Automating Financial Reports in NetSuite: A Walkthrough

As businesses scale, financial reporting intensifies in complexity, distribution demands and frequency requirements. Relying on manual processes quickly becomes unsustainable. Errors creep in leading to decision-making blindspots that negatively impact strategic planning.

NetSuite provides sophisticated built-in financial reporting capabilities. But even greater efficiencies come from automating report generation and distribution for hands-off continuous insights.

This article will walk through:

• Benefits of Automated Reporting
• NetSuite Reporting Features
• Automation Techniques
• Implementation Best Practices

Automating the financial reporting process enables enterprises to improve productivity, accuracy and analytics velocity to promote rapid and informed business decisions.

Benefits of Automated Financial Reporting

Manual financial reporting requires significant staff hours pulling data, running reports, correcting errors and distributing to stakeholders. This process happens in endless cycles eating up time and resources.

Automating reporting activities in NetSuite streamlines these operational finance activities to unlock major benefits:

1. Improved Efficiency – Automate report runtime and delivery instead of manually running.
2. Higher Productivity – Relieve finance staff to focus on value-add analysis rather than report building.
3. Increased Accuracy – Standardize reports and reduce human errors via automation.
4. Faster Insights – Define schedules that trigger automated reporting cycles to provide data faster.
5. Broader Access – Email scheduled reports directly to stakeholders company-wide.
6. Enhanced Visibility – Gain visibility into changes as data updates rather than periodic reporting.
7. Proactive Analytics – Configure alerts for exceptions to enable proactive response.

NetSuite Financial Reporting Features

NetSuite provides a variety of built-in financial reporting features to streamline reporting and analysis:

• Report Builder – Visually construct reports across 100+ data objects.
• Report Snapshots – Save report criteria to instantly rerun.
• Report Subscriptions – Schedule and distribute reports via email.
• Saved Searches – Output data list views.
• Search Results Scheduled Emails – Email dynamic search results on schedules.
• Dashboards – Display charts and trends.
• Report Activity Log – Audit report usage.

These tools combined facilitate automated reporting but require initial configuration.

Automating Reports in NetSuite

While NetSuite provides automation foundation, strategies vary based on use case nuances. Below are a few options to jumpstart automated reporting.

Scheduled Searches

One of the easiest ways to automate report delivery is using scheduled searches to email lists of records meeting search criteria. Scheduled searches automatically run and distribute output on defined schedules.

Dashboards

For managers that want quick access to charts and trends, configure dashboards then set PDF export schedules.

SuiteAnalytics Workbook

Use this powerful financial reporting tool to build complex reports encompassing multiple statements, charts and views. Schedule configuration enables emailing this multi-tab workbook on designated recurring schedules.

SuiteFlow

For advanced automation scenarios, SuiteFlow enables defining workflows that trigger on time-based schedules to generate reports then email to recipients or post to shared folders. Workflows can also run data integrity checks and handle exceptions via alerts.

Set the Recurrence Interval

Configure the PAX interval to run automated reporting cycles – whether that be intraday, daily, weekly or monthly. Consider usage patterns and decision velocity required.

Distribution and Access

With automated reporting, consideration must also be given to delivery mechanisms and accessibility. Configure role-based visibility, shared report folders and stakeholders distribution lists to ensure information arrives to interested parties and remains secure.

Best Practices for Implementation

Follow these guidelines for smooth automated financial reporting rollout:

1. Assess Requirements
   Document key report requirements including specifications, audience, delivery frequency, visibility needs and regulatory obligations.
2. Standardize Report Parameters
   Align on common reporting timeframes, filters, languages and branding organization-wide.
3. Assign Owner
   Appoint a process owner to manage report suite enhancements, access and continuity.
4. Construct Library
   Catalog reports into shared folders by functional teams, organization divisions or workflows.
5. Configure Automation
   Set schedules, conditional triggers and distribution protocols for reports and dashboards.
6. Train Stakeholders
   Prepare stakeholders to leverage new visibility through automated reporting for optimal impact and adoption.
7. Continuously Improve
   Periodically evaluate report utilization, enhance parameters and platform capabilities to streamline over time.

Why Choose Anchor Group?

Trust Anchor Group’s certified solution architects to deliver maximum ROI on your NetSuite investment. As a NetSuite partner, we help you continually optimize and leverage automation capabilities for frictionless growth.

Our team brings deep expertise across all facets of NetSuite from financial reporting to business intelligence to process automation. We help you identify impactful metrics, build comprehensive reports, define intelligent workflows and configure automation for continuous value generation.

Anchor Group also provides NetSuite managed services around your instance. Our support plans provide you technical resources to maintain continuity of operations, address issues, support users and perpetually align platforms to your strategic growth needs.

Don’t leave potential untapped within your NetSuite environment. Contact Anchor Group today to explore our automation specialization expertise.