Official NetSuite Blog - Cloud NetSuite

Six Reasons Finance and Accounting in the Cloud Presents the Next Great BPO Opportunity

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is undergoing a new wave and in the past we’ve discussed how enterprises can engage with global systems integrators in this new model. Yet, I believe Finance and Accounting (F&A) is ready to come of age and the public cloud is the mechanism enterprises and GSIs alike will choose for it. Here’s why:

1. Security: Once enterprise organizations understood the economic benefits of moving F&A processes to the public cloud, they still remained concerned that cloud solutions might not deliver the unparalleled controls and risk mitigation of the highest tier of multinational operations come to expect. Yet, leading cloud financial platforms such as NetSuite are now compliant with the crucial reporting and auditing standards for global business, including EU Safe Harbor, SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402.

2. Opportunity: Enterprises now recognize that F&A outsourcing is the next logical step in the ongoing drive to focus on core business and strategic differentiation. In short, enterprise wants to sell more, not budget for accounting software upgrades.

3. Affordability and available talent: Financial departments are typically resource-constrained, meaning they cannot always get the best people for the job—just the people who fit into the budget. Outsourcing F&A processes to the cloud enables enterprise to focus on creating and selling while opening up new talent pools.

4. Process Modernization: Transforming F&A processes in the cloud, with a trusted GSI advisor, provides the enterprise with the perfect opportunity to purge legacy processes. Most organizations know that far too much of their financial health and insight resides in spreadsheets designed to meet the demands of a long-departed CFO. Instead of enduring the fact that key processes such as order-to-cash are bound to inefficient and outdated systems and spreadsheets, the move to cloud F&A leads to modern and repeatable transactions.

5. CFO Buying Power:
The office of the CIO no longer wields iron-fisted control of technology decisions that materially impact the business. Functional leaders, including the CFO, now enjoy more flexibility to make their own decisions about the technology and strategy which support their strategic and operational goals. CIOs remain involved in the adoption and governance process, of course, but the ultimate buyer of F&A processes and technology is now a finance executive, not a technology executive.

6. Consensus: The entire financial organization understands potential and opportunities created by the cloud. CFOs have long seen the advantages of the key dashboard and trending figures they need when speaking to analysts, while controllers understand the functional advantages and day-to-day enhancements that modern, cloud-based F&A can provide. These are not competing goals, and with more of the trusted voices behind the CFO advocating the same direction, cloud F&A becomes inevitable.

-Charles Simmons, Sr. Strategic Alliance Director - BPO/BPaaS at NetSuite

Five Keys to Understanding the Next Wave in Business Process Outsourcing

The next wave in business process outsourcing (BPO) is coming, driven by the numerous advantages of the public cloud, and global enterprise needs to be prepared for it. Finance and accounting processes will be the next target of global systems integrators (GSIs), but this market will develop very differently than previous BPO arrangements. The lessons enterprises learned over the last couple of decades of BPO engagements will significantly shift the power dynamic between GSIs and clients, because the public cloud levels the playing field and eliminates the "throw it over the wall" and management-by-SLA approach which characterized BPO for so many years.

Here's what you should know about the coming opportunities in finance and accounting BPO:

1. The days of BPO as strictly a labor arbitrage game are over. Enterprises got the cost reductions they were promised, but lost too much control of the business processes and never received any additional business value. Costs were contained, but the relationship between enterprise and GSI soured, so there were no long-term benefits apart from the costs.

2. Enterprises will no longer face the worst of both worlds when it comes to infrastructure. Old-school BPO arrangements turned the processes over to the GSI, but the enterprise remained on the hook, directly or indirectly, to maintain the infrastructure and manage upgrades and other software tasks. Even when GSIs started rolling infrastructure-as-a-service into their agreements, the enterprise