In NetSuite, any person or company you receive money (transactions or donations) from is a Customer Organization. An Organization can have Individuals attached to it, as either Sub-Organizations (where you might have transactions) or as Contacts (an individual that does not give/receive monetary transactions). For the purposes of this training, we will refer the NetSuite Customer record for Donors.
Customer records are required in order to create sales transactions such as Sales Orders, Cash Sales and Invoices. Other entity records used to store information about people or businesses you engage with include Contact and Partner records. Contacts can be associated with Customers but only a Customer (including sub-customer) type can be included on a sales transaction.
Any individual or company you give money (payments) to is an Vendor Organization. An organization can be designated as both a Customer and a Vendor where necessary. A person or company can also be a Partner Organization (we won't cover Partner records in this document, but you can learn more in SuiteAnswers on how to use Partner records).
Important: We recommend that you use Individual or Company Organizations rather than Contacts where possible. Contacts do not allow transactions against them, so by setting up people as Customers you allow them to be connected to the company and interact with you as an individual. |
Organizations - an Example Hierarchy
Jennie and John Smith Foundation (Parent Customer Organization)
J&J Smith New Nonprofit Trust (Customer Organization - Child Customer record)
Michael Jones, Program Manager at J&J Smith New Nonprofit Trust (Child Customer record of type Individual)
Households- an Example Hierarchy
George Cullen Household (Parent Customer Record of type Organization)
George (Individual contributor (Child Customer record of type Individual)
Denise (Individual contributor (Child Customer record of type Individual)
Customers can be manually added to NetSuite or they can be imported. A previous section describes how to import Customer records. To manually add a Customer record, do the following:
List > Relationships > Customers > New
NetSuite allows you to create a parent/child structure for customer records. This offers the option to create a master “household” Customer record and individual sub-customer records for each member of a family, for example. A household record would be standard Customer record as described above. To associate an existing customer record to a parent, creating the parent/child hierarchy:
The sub-customer record can now be found on the Relationships tab of the parent Customer record.
The customer and sub-customer records can be either Individual or Company types, however, NetSuite recommends saving the household as a Company type and the individuals as Individual types. If you group people in households, track any transactional relationships at the Individuals and Organizational level, not at the household level.
Vendors
Vendor records are required in order to create billing transactions such as Vendor Bills. Vendors can be added to NetSuite manually or via import.
To manually add a Vendor record, go to:
List > Relationships > Vendors > New
These are the steps to import your customers and vendors.
• Always manage Individuals and Organizations separately.
• When importing multiple individuals and Organizations, always separate into two CSV files.
To import Customer and Vendor files, go to:
Setup > Import/Export > Import CSV Records
On the field mapping screen, Your Fields and file are shown on the left, the NetSuite fields are shown on the right and the mapping is shown in the middle.
The right side will contain two important sections. The first is shown already expanded from the top and is labeled Customer. Scroll down the NetSuite fields and expand (click the + symbol) the section called Customer Address, then the Customer Address 1 section.
From the Customer Address 1 section, do the following:
Important: When adding the NetSuite fields, the map in the middle does not automatically advance to the next empty section. You must choose the empty section before adding the fields. However, some of these fields may map automatically if the field names are the same. |
Map the following fields:
External ID Individual Company Main Email Alt. Email Mr./Ms./… First Name Last Name Main Phone Ship to Street 1 Ship to Street 2 Ship to City Ship to State Ship to Zip Shipping Attention Shipping Addressee Ship To Country Terms | = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = | External ID Individual Company Alt. Email Mr./Ms./… First Name Last Name Phone Customer Address 1: Address 1 Customer Address 1: Address 2 Customer Address 1: City Customer Address 1: State Customer Address 1: Zip Customer Address 1: Attention Customer Address 1: Addressee Customer Address 1: Country (Req) Terms |
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If an error occurs, make a note of the detail provided, which indicates the fields, field types and type of data causing the error. Save the import to access later.
Once you’ve updated file to remove or change the data causing the errors, return to the saved import by going to:
Setup > Import/Export > Saved CSV Imports
Follow the process and continue to troubleshoot data until you are able to click through to the screen with the Save and Run button.
Items are required to process sales transactions of any kind. Even if your organization doesn’t offer items for sale, you will still need to create Items in NetSuite to record income.
Items can be imported or added manually. There are several different types of items. The two common item types used by small organizations are “non-inventory” and “service.” Non-inventory refers to something you sell but do keep track of. Services are typically billable time or another service type.
Important: if your organization only has a few items such as Donation, Pledge and Service to include on sales transactions, we recommend that you add them manually, rather than using the import process, as the import process may take longer. |
Items are required to process sales transactions of any kind. Even if your organization doesn’t offer items for sale, you will still need to create Items in NetSuite to record income. These are not “items” for inventory purposes. In NetSuite, line items on revenue transactions require items or services for sale (or resale) to provide financial information such as revenue account and tax information. Similarly, items or services for purchase (or resale) are used on purchase and expense transactions. The term item is also used to represent discounts, miscellaneous charges and other charges.
Define Revenue and Expense Item Strategy
The organization’s leadership team should define the item strategy. In NetSuite, items contain the default general ledger accounts and Department, Class and Location information for sales and purchase transactions.
Item Type | Sample Items |
Non-inventory Item for Sale | Donation Items, Direct Contributions, Government and Non-Government Grants, Event Tickets |
Non-inventory Item for Purchase | Non-Saleable Products for use in office (ex. Supplies, Postage, Materials etc.) |
Services for Sale | Government Services, Membership Dues, In kind Contributions, Program Services |
Inventory Items | Ball Caps, T-Shirts, Jackets, Backpacks |
Other Charge | Miscellaneous Charges that do not fall into other categories |
NetSuite recommends the following structure for items (but modify to match your needs and structure):
To add an item manually, go to:
Lists > Accounting > Item > New
Note: In most cases, you will use either a non-inventory item or a service. To learn about the differences, please search the NetSuite Help for “Creating Item Records.”
To create the Gifts category item:
Lists > Accounting > Items > New
To create the Donations sub-category item:
Lists > Accounting > Items > New
To create the Annual Campaign item, go to:
Lists > Accounting > Items > New
Items must be imported by type, and each type must be imported separately. The following example demonstrates how to import non-inventory items:
To import items, go to:
Setup > Import/Export > CSV Imports
On the following field, click the Import Status link to see the status and results.
In Session 1, we had the opportunity to set the default accounts for transactions. Since the Chart of Accounts had not been imported, we were unable to define them. Now that it is configured, set your Transaction Defaults by going to:
Setup > Accounting > Accounting Preferences
Once you’re on the Accounting Preferences page, click the Items/Transactions tab on the Accounting Preferences menu. Choose your default Expense, Income and other accounts as needed.
This section describes the NetSuite screen and print forms, the relationship between them, and modifying, renaming and activating them.
There are two primary form types in NetSuite; data entry or “screen” forms, and print forms. Each type of form is separate and customized separately.
NetSuite forms are further separated by the type of data that is entered. Forms used to enter customers, vendors, contacts and partners are called Entry forms. Forms used to enter bills, cash sales and sales orders are called Transaction forms. The following is a complete list of Entry and Transaction record types:
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When first provisioned, NetSuite provides a set of default or Standard forms for all basic Entity and Transaction types. These default forms cannot be changed, however, copies can be made and customized to suit individual needs.
Customer and Vendor form are referred to as Entry Forms in NetSuite. In most instances, you will create a customized Vendor or Customer form to add details that are specific to your organization and the types of data you collect.
The standard NetSuite Customer form is used when creating a new Customer record in a new NetSuite account. To see the form, go to:
Lists > Relationships > Customers > New
Important: You may notice an additional form called “Standard Lead Form” available in the CUSTOM FORM dropdown. When the Lead form is used, the new Customer is store as a “Lead” or “Prospect,” which is part of the Sales Force Automation (SFA) feature in NetSuite. The SFA feature and Lead record type are not used in this guide. |
In order to track and report income by Grant, Fund and Activity, you must customize the Bill and Sale forms. The following describes the specific steps required for each.
To customize the Bill Form, go to:
Customization > Forms > Transaction Forms
To customize the Standard Sales Order, Standard Sales Order - Cash Sale and Standard Professional Invoice forms, go to:
Customization > Forms > Transaction Forms
Each Entry or Transaction form has a corresponding print form. Print forms come in two versions: PDF and HTML. This tutorial describes how to use a basic PDF print form.
The two most common forms to print are Transaction forms and Checks. The following section describes the basic elements and processes involved in modifying the print version of a Cash Sale (a “receipt”) and a Check.
The print versions of all Entry, Transaction and other forms are identified on the Entry or Transaction form itself. In this example, we’ll use the Cash Sale form you created above. If you did not create a custom Cash Sale form, you can use the Standard Cash Sale form for reference. Go to:
Customization > Forms > Transaction Forms
Header: This is the area of the form that primarily controls the company name and logo. It also allows you to determine whether or not the fields are included on the printed form. The Label column is used to change the name of the field on the printed form.
Footer: Works the same way as the Header tab, but controls the fields in the Footer
Body: This section controls the fields displayed above the transaction columns (other than the fields in the Header) and controls whether the fields are shown and the width of the field.
Column: This refers to the columns that make up the transaction detail. Controls whether the columns are included, how they’re named and their width.
Important: Make a note of the Printing Field tabs. When customizing print forms, it’s common to return to these sub-tabs frequently to add or remove fields, change field names or change field widths. |
To modify the PDF print form, go to:
Customization > Forms > Transaction Form PDF Layouts
The screen capture below shows the form and field layout. Each of the elements can be moved and resized, but they cannot be removed. Fields are shown or hidden using the Printing Fields tab on the Screen version of the form as described above.
Fields on the PDF form can be resized by grabbing the resize box in the lower right corner and dragging. You can reposition the box itself by grabbing anywhere in the box area and dragging, or using absolute size or positioning under the Element Size or Element Position sections. You can modify the typeface, color and other attributes of Text fields by selecting the field and changing the values in the Element Label or Element Data Style sections.
To modify the standard NetSuite check form, go to:
Customization > Forms > Transaction Form PDF Layouts
Important: You can order checks compatible with NetSuite at http://www.netsuiteforms.com/. Checks are available with or without vouchers. |
For more information about customizing Entry, Transaction and other forms, please search NetSuite Help for “Creating Custom Entry and Transaction Forms.”
Homework: Prior to the next session:
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