[Ellie]

I have started to look at the Help Guides and the new Support Center downloads and as a result the new Financial Report Builder looks about as clear as mud. I’m hoping my opinion will change when I finish reading/watching.

I truly wish we had the option of the point and click prior to this new release and wish we did not have to recreate the wheel.

Prior to my reading and starting the process, has anyone learned a lesson the hard way or have any tips to offer on pitfalls to be aware of when customizing financials?

Is anyone else as disappointed in this as I am – or do you think everyone is waiting to try and “cry”?

Thanks!
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[DMG]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

The capabilities of the new financial report builder are quite nice, but yes, how to actually use the thing is far from intuitive. Try and cry is pretty much it, but I have managed to eventually get my reports to look almost exactly like I want them to. A couple of things I’ve learned are:

–When editing criteria for a section of a report layout, specifying Account Number “Starts With” lets you easily include all sub-accounts, and perhaps even select a range of accounts given how your GL is set up (e.g. if all your A/R account # begin with 2, and nothing else does, you could select them all this way)

–Once you can craft an income statement layout that looks the way you want it to, it’s easy to create your other reports that use income statements by, for example, customizing “Comparitive Income Statement” and then choosing the layout (it will be called something like “Custom Layout 10”) and saving. In under a minute, you’ve now got this report looking exactly like you want it to look. After all the pain you went through to get your first income statement report customized the way you want it to, this will bring joy to your heart. Obviously, the same thing applies to the balance sheet–customize the balance sheet layout, and the rest of your balance sheet reports are a piece of cake.

–Ignore the Budget vs. Actual Income Statement for now, as it’s kind of boogered up at the moment. Netsuite is working on fixing it.

[mhuffman]

I’d be very interested in hearing more specifically what you find confusing or non-intuitive in the new FRB.

Both in the UI and ‘under the hood’, it’s very different from the old financial reporting features, and quite deliberately so.

Most of the customization work you’ll do in the Edit Layout step. The left hand preview pane shows an outline of the layout of your report, allows you to choose a row/section to view or edit the properties of, move rows around or delete them, or add new ones. As DMG pointed out, ‘dynamic’ section criteria is one of the more powerful new features that will cut down on maintenance as you modify your chart of accounts.

One thing we learned during the development process of the FRB is that financials – well, short of typing all the numbers into a spreadsheet – formatting them just isn’t a particularly simple concept.

One of our executives in finance commented that he’d never seen a financial report writer without a learning curve, but after a short time of experimentation he was able to create his first SEC-format NetSuite income statement. I hope you have similar success, and if not, tell us what you find confusing so we can look into addressing it in a future release.

[eileen.ohaire]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

This feature was rolled out without any user training. I had to calm every employee in the Accounting department down since NetSuite was telling them that their reports were going away. Since we have over 100 custom reports,it would be really nice for a live webinar/training.

Calling in to support doesn’t help either. I actually had one rep question if there was a new report builder out……..

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by mhuffman

I’d be very interested in hearing more specifically what you find confusing or non-intuitive in the new FRB.

Both in the UI and ‘under the hood’, it’s very different from the old financial reporting features, and quite deliberately so.

Most of the customization work you’ll do in the Edit Layout step. The left hand preview pane shows an outline of the layout of your report, allows you to choose a row/section to view or edit the properties of, move rows around or delete them, or add new ones. As DMG pointed out, ‘dynamic’ section criteria is one of the more powerful new features that will cut down on maintenance as you modify your chart of accounts.

One thing we learned during the development process of the FRB is that financials – well, short of typing all the numbers into a spreadsheet – formatting them just isn’t a particularly simple concept.

One of our executives in finance commented that he’d never seen a financial report writer without a learning curve, but after a short time of experimentation he was able to create his first SEC-format NetSuite income statement. I hope you have similar success, and if not, tell us what you find confusing so we can look into addressing it in a future release.

I’ve run across two confusing/frustrating things so far:

1. I can’t figure out how to ungroup Financial Row 1 and Financial Row 2. When I dump a report to Excel and filter/sort it, I need the account number on the same line as the transactions. Right now I’m having to dump to Excel then copy/paste the account numbers next to the transactions.

2. I can’t change the account filters. Every time I try it, NetSuite says “Loading…” and never comes back. Is this a bug or am I too impatient? I’ve tried Chrome, Firefox, and IE, but they all do this.

3. When I zoom on an Income Statement report, then customize the resultant detail report, there are two filter rows for the account like:

srawfullname Other Income and Expenses : Other Income

srawvalidname 8100 – Interest Income

Doesn’t the second line (my GL acct#) specify enough? What does the first line do?

Thanks,

– Miguel

[ivan.parra]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Answers:

#1) The first two columns refer to the layout and can not be removed,ungrouped, or moved.

#2) Sounds like a bug, please file.

#3) FRB does allow account activity to be split into multiple sections. To guarentee that the detail report is only showing the values for a single section, the section must be added as a filter in the detail.

Hope that helps.

-Ivan

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by ivan.parra

Answers:

#1) The first two columns refer to the layout and can not be removed,ungrouped, or moved.

#2) Sounds like a bug, please file.

#3) FRB does allow account activity to be split into multiple sections. To guarentee that the detail report is only showing the values for a single section, the section must be added as a filter in the detail.

Hope that helps.

-Ivan

1. This seems dumb to me. I guess I have to add the account# as a separate column even though it is there already.

2. I’ve filed a case, but I don’t have an issue# yet. I figured out that my problem is just with the “srawvalidname.” The regular account# (line) works fine.

3. Thanks for clarifying. I need to read up more on the new FRB.

– Miguel

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by Suite_E

1. This seems dumb to me. I guess I have to add the account# as a separate column even though it is there already.

2. I’ve filed a case, but I don’t have an issue# yet. I figured out that my problem is just with the “srawvalidname.” The regular account# (line) works fine.

3. Thanks for clarifying. I need to read up more on the new FRB.

– Miguel

2. More info… There are two defects here, but the support rep is trying to just provide workarounds and is dodging the defects, as usual. My case numbers are 870214 and 870215. The defects are:If I drill down on an Income Statement, then customize the resultant detail report, I can’t edit the account filter “srawvalidname.” I’ve tried Chrome, Firefox, and IE, all to no avail.
If I try to create a new Income Statement Detail from scratch by going to Reports > Financial > Income Statement > Customize Detail, then the report settings are not default new report settings. Rather, the settings are carried over from the previous report I customized.

– Miguel

[ivan.parra]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Both issues were previously filed and the rep is only relaying the workaround.

We are working on both defects.

Thanks

-Ivan

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

The rep didn’t inform me that there were defects and she didn’t attach me to the defects. I’m glad to hear that they’re being worked on anyway and not being dodged.

One of the defects raise a question for me, and I’m hoping you have the answer. Currently NetSuite will only keep track of one search at a time, and running a new search in one tab of your browser will blow away all your searches in your other tabs. Given the behavior of the ‘sticky’ report settings, does this mean that running a report in one tab will similarly blow away all your reports in other tabs?

Thanks,

– Miguel

[JMUnderwood]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by Suite_E

Currently NetSuite will only keep track of one search at a time, and running a new search in one tab of your browser will blow away all your searches in your other tabs.

Miguel

Miguel,

This is NOT the behavior I have observed.

The only limitation on number of searches that I know of is in executing the search. NetSuite will only allow one search at a time to be executed.

After the results have been displayed, they do NOT change when another search is executed on another tab, or even on the same tab for that matter.

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

OK, the search results on the results range displayed don’t get blown away, everything else does. Specifically, the search definitions will get blown away, the ability to export multipage results is blown away, and the ability to change pages in multipage results is blown away.

This stinks big time because I multitask and am always having to reenter ad hoc searches because I had to drill down on some information I obtained during the first search or because someone walked up to my desk with a question, phone call, etc. This architectural limitation is not multi-tab browser friendly and needs to catch up with the present.

FYI, the limitation is not just executing one search at a time, the limitation is also storing only one search definition at a time.

– Miguel

[JMUnderwood]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by Suite_E

OK, the search results on the results range displayed don’t get blown away, everything else does. Specifically, the search definitions will get blown away, the ability to export multipage results is blown away, and the ability to change pages in multipage results is blown away.

Sorry, I still don’t see “everything else” “blown away”.

I also multi-task a lot and I don’t see this behavior.

Maybe we are using different “searches”. I don’t use the Quick Searches or Custom Searches very much. Actually, the Global Search works so well these days I just don’t see the need.

But I have used both Quick and Custom Search portlets. And I have NEVER seen anything “blown away”.

I don’t know, and probably NetSuite doesn’t know, what you mean by “blown away”. If you want to provide some specific technical details about your problem, then maybe someone can help.

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

If your search results are less than two pages and you’re not refining your search criteria, then you’ll never see the behavior I experience many times a day. I use global search all the time, but I also use custom searches extensively as I have multiple criteria or need additional columns in my results.

Here’s what I mean by “the search definitions will get blown away, the ability to export multipage results is blown away, and the ability to change pages in multipage results is blown away,” NetSuite gives you a timeout message or something equally irritating and when you get back to the report definition page all your settings are gone.

No one at NetSuite can help unless they undergo a radical change in search architecture.

– Miguel

[Suite_E]

RE: Any Pitfalls to Look Out For in New Report Builder?

Originally posted by ivan.parra

Both issues were previously filed and the rep is only relaying the workaround.

We are working on both defects.

Thanks

-Ivan

The rep is now telling me that this is by design and I could file enhancements. Can you please tell me what the defect numbers are?

Thanks,

– Miguel

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