Learn how NetSuite's real-time reporting helps your company improve margins
NetSuite is a powerful ERP software, but you probably already know that by now. Today, we're focusing on one of the software's best features: real-time reporting.
NetSuite's real-time reporting capabilities shouldn't be overlooked. It's proven that companies that run their businesses using analytics and data will have, on average, a 20% higher profit margin than those that don't.
Imagine how much your business could grow by adding real-time reporting capabilities to increase profit margins!
Josh Lasov, a NetSuite expert who has helped over 100 companies implement NetSuite, is here to tell you exactly how NetSuite's real-time reporting can help you improve your company's margins.
Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500 company, NetSuite's reporting can help you improve your bottom line by fostering fast, proactive decision-making. Here are NetSuite's reporting best practices directly from a NetSuite expert!
How NetSuite Reporting Sets You Up for Success
Reporting is key to any business. It's vital to know where you stand with important metrics such as revenue, inventory, lead management, and financial data. Here's how NetSuite's reporting capabilities help you set your business up for success.
Custom Dashboards
NetSuite includes custom dashboards, so you're able to create NetSuite dashboards catered to your specific needs. It may seem a bit overwhelming to set everything up on your own, which is why we've helped many clients set up their NetSuite dashboards.
"When we help customers with dashboards, we subscribe to something called the three Ms: measure, monitor, and manage," Josh says.
- Measure: Dashboards are all about giving the appropriate person the ability to measure whatever their job is tied to. An in-house accountant needs to be able to measure financial data, invoices, and billable hours, whereas a sales manager needs to monitor lead data and sales quotas made for the day. NetSuite allows users to customize the measurable data they see, so everything is as relevant as possible for each role.
- Monitor: It's important to know exactly how you want to monitor data. For example, do you want a total for all invoices due? Would you prefer to see a KPI progress meter? Or a traditional table? NetSuite provides many different options for monitoring data so you can choose which works best for you.
- Manage: NetSuite's robust capabilities for measuring and monitoring data allows you to properly manage the data and decisions you're responsible for. Because you'll have access to so much relevant data, you'll be able to make unbiased, informed decisions.
Advanced Reporting Functionalities
NetSuite provides pre-built reports for any module you've turned on in the software.
"While all of these reports are customizable, you'll have value on day one with the default reports provided," Josh says.
For example, in the screenshot below, we can automatically see reports for financials, sales, forecasting, demand planning, and a lot more. You can expand each section to view the template reports from NetSuite or build your own custom report based on that data.
Even though these are all NetSuite's out-of-the-box reports, there's still a ton of data to unpack here.
We recommend going in and seeing what's most useful for your role. If you find that any report is missing something, or contains too much data that doesn't pertain to your job, you can set up a new report by clicking on the "new report" button next to the reports link search bar.
Saved Searches
NetSuite has a saved search feature that allows you to query data within NetSuite. Basically, this allows you to save a search for specific data points.
Saved searches are best used when you have a question about something. For example, let's say you want to know what your sales from customers in California are. You can run a transaction search by typing "Sales from Customers in California" in the search title bar.
From here, you can use the results column to filter the data and apply conditional formatting as needed.
Workbook Data Visualizations Tool
A newer reporting feature is NetSuite's workbook. The workbook allows you to choose a visualization tool such as tables, pivot tables, and charts to display data. Who doesn't love a great pivot table?
You can pull individual data points in to easily visualize data. The workbook is an incredible tool to help you make informed decisions and communicate relevant data to leadership teams.
How Does NetSuite Drive Faster Decision Making?
Different from traditional ERP systems, NetSuite built everything on one platform. This keeps all of the modules, functionality, and data in one platform. One of the best parts about NetSuite is that all of the data is in real-time — you don't have to wait for integrations to load or data to sync overnight.
Josh says to think of NetSuite as a mansion: if NetSuite's a 50-room mansion and you want to purchase NetSuite, you're essentially renting one room in that mansion — you don't have to pay for the entire home. You can choose to rent one room, two rooms, three rooms, or however many you need. You're only paying for the rooms you need at that time. Each room represents one of NetSuite's modules — it's all pre-built and ready to go, but it's just a matter of how much you want to pay for it and what functionalities your business needs.
If you only need one or two rooms to start, then great! You can get started with that. Then, if your business is expanding and you need more functionalities, it's easy to add them on to the existing software and keep all of that historical data under one roof.
The Relevance of Real-Time Reporting in 2021
Josh says he's been seeing pretty disparate results with customers in 2021.
"We see some customers who are heavily monitoring items like accounts receivable, checking it multiple times throughout the day, making sure they're getting paid. Other customers have seen large growth spurts and they need to be able to monitor items in real-time like inventory to make sure there aren't any back orders and sales reps know what they can promise," Josh says.
Real-time reporting is more important than ever before. It allows business owners to adapt strategies as needed, making sure they keep up with demand and inventory constraints.
"Without the real-time numbers, people can't make decisions or pivot in the middle of their day. They lose time, which costs money if they don't have that data at their fingertips," Josh says.
Tips for Making the Most of NetSuite's Real-Time Reporting
The most important thing with reporting is understanding where you are today and where you want to go with your data.
Here are a few important questions to ask before getting started with customizing NetSuite's reporting:
- What are the key reports people need?
- What are the key metrics people are looking at?
- How frequently are users looking at data?
- What are the data sources?
- What should we be looking at?
- What are the things we aren't looking at?
Gain Valuable Insights with NetSuite's Real-Time Reporting Today!
Using analytics to measure results creates accountability, which drives higher profit margins.
NetSuite's response to a lack of impactful data was to provide dashboards, pre-built reports, and customizable searches and data visualizations. If you want to drive profitability with valuable data insights, contact us for a free consultation! We tell you exactly how NetSuite can help your business.