What modules does NetSuite offer as standard?

The standard modules offered by NetSuite cover the vast majority of a business’s ERP/CRM requirements They are:

1. CRM

2. E-Commerce

3. Sales

4. Purchasing

5. Inventory

6. Manufacturing

7. Human Resources

8. Project management

The following modules are not included as standard in NetSuite’s product portfolio. Trigger’s Application development team is experienced in providing customised NetSuite solutions with these functions: 

1. Third party payment gateway integration

2. Chinese VAT invoice integration

3. Integration with local e-commerce and NetSuite

4. Quality Control

5. Shipping Plan

6. Chinese Payroll

7. Office Automation

Why do I need to localize NetSuite for my operations in Mainland China?

While NetSuite is in our view one of the most versatile all-in-one ERP/CRM solution available today, it is still necessary to customize certain functions to accommodate local business practices in Mainland China. These customizations range from configurations that may be performed using NetSuite’s user interface, to deeper customizations that require significant coding, also known as “scripting”.

Trigger specializes in helping companies to bring their NetSuite ERP/CRM solutions in line with their Mainland China operations by providing business consultation and coding services, and our SaaS consultants can help you to understand the precise level of customization needed for your NetSuite solution if you require assistance.

How can the NetSuite platform be localized effectively for China?

A detailed understanding of Mainland China HR management policies, payroll, social insurance and pension scheme calculations, tax policies, and financial reporting requirements is essential to ensuring effective localizations of NetSuite’s ERP/CRM platform in China.

Which aspects of NetSuite’s solution need to be customized to accommodate local business practices in China?

The following areas generally require customized technical solutions to satisfy local business requirements:

1. Sales Order/Purchase Order Price Information Scripting is required to display the pricing information for sales orders and purchase orders to accommodate local standards. Finance Report Templates The standard layout for financial reports such as Balance Sheets, Profit & Loss and Cash Flow requires customization.

2. Chinese VAT Invoice Integration Chinese VAT invoices are calculated using a widely used local software application developed by Aisino known as “Golden Tax”. Customization is required to integrate this application with NetSuite’s platform.

3. Shipping Plans The default process for shipping items on NetSuite requires customized scripting in NetSuite’s back end. Another common requirement for business in China is fulfilling multiple separate orders under one shipping plan. 

4. HR Functions HR tasks on NetSuite for Chinese offices, including Mainland China payroll and insurance calculations currently require heavy customization.

5. Quality Control NetSuite does not include dedicated QC functionality as standard, so customised solutions are necessary for clients who require this function.

6. Office Automation Customisation may be required to achieve full automation of all major office activities on the NetSuite platform.

7. Integration with local E-commerce platforms The level of automated integration possible with platforms such as T-mall and Jingdong depends on individual platforms. Basic integration is also possible when NetSuite is configured to accept CSV files exported from each e-commerce platform manually.

Does NetSuite support barcoding systems?

NetSuite supports barcoding actions for purchase orders, sales orders, item shipping and item receipts.

Does NetSuite support data imports and exports?

Yes. NetSuite allows users to import and export data from transactions, entities and other reports in CSV, Excel and PDF versions. Simultaneous imports are also possible on the system.

Can I use NetSuite on a mobile device?

Yes. NetSuite apps are available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, while NetSuite’s Open Air product is available as an app on Google Play.

Check out NetSuite on Apple’s App Store for more details.

And check out NetSuite Open Air for Android on Google Play.

How are documents managed and shared on NetSuite?

Contracts, product pictures, policy documents and other documents may be uploaded and viewed on NetSuite by different personnel according to their role. Because NetSuite allows companies to control access to documents on the system according to their role’s authorization level, sensitive documents can be handled securely and efficiently.

How does NetSuite backup data?

NetSuite’s data management features include multiple levels of redundancy. All data is replicated and synchronized across multiple data centers and stored in redundant locations so that it is immediately retrievable. Because NetSuite supports more than 16000 companies, NetSuite users are able to take advantage of large scale data management infrastructure that was previously only available to the largest of organizations.

More information on NetSuite’s data management measures can be found here.

 An overview of NetSuite’s data centre facilities can be found here 

How can I recover my data if I have to terminate our contract with NetSuite?

NetSuite has implemented comprehensive measures to ensure the security of its applications, operational security and data management.These are verified by regular audits of their service capabilities, including SSAE 16, ISAE 3402 and ISO 27001 certifications. A full overview of NetSuite’s security measures can be found here.

Does NetSuite support multiple languages?

Yes. NetSuite supports 15 languages: Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese and Thai. NetSuite also supports more than 170 global currencies for billing and other business activities.

How does NetSuite manage branches?

NetSuite allows users to manage branches in one of two ways:

1. As subsidiaries: using this method, each subsidiary is assigned a separate financial report template to the parent entity

2. As separate divisions/departments: using this method, each division shares the same title on each of their financial reports as the company’s HQ.

Does NetSuite include an online banking function?

At present, NetSuite only offers support for transactions done by US-based banks. NetSuite’s file management functions can be used to process bank-related documents.

Can users customize reports by themselves?

Yes. Using NetSuite, it is possible to customize the layout of any report by adding or removing columns and filters. This is one of the major advantages of NetSuite over several other cloud-based ERP solutions, and older, on-premises systems.

How can I ensure the security of our company’s data on NetSuite platform?

