Welcome to the Social Impact Nonprofit Financials Accelerator series! Our goal with this series and guide is to help U.S. nonprofits successfully configure and use NetSuite for accounting functions in your organization.
This is a step-by-step guide designed to help grantees and social enterprises start using NetSuite for financials. NetSuite is a powerful “Enterprise Resource Planning” (ERP) system used by businesses worldwide to manage their operations.
Oracle-NetSuite Social Impact provides a donation and discounts of the basic NetSuite platform to qualified social enterprises such as nonprofits and benefit corporations.
This guide endeavors to help new U.S. grantees implement NetSuite for financials on their own. It is not an exhaustive overview of every feature and option available in the financials component, and does not cover topics associated with marketing, sales, customer/donor management, inventory, e-commerce, etc. (all features that are included in the base donation). However, it does provide the basic information and setup tasks you need to know to get started with core financials.
The guide assumes that the reader has received a NetSuite donation and is ready to start their financial migration. It references certain screens, pages and menu options and should be read in conjunction with a live account as reference.
Readers are also recommended to take the NetSuite Essentials course using their Annual Self Study Training Pass - while this course is not specific to nonprofits, it does give a good overview of all the NetSuite features and terminology we will be using in this guide.
NOTE! This guide has been written with U.S. nonprofit reporting needs and U. S. nonprofit structures. For nonprofits or NGOs outside of the USA, you will need to consider how to alter the configuration, segmentation and reporting to meet your local needs and requirements.
The following sections are divided into “sessions” that correlate with each of the webinar sessions hosted by NetSuite. The sessions are summarized as follows:
Session 1: Users, Roles, and General Settings
Introduces the basic settings for setting up your organization’s NetSuite account and will explain the basic types of NetSuite records. Introduces the process of adding users to the account, describes the various user roles and permissions, and provides a basic description of the NetSuite dashboard.
Session 2: Chart of Accounts and Data Migration
Introduces the NetSuite segmented Chart of Accounts and our recommendation on how to best leverage the segmentation. At the end of Session 2, you will be asked to export data from your QuickBooks account and import it into NetSuite prior to Session 3.
Session 3: Donors, Vendors, Items and Forms
During Session 3, we will review your accounts and discuss any issues or questions that may have come up after the file imports. Then, we’ll discuss entering and importing Customers and Vendors, and describe NetSuite print and screen forms and their relationship with each other.
This session walks through the specific steps you’ll need to take for your cutover from your legacy financials system. Describes the process of getting you ready to start entering transactions in NetSuite, which we recommend doing for one full month or more before you transition to NetSuite as your new system of record.
Session 5: Projects and Accounts Payable
This session provides training on entering a vendor, creating bills and payment transactions, and accessing reports associated with Accounts Payable and payments.
Session 6: Accounts Receivable, Cash Sales and Budgets
Then we’ll look at entering customers, creating invoices and cash sale records, and accessing reports associated with Accounts Receivable and cash. This session covers additional important transactions such as making deposit and bank reconciliations, running additional reports, accessing other forms and accessing NetSuite Help options.
Session 7: Searches and Reports
In this session, we will walk through creating saved searches and customizing reports as a nonprofit organization.
Session 8: KPIs and Dashboards
In this session, we will walk through creating KPIs and dashboards of use to you as a nonprofit organization.
Session 9: Help and Next Steps
The final webinar session covers accessing NetSuite Help options and details other resources available to you as a grantee.
Additional Resources
Financial Import Templates: For use in importing data into NetSuite during Sessions 2 & 3
First Steps: Accessing your NetSuite instance for the first time.
Preparing to Migrate to NetSuite: An introduction to systems migration preparation from an operational and technical perspective.
These are some general considerations to take aware of as you read through this guide.
Migration from one system to another, even just for financials, requires a team of stakeholders who work together to achieve a successful result. The team involved in your “self-implementation” of NetSuite consists of people from NetSuite and your organization. This section describes the members of this team.
Your Organization
Migrations to systems like NetSuite should involve key stakeholders, supporters and resources. It is critical that the following people support and engage in the process:
Social Impact Account Manager – Your account manager will continue to be your main point of contact throughout the program.
Throughout the guide, certain symbols will be used to highlight things like tasks, document notes and important notices. The following describes each of the highlighting and their meanings:
The blue star symbol represents the information covered in the following section: what you will learn and why it is important. The star symbol appears at the beginning of each major section. The alert symbol highlights important notes. The alert symbol appears throughout the document. The plus symbol indicates that the grantee and/or their staff need to independently perform the efforts described in this section before the next session. The plus symbol appears in selected sections. |