How does phone number formatting work in NetSuite? As a business begins to expand into international markets and subsidiaries, ensuring that phone numbers are formatted correctly on NetSuite records and entry forms is crucial. Let’s take a look at how you can set up and use the NetSuite phone number formatting feature.
Overview of NetSuite Phone Number Formatting
First, you’ll need to enable the feature Worldwide Support for Phone Number Formatting, which is located in the International section of the Company tab in Enable Features. Unlike many features in NetSuite, once this feature has been enabled there is essentially no further setup required. But what exactly does this feature turn on in your account, and why is it helpful?
When Worldwide Support for Phone Number Formatting has been enabled, NetSuite uses the subsidiary that is connected to a particular entity and a series of rules to format phone numbers correctly when they are entered. This is helpful because each country has its own unique format for phone numbers, and using accurate number formats is essential. NetSuite supports phone number formatting for basically every country, but you could check the List of Supported Countries page in the Help Docs if you are uncertain of a specific country.
Entering Phone Numbers
Let’s take a look at an example to see how this works in NetSuite. With this example, we’re making the assumption that Worldwide Support for Phone Number Formatting has been enabled. We’ll take a case study based on a specific country, and then see how entering a phone number for a record connected to that country would look with international vs. national formatting.
The Case Study
Suppose, for example, that you have a customer who is connected to your Australian subsidiary. On the Australian subsidiary record, you would have selected “Australia” as the country. The Australian international calling code is 61. The landline format for Australia is 2 2222 2222, and the mobile format is 222 222 222. When someone uses the full international number, they would just need to add on the +61. For national landline and national mobile, however, instead of adding +61 they would need to add a zero to the beginning of the number. The landline (which also adds parentheses on the first two numbers of the national landline format) would be (02) 2222 2222, while the national mobile would be 0222 222 222.
Can you see how this might be difficult to keep track of on your own? Even when individuals are familiar with the correct format for a country, they can easily make mistakes on phone number formatting while entering numbers in NetSuite. This is where the Worldwide Support for Phone Number Formatting feature comes in handy. Let’s see how it would affect entering international numbers and national numbers.
International Format, Same Country as Subsidiary
First, let’s look at how NetSuite handles it when you enter a phone number for a specific country using its international code. To return to our case study, this might mean that you are adding a phone number for your customer who is connected to your Australian subsidiary. If you enter the number using the international format (with the +61), NetSuite will compare the number to the country on the subsidiary, recognize that the international code matches the country, and format the number according to the national format without the international code.
International Format, Different Country as Subsidiary
Now, suppose that your customer who is connected to your Australian subsidiary has (for whatever reason) a UK phone number, which uses +44 as the international code. When you enter this number and save it, NetSuite will again compare the number to the country on that customer’s subsidiary. In this case, NetSuite will recognize that the international code does not match the country listed on the subsidiary record, so the phone number will be saved on the customer record with the +44 international code.
National Format
As a last scenario, suppose that when you enter the number you omit the international code altogether. When this happens, NetSuite will just assume that the number belongs to the country listed on the subsidiary record for that customer and will automatically format the number according to the national Australian format.
Special Considerations
Invalid Numbers
What if a number is entered incorrectly? In other words, what if the number that is entered is not a valid number for the country of the subsidiary? The most common way this mistake might be made is when a number is added or removed from the phone number. If a phone number is not valid for the country it supposedly belongs to, then NetSuite cannot appropriately format the number. Rather, the number will be saved in NetSuite as it has been entered.
Previously Added Numbers
Enabling this feature does not cause NetSuite to go back and reformat every phone number that has been previously entered. However, because the formatting applies whenever a number on a form is accessed or edited, whenever you are working with a number that was previously entered the format will be applied at that time.
Types of Phone Number Formats
So far, we’ve looked at national and international phone number formatting. But while these are the most common number formats in different countries, there are also other types of formats that you may use from time to time. These special number formats include things like alphanumeric numbers, local numbers, and emergency service numbers. Fortunately, NetSuite supports all of these extra number formats.
Conclusion
The NetSuite phone number formatting feature is just another way that NetSuite can simplify and streamline your business processes. I trust this blog has been helpful for you! Before you leave, don’t forget to drop your name and email below to join our mailing list. We send out a single email each week with our most recent NetSuite blog, which is a simple way for you to keep growing in your knowledge of all things NetSuite. Joining the SuiteRep newsletter is the best way to ensure you never miss any of our NetSuite posts. See you there!