NetSuite has implemented comprehensive measures to ensure the security of its applications, operational security and data management.These are verified by regular audits of their service capabilities, including SSAE 16, ISAE 3402 and ISO 27001 certifications.

A full overview of NetSuite’s security measures can be found here.

Does NetSuite's system have sufficient data storage capacity?

NetSuite makes 11GB of storage available for each company that uses their services. Extra data requirements are subject to additional fees. In practice, this amount is more than sufficient for most companies. A company with 200 employees and 25 users will typically require just 300 MB of data storage space over 5 years.

Trigger advises NetSuite users not to rely heavily on NetSuite to store large files such as pictures and large documents. Certain cloud-based storage platforms that are highly secure can be conveniently integrated with NetSuite. Trigger’s consultants can assist companies with the planning of online storage solutions to complement their NetSuite system.

Can NetSuite record phone calls, meeting notes or events?

Yes. NetSuite can help users to manage their daily work activities more conveniently by making records of all important phone calls, meeting notes and events entirely within the system.

Does NetSuite include an outsourcing module?

NetSite does not have a dedicated module to manage outsourcing for manufacturing, but outsourced operations can be managed conveniently using NetSuite’s “Purchase Order” function.

How does NetSuite manage after sales support?

NetSuite can help users to enhance the experience of their own customers by providing them with a dedicated portal to submit and track customer support requests. This allows customers to check the progress of service cases from anywhere in the world simply by logging into NetSuite.

How can the permission of different user roles be controlled?

When a new user is granted access to NetSuite, they are assigned one of several pre-determined “roles”according to their position and responsibilities.

Each role will be assigned with different permission to each one of the transactions and records in the system. The different permission levels include no permission, viewing only, editing and full permission to edit and/or delete a record or a transaction.

As a general rule, employees with higher authority will be granted roles with higher visibility of all the company’s operations. Roles are granted and removed by your company’s dedicated system administrator and can be customised to suit individual role requirements.

Can I send email through NetSuite? (quote, sales order, purchase order, invoice)

Yes. NetSuite can be used to email quotations, sales orders, purchasing orders, invoices and other documents directly to customers or suppliers without needing to exit the system and use another email application.

Can users in China view their application interface in Chinese or only in English?

NetSuite supports multiple languages that can be set according to personal preference, so while one user will be able to see his interface in English, a different user will be able to see the same interface in Chinese.

We have different subsidiaries that use different currencies, can NetSuite support reports in different currencies?

Yes, NetSuite supports multiple currencies. In NetSuite you will be able to see reports for each subsidiary in the base currency used for that entity. You can also view consolidated reports in the Base Currency of the Parent Company. NetSuite also supports daily automatic update of the currency exchange rates.

Can Outlook emails, contacts and calendar be integrated with NetSuite?

Yes, NetSuite supports an Outlook Integration Application that will link emails received through outlook with specific transactions or entities in NetSuite. The Outlook Integration also supports synchronization of contacts and calendar events.

Does NetSuite have APIs for other systems to communicate with.

Yes. NetSuite has abundant internal APIs for process customization. NetSuite also offers an an easy way to publish Restful APIs.

If you are a developer, and not familiar with NetSuite APIs, you can also look into SuiteTalk, a SOAP web service, which offers a variety APIs for Java, .Net and other languages.

Does NetSuite include a logistics module.

NetSuite offers integration with UPS and FedEx but doesn't  include integration with local logistics service companies in China as standard.

Does NetSuite support Chinese point of sale (POS) machines?

There are no existing integration with Chinese POS machines in NetSuite's standard functions, but local developers like Trigger Networks can help NetSuite users in China to integrate with local POS systems using NetSuite's flexible developer APIs

How can NetSuite accommodate both US GAAP Chart of Accounts and PRC GAAP Chart Of Accounts?

NetSuite‘s standard functions support one global Chart of Accounts, but in Trigger we have developed a Financial Localization module that will support the PRC GAAP Chart of Account and will map the relationship between both the CoA structures. The outcome of our Financial Localization Module is a set of reports that are acceptable to the Chinese authorities.

How do China's accounting rules affect NetSuite localization projects?

Basic report layouts in NetSuite for Balance Sheets, Profit & Loss and Cash Flow reports do not comply with accepted financial reporting practices in China so standard reporting template layouts must be customized to meet local standards.

The way purchase prices are displayed also requires customization, Chinese accounting practices require prices to include tax, whereas NetSuite displays the tax and net amount for a purchase price separately by default.

How do tax reporting conventions in China affect NetSuite localization projects?

In NetSuite, purchase taxes on an item are listed in reports as assets, whereas in China, taxes are generally treated as liabilities. As part of Trigger Financial Localization module implementation, we will map the purchase tax to the local tax payable account (liability account) so it will be done automatically.

Can NetSuite be integrated with Tmall?

Yes. Trigger Networks has developed an integration with Tmall that will allow a timely synchronization of order and customer information between Tmall and NetSuite.

Can NetSuite support payments using Alipay?

Yes. Trigger Networks has developed an integration with Alipay that will synchronize payment information between Alipay and NetSuite.

How do China's HR policies affect NetSuite localization projects?

NetSuite does not offer HR modules that cater to local HR practices in China. Trigger Networks has developed a Payroll solution that allows companies to manage this aspect of HR on NetSuite's platform without calculating payments on spreadsheets or 3rd party applications