The global search is one of the most essential tools for NetSuite users. Although simple to use, the global search has a lot more to offer than one might initially think. Today, let’s explore some of the best hidden features in NetSuite’s global search.
Search Prefixes
Search prefixes are what determine the record type in a global search.
Take for example, sales: 81125. We have the prefix (“sales” for Sales Order), a colon, and the thing we’re looking for (in this example, the record number—”81125″). You can also use a carrot (^) in place of the colon in case you’re feeling creative.
Here are some of the most common abbreviations you can use:
Record | Abbreviation |
---|---|
Campaign | cam |
Cash Sale | cash |
Contact | con |
Customer | cust |
Employee | emp |
Event | ev |
Expense report | exp |
File | fi |
Invoice | invo |
Issue | iss |
Item | it |
Opportunity | opp |
Partner | par |
Phone Call | ph |
Sales Order | sales |
There are actually more abbreviations that may work for you. These are just some of the official default prefixes according to NetSuite’s help documentation. For example, we can use inv to find Inventory Items. But this may also return Invoice results as well, since the abbreviation is ambiguous. Feel free to explore with sensible abbreviations and see what you can find!
Find Inactive Records
Have you ever looked for a record in the global search, only to find that it was inactive and wouldn’t show up? There’s a fix for that. If you want to include any inactive records in the search, just add a plus sign (+) to the end of the search (e.g., sales: 81125+).
Wildcard
The wildcard is the most flexible tool in the global search. It allows us to place a kind of mystery spacer in our search.
For example, we can search for EMP: J% to find all Employees that have a J in the name with some characters in the name after. “John Smith” would show up in this search.
We can also put the wildcard between two letters or numbers, like EMP: J%S. The wildcard acts as a mystery spacer between the two letters. So if a name has a J, and then an S after somewhere, it will appear in this search.
This can be especially helpful for locating records. If you remember a few numbers of a document number, you should be able to find it using Wildcards if you need.
Other Quick Tips
You can search for multiple records by adding a capital OR in between two lookups (e.g., EMP: John OR Adam).
You can also do an strict search by putting quotes around your search entry (e.g., EMP: “John Smith”).
Conclusion
The global search is one of the most fundamental tools for NetSuite users. Learning to master it well may noticeably improve your productivity. We hope you find these tips helpful!
Thanks for sharing. I find the global search bar to be one of the most powerful tools in NetSuite!
Please consider the following remarks:
1. I think your portrayal of the search prefixes is not very accurate. Your article suggests that one needs to know the specific abbreviations which is misleading. You just need at least the first two characters of the record type name e.g. for Customer, “cu:”, “cus:”, “cust:” will all work. And if you’ve renamed records in your instance (Setup >> Company >> Rename Records/Transactions), the new names will be used. E.g. if you call Customers, Clients instead. You’ll need to use “cl:” (or more characters) instead of “cu:”.
PS: I’m not 100% what NetSuite will do if the search prefix matches multiple record types. I suspect it will search across all matching record types but I’ve not checked.
2. There are also a few common tricks you didn’t cover e.g. use of underscore, exact match, etc. See this article (no affiliation): https://www.proteloinc.com/blog/netsuite-global-search-tips/
Thanks for the helpful comment, Chidi!