Our last several blogs took a close look at workbooks and the datasets that feed information into them. Now it’s time to move on to the next topic in our SuiteAnalytics series: NetSuite reports. In future blogs we’ll get more into NetSuite reports, but for now let’s just get a good handle on what navigating NetSuite reports looks like.
NetSuite Reports Overview
NetSuite reports are yet another way that users can see the breakdown of key data. Reports are not as visually appealing as workbooks, but they serve essentially the same function of gathering and presenting data that has been stored in NetSuite. So what kinds of reports are there? NetSuite comes with a group of standard reports, which cover most of the main record types. These standard reports are customizable, however, so administrators and users with adequate permissions can adjust the content in the standard reports. Reports can also be created entirely from scratch. NetSuite differentiates between financial reports and nonfinancial reports, though most of the options that we will look at later on apply to both types of reports.
Accessing and Creating a NetSuite Report
We’ll look at customizing a NetSuite report in a future blog, but for now we’ll stick with understanding how the standard NetSuite reports work. To access the list of standard reports, you have two options. First, you could view the complete list in your center’s Reports menu dropdown. In the menu navigation, you can see both the higher categories of reports as well as the specific reports that fall under those categories. Alternatively, you could access this same list of reports from the Reports dashboard. On the Reports dashboard, you can expand any of the reports categories to see the lists of reports within those categories.
The Viewing Options on a NetSuite Report
Once you have opened up a report, what are some of the viewing options that you would have, and how can you use them effectively? Let’s go ahead and open a financial report. Note that some of the nonfinancial reports might have slightly different options available. The options in the financial reports, however, are fairly common.
The above picture shows a collapsed summary financial report. When you expand any one of the categories (by selecting the plus sign next to the desired category), you will be able to see more information within the categories. This report, however, is still a summary report rather than a detail report. If you need to see even more detail on the information in this report, you can simply select the “View Detail” link to the right of the report name, and you will be taken to a report that drills further down into the report results.
At the bottom of the report, notice that you can set a specific date or date range for the report. The Date field gives you dynamic options, like “today,” “yesterday,” “this month to date,” “last fiscal year to date,” etc. The date ranges, on the other hand, allow you to set an unmoving custom date range for the results. The Subsidiary Context field is available for users with OneWorld, and it allows you to restrict the results to a certain subsidiary. The Column field enables you to easily pivot the data. For example, you could pivot the data by type, department, location, or subsidiary. The options in this field may fluctuate depending on the type of report you are viewing. And finally, the Find field allows you to quickly search for a specific result that you need to see. This option is especially helpful when viewing reports with large quantities of data.
Once you have set the date/date ranges and any other of the sorting and filtering options, select the Refresh button at the bottom of the page to see the report results with your selections applied.
The NetSuite Reports Toolbar
You’ll notice on the report that you also have several options in the footer toolbar. Let’s take a look at this toolbar and the options it provides.
The first toolbar option allows you to change the view of the report from a plain white background to a grid; with this option, you can also set the expand level for the report, display the report’s official title, and set the report to show drill-down balloons. The next two toolbar options are the collapse and expand buttons, which allow you to quickly get to your ideal hierarchy level on the report. You also have the option of putting the information into a graph so you can visualize the results. The graph would have customizable parameters that allow you to display the exact data you wish to see. The next four buttons on the footer give you exporting options, allowing you to export the report to Excel, PDF, CSV, or Word. And the final three options you have are to print the report results, to email them, and to schedule a specific time for the report to run.
Conclusion
That’s a broad overview of what navigating NetSuite reports looks and feels like. In the next several blogs, we’ll dig deeper into the intricacies of NetSuite reports. If you want to keep up with the rest of our blogs on reports, as well as the rest of our SuiteAnalytics series, go ahead and join our newsletter below!