customer payments in NetSuite. The Automated Cash Application feature lets you automatically generate a batch of general ledger customer payments in NetSuite and apply them to open invoices. If you receive a high volume of customer payments daily, this feature helps you apply them to open accounts receivable accounts in bulk.
You can automate cash application at Transactions > Bank > Automated Cash Application. Alternatively, if you are matching transactions on the Match Bank Data page and want to automatically generate customer payments, click Automated Cash Application in the top-right corner.
Banking – Other Account Reconciliation Enhancements
Navigation – The Reconcile Account Statement page now includes links to the Match Bank Data and Reconciliation Summary pages.
Automatically Clear Held Transactions – Previously, when migrating a held statement from the original reconciliation pages to the redesigned pages, you had to clear all transactions on the Match Bank Data page. The system automatically clears all held transactions and displays them on the Reconcile Account Statement page.
Advanced Numbering Duplicate Detection
To prevent duplicate transactions being entered into NetSuite via imports, NetSuite now supports duplicate document number detection for advanced numbering. When you import a transaction, NetSuite determines which numbering rule applies to it using your rules’ criteria.
Then, NetSuite checks if a transaction with the same document numbers already exists for the rule. You can then choose whether you want NetSuite to warn you, warn you and block the transaction, or not to provide any warning at all.
To set up duplicate detection for imported transactions, go to Setup > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences > Items/Transactions > Other Transaction Preferences, and set the Duplicate Number Warnings preference.
Purchase to Project
Purchase to Project is now available for installation from the SuiteApp Marketplace. This SuiteApp lets project managers create and manage purchase transactions related to projects and project tasks. It provides a unified project purchasing experience with
insight into project purchases and single-click creation of purchase orders from the project or project task.
Project managers can perform the following tasks using this SuiteApp:
- View purchase orders and purchase invoices entered for a project or project task.
- Initiate purchase orders from a project or project task.
- Allow or prevent creation of purchase orders and purchase invoices for a project or project task.
- Designate approved project vendors for project-related purchase orders.
- View the total invoiced amount from billable items and expenses for a project.
For more information, see the help topic Purchase to Project.
SuiteApprovals Enhancements
With the latest version of SuiteApprovals, you can now perform project-based approvals.
This means that project managers can now approve project-based records and documents using Workflows designed in SuiteApprovals.
- Addition of Project Manager as an Approver Type – When creating an approval rule with a custom approval chain, you can select Project Manager from the Approver Type dropdown list. You do not need to select a specific project manager under the Approver column of the approval matrix. When the approval rule is used, the SuiteApp automatically retrieves the name of the approving project manager from the Primary Information section of the project record. The reference project record is the one linked to the document for approval.
- Supported Record Types for Project-Based Approvals – Project managers can approve purchase orders, expense reports, and purchase invoices that are linked to projects.
Project managers can approve documents through the NetSuite UI and by email.
For more information, see the help topic SuiteApprovals SuiteApp.
Cross-Subsidiary Requisitions
As of NetSuite 2021.2, the Centralized Purchasing and Billing feature enables you to consolidate requisitions entered from any subsidiary into a single centralized purchase order. Regardless of which subsidiary places the requisition or purchase order, Centralized Purchasing and Billing enables you to receive purchased goods and services in any subsidiary and location in your company.
When you receive and pay for a purchase order in a different subsidiary, automatic cross-charges balance the ledger and intercompany accounts. Each target subsidiary receives their part of the centralized purchase order in the set target location and generates their own receipt.
To enable cross-subsidiary requisitions, you must enable both the Centralized Purchasing and Billing feature and the Requisitions feature.
Support for New Customer-Scheduled Maintenance
You can now reschedule an increasing number of maintenance activities using the Customer-Scheduled Maintenance page.
This is useful for customers who are concerned about when NetSuite updates and rolled out, and which to have more control over the scheduling of updates, to mitigate any risk of disruption to their business operations.
New Currency FX Rate Provider
NetSuite have now added HSBC as an option for the currency FX rate feed into NetSuite. Not the most exciting development, but great if you prefer to trust HSBC with their daily exchange rates!
New Sandbox Refresh Options for Non-Standard Service Tiers
If you are on a Premium, Enterprise, or Ultimate service tier, your sandbox refresh options are expanding. Each of your sandbox accounts has the option to be refreshed from either your production account or another sandbox account. The account where the data is copied from is referred to as the source account. Refreshing a sandbox account copies all configurations, data, user passwords, and customizations from the source account into the target sandbox account.
Conclusion
This article is a summary of the most interesting new enhancements in NetSuite release 2021.2, but it is by no means exhaustive. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any of the above, or any of the other new features in the 2021.2 release. Alternatively you can download the full NetSuite 2021.2 release notes below.