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!