NetSuite’s global search bar is the easiest way to quickly find information in NetSuite. It's probably one of the first things you'll use when you first log in to your NetSuite account, but it can be overwhelming! This tutorial shows you how to use NetSuite's global search bar, plus a few tips and tricks to help you master it.
What is NetSuite's Global Search?
The global search bar is located at the top of the screen and is displayed on every page within NetSuite. Global search allows the user to search all information their role has access to.
How To Use NetSuite's Global Search
To use global search, all you need to do is type in the search field. The global search bar will return all records that meet your search criteria. For example, you could type in a product name, vendor name, or customer name and see all records related to that search term.
Once you’ve located a record, click the name in the drop-down menu. If your role has access to the record, you can edit it by clicking the edit button that appears when you hover over the item.
NetSuite Search Prefixes
Search prefixes are one of our favorite NetSuite tips and tricks! You can use them to narrow down search results to a specific type of record.
Simply add a shorthand search prefix or the first letters of the record type, followed by a colon and your search term. Prefixes are beneficial not only for helping you access information quickly but removing irrelevant records. This means you'll spend less time searching and more time on the important things!
For example, to search for a specific item, type "it:" followed by the item name. If you're searching for a customer record, you can type "cu:" or "cus:" to receive only customer records.
Here’s a list of prefixes available to use in the global search area:
- co: contact
- cu: customer
- in: invoice number
- invo: invoice
- it: item
- op: opportunity
- pu: purchase order
- qu: quote
- sa: sales order/cash sale
- ve: vendor
- wa: warehouse transfer
These prefixes will only work if your role has access to these types of records.
NetSuite Search Wildcards
Similar to using advanced search operators when performing a Google search, you can use wildcards in a NetSuite global search. They can be used to precede or follow a search term if you don't know what the complete search should be:
- OR: separate keywords with OR to search for multiple terms at one time.
- Percentage Sign (%) can be used to indicate a search term starts or ends with a specific term. For example, if an invoice number started with 30, but you didn't know if it was 302 or 303, you could search %in:30. If you know it ends with 30, but aren't sure if it's 130 or 230, you could search in::30%
- Quotation Marks (" "') are used for exact match search terms. If you wanted to search for a blue jacket and ONLY get search results for blue jackets, not related searches, search "blue jacket".
- An Underscore (_) is used to find customer records containing certain letters. If you wanted to search for customer names containing n and m, you would search cust:n_m.
- Plus Sign (+) searches pull both active and inactive records into search results.