In our last blog, we explored the inner workings of NetSuite simple searches. Advanced searches in NetSuite are closely related to simple searches. They provide more functionality than a simple search, but not as much as saved searches. They are, then, a good stepping stone toward understanding saved searches.
Simple Search or Advanced Search?
When would you use an advanced search instead of a simple search? A simple search is the way to go if you just need to pull data from a handful of fields on a record. But sometimes you need to apply formulas in your search filters, or you may need your search to summarize the content of certain fields. You may want to sort and arrange your results, or you may want to include fields from related record types in your search results. For any of these reasons (and assuming you don’t want to create a saved search), you would go with an advanced search rather than a simple search.
Creating Advanced Searches in NetSuite
You can create advanced searches in NetSuite in the same way you would create a simple search. On the Reports dashboard, select the New Search button and choose the record type you want to run the search on. NetSuite will pull up either a simple search or an advanced search, depending on the last type of search that you ran on this record type. If the simple search comes up, then select the Use Advanced Search checkbox.
Advanced Search Criteria Tab
What are some of the features of advanced searches in NetSuite? Let’s take a look at some features under the Criteria tab that set advanced searches apart from simple searches.
Use Expressions
First, notice the Use Expressions checkbox under the Criteria tab. If you select this checkbox, then you will be able to use AND/OR logic in your filters. For example, suppose that for whatever reason you want to search for all the customer deposits and customer refunds made before 2022 that were $1,000 or more. One way you could pull up those results would be to use AND/OR expressions. Here’s what that might look like:
Notice the use of parentheses to group expressions and to show their relationship to one another. Using AND tells NetSuite that search results need to match all the criteria in that expression, while using OR tells NetSuite to return results for both sets of criteria in an expression. Without Use Expressions, any filters you add would just use AND logic. The real value of Use Expressions, then, is the ability to use OR as well. To learn more about using AND/OR expressions in advanced (and saved) searches, you can reference this Help Center article.
Related Record Field Joins
Another advanced search capability is that you can join related record fields to the search. While simple searches allow you to search the content of fields across only a single record type, advanced searches allow you to add some fields outside of your main search record type. When you select the dropdown list under either the Filter column in the Standard subtab or the Field column in the Summary tab, the top options are all fields on your selected record type and are arranged alphabetically. If you scroll further down the list, however, you’ll notice that the alphabetization restarts. This is where the list of joinable record fields begins. You can also recognize that you’re looking at a joinable record field if the name of the field has ellipses after it.
Summary Search
The Criteria tab also allows you to set summary search filters under the Summary subtab. Why might someone want to use a summary search rather than a standard search? Summary searches are useful when you want your search to pull up just certain summarized data. On the summary tab, first you would determine the summary type. The five summary types are Count, Sum, Minimum, Maximum, and Average. After choosing how you will summarize the data, choose which record field the summary will apply to and set the criteria for that field.
Advanced Search Results Tab
The Results tab provides some additional features for advanced searches. On this tab, you can determine which fields will be displayed in the search results as well as the order and format of those fields.
Sorting and Output
At the top of the Results tab are sorting and output options. You can sort by any of the fields that are on the record in either ascending or descending order, and you can have three sorting levels. In this top section, you can also select the format of your search results in the dropdown field Output Type. In addition to the normal list view, you could view search results in a report view, with a grid, or as a graph.
Display Fields
The next section of the Results tab is a list of all the record fields that NetSuite will include in your search results. You can customize which fields appear in your search results by adding and removing fields one by one, or you could use the “Remove All” and “Add Multiple” buttons to do a major customization.
There are some helpful things to note about the Results fields. First, notice the asterisk in the second line. The asterisk signals the main line of transactions. When you’re viewing the search results, this is a helpful way to quickly tell main line results apart from line item results. Of course, if you want your search to show just the main line or just the line items, you can return to the Criteria tab and add Main Line as a filter, setting it to either true or false. In that case, the asterisk field would be superfluous, and you could remove that field entirely from your list of results.
If you want the initial page of your search results to summarize certain data, you would use the Summary Type column. The options in this column are the same as the options under the Summary subtab of Criteria, with the addition of a Group option. If you set summary types for certain fields here on the Results tab, then your search will initially display just the fields that have summarized content. Any grouped fields will have a hyperlink to the more detailed search results for any results within that group.
Another useful tool under Results is the Custom Label column. Under this column, you can change the names that fields will appear with in the search results. If you are using summaries in your results, you can even name your summarized fields under the Summary Label column.
Conclusion
If you understand advanced searches in NetSuite, then you already get the most important aspects of saved searches. In our next blog, we’ll tackle saved searches, paying special attention to the subtab options that are unique to saved searches. To keep up with our ongoing series on SuiteAnalytics, subscribe to the blog below!