NetSuite continues deploying large upgrades to critical modules and supporting international growth through further localization capabilities. Out of the hundreds of new features and enhancements, we selected the top eight we think will provide the most value!
If you are already a NetSuite customer, since the NetSuite upgrades are on a rolling basis, starting in January 2021 through April 2021, you may or may not have been upgraded yet. Log in to your dashboard and check out the new release portal to learn more about your upgrade date, see sneak peeks, and more regarding the new NetSuite release.
Centralized Purchasing and Billing
Companies with a central purchasing subsidiary can leverage the new Centralized Purchasing and Billing to further automate their purchasing process. Operationally, this will simplify the purchasing workflow and make supplier relations easier. Financially, this feature supports cross-charge automation for both the vendor bill side and the returns side, further automating NetSuite’s impressive intercompany management capabilities.
SuiteBilling Enhancements
NetSuite continues investing in subscription-based revenue by bringing significant improvements to SuiteBilling. We will see more flexibility in the charges frequency and the charge setup. Additionally, SuiteBilling will be supported by invoice grouping.
Expense Report Policy
The recently-launched Expense Report Policy sees a few interesting improvements. Firstly, we will now be able to set limits on expense report lines instead of having limits on whole expense reports as we had previously. Secondly, we will be able to have different limits based on whether an expense is billable or not.
SuitePeople: Performance management
With this new release, SuitePeople Performance Management now includes:
- Eight new, interactive charts are available with SuiteAnalytics Workbooks that provide human resources (HR) leaders visibility into how groups of employees or particular individuals perform. You can also create your own performance management workbooks. For example, these new analyses enable HR managers to take action if certain groups or individuals have overdue reviews. Or HR can measure organizational performance by examining overall review rating distributions.
- A new goals portlet to the Employee Center. With it, goals are more visible to the employee, helping them stay focused and engaged. Users can see current or historical goals for a more complete view of past and present performance with the all goals page. Finally, managers are able to quickly assess how their teams are progressing towards their goals in a single visualization to take action or reprioritize goals
SuiteAnalytics Improvements
As in previous releases, NetSuite continues investing in SuiteAnalytics. This time, users will be able to create calculated measures that apply to pivoted data, whereas previously we had to apply calculated fields to flat data and then roll it up to a group.
Advanced Numbering
NetSuite continues to target international companies with the new advanced numbering feature. Users will now be able to assign custom transaction numbering sequences to a slew of new transactions, expanding on existing capabilities. Further, this supports compliance to local tax-authority mandated transaction sequences.
New button for Best Location
We can now find a brand new button on Sales Orders. It triggers a new window called Earliest Availability popup. If you have done a proper setup of the Automatic Location Assignment: when you click the Assign Location button on the Earliest Availability popup window NetSuite will calculate the best location. This calculation is based on availability and the rules of automatic location assignment configuration for the selected sales order.
SuiteApproval
You can now approve your transactions directly in your inbox. This feature will allow a lot more flexibility and will save much time for employees and approvers. The approver will receive an email and will be able to approve (or reject) the transaction without needing to log in to NetSuite.
How to Update to NetSuite 2021.1
The 2021.1 update adds promising new features that continue to improve in critical areas for NetSuite users. With so many new features, you may be questioning where to start, what you can do to prepare for NetSuite 2021.1, how you should test the latest release and more to ensure that your organization and system are ready for the upgrade.
If you need any help testing and validating your current processes, including customizations, scripts, workflows, and integrations for NetSuite 2020.1 or any future releases, please get in touch with a Big Bang NetSuite consultant.
For the detailed release notes: Oracle NetSuite Release Notes 2021.1.0