In our previous blog in this series, we looked at navigating standard NetSuite reports. These are the reports that NetSuite has already created, and you simply select them from the Reports menu or the Reports dashboard in your NetSuite account. But what if you need a report that is different from the standard NetSuite reports? What options do you have for creating and customizing NetSuite reports? Let’s check it out.
Access to Creating and Customizing NetSuite Reports
Before we get started, we need to pinpoint who exactly has the ability to create and/or customize NetSuite reports. Administrators, obviously, would have this ability. But the access of individual users will vary based on their role’s permissions. If you are not the administrator of your NetSuite instance and you aren’t seeing reports that you think you should be seeing, reach out to your administrator to request that access.
Creating Reports
When you create a new report, you have a couple options.
Creating a Standard Report
First, you could create a standard report. From the Reports dashboard, you would simply select the report that you need to see. You can find the exact report you need by either searching for a specific keyword or by using the expand button on each reports category to browse through the available options. Selecting the name of a report will open a summary report, but you can also access the detail report for that data (when available) by using the “Detail” link under the report name.
When you are viewing a standard report, you will be able to adjust the display of the report’s data by using the footer options on the report. Adjusting the display, however, is just changing what you can see of the data already in the report, rather than changing the actual data the report provides.
Creating an Ad Hoc Report
Your other option is to create an ad hoc report. To create an ad hoc report, you would select the “New Report” button on the reports dashboard. When you create an ad hoc report, you will be taken to a page where you decide what metric to base the report on.
Once you’ve chosen a metric, then you will set the details for the report, including the exact field you want to report on, the format of the report (summary, detail, or matrix), and how you want to subtotal the report. The content of the dropdown fields on this page will vary based on the initial metric you decided to base the report on.
Once you have set the parameters for your ad hoc report, you can run it to see the results.
Customizing Reports
To a certain degree, an ad hoc report is a custom report. But NetSuite has even greater customization options available in the Report Builder. You can access the Report Builder from the Reports dashboard, from a standard report, or while creating an ad hoc report. On the Reports dashboard, you would hover your cursor over a standard report name and select the Customize link that pops up to the right of the report name. While on a standard report, select the Customize button at the bottom of the report. And when creating an ad hoc report, you would select the More Customization button to access the Report Builder.
Navigating the Report Builder
Once you’ve gotten to the Report Builder using one of the previously mentioned three methods, what can you do on it? The Report Builder has four sections: Edit Columns, Filters, Sorting, and More Options. To move between sections, simply select the name of your desired section at the top of the page.
Edit Columns
First, you can edit columns on the Report Builder. Essentially, this means you can add and remove the fields that will appear in your report. To add a regular field, expand the sections to the left of the page (in the picture below, the two available sections are “Transaction Dimension” and “Account Balance”). Then, choose the desired field from the expanded list. If you know the name of the field you want, you could also search for it in the search bar. To add a formula field, select the Add Formula Field button.
As you add and remove fields, the Report Preview pane will give you a quick snapshot of exactly how your changes will affect the report without you needing to leave this page in order to preview the entire report.
When you select a column in the Report Preview pane, directly under the pane you will have an assortment of customizations that are available for that specific column. These options will differ based on the field in each column.
Filters
Next, you can set the filters for your customized report. In the Filters section, you will see the fields you can use as filters to the left of the page. When you add a new field as a filter, you will need to set the values that define that filter. If you want to allow users to change a filter directly on the report, then select the checkbox Show in Filter Region. To have a filter restrict the report results entirely, however, leave that box unchecked.
Sorting
The Sorting section allows you to add and remove fields that the report will be sorted by. It also allows you to edit the order that the sorting preferences are applied. To change the order of the fields you sort by, select a field in the Choose Sort Order area and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons. You can also remove any existing sorts from the report by selecting the “x” to the right of each row.
Unlike the Edit Columns section, with its Report Preview pane, you will need to select the Preview button at the bottom of the page if you wish to see how your customized sorting affects the report.
More Options
All your other customization options are located on the More Options tab. Under the Report Options section of this tab, you will see options like Show On Reports Page (which places this report in the Saved Reports section on the Reports dashboard) and Allow Web Query (which gives an Export-Excel Web Query option to all users who can access the report). Other options are to set the expand level for the report and specify the script ID.
On this tab, you can also select the audience of the report. The administrator of the account can designate the access for the report as well. In general, access to any report is based on a user’s access to the records that the report uses. So if a user has access to the records used in a report, they would have access to the report as well. But they would need to search for the report in order to locate it. When you select individuals/department/subsidiaries as the audience for any report, then that report will show up for those people in their Saved Reports.
The access tab provides the same options as the audience tab does. The main difference between the two tabs is that the access tab is more powerful. Any users who are selected under the audience tab for a report but who don’t actually have access permissions for the standard report that this report is based on won’t be able to run the report. Selecting a user who falls into this category under the access tab, however, would override that user’s typical permissions, allowing that user to run the report. This is why the access tab is only available for account administrators!
Conclusion
As long as you have the necessary permissions, then creating and customizing NetSuite reports is an incredibly useful tool. In future blogs we’ll keep working our way through our SuiteAnalytics series. The topics we have coming up are saved searches and dashboards, so be sure to join our newsletter below to ensure you never miss a blog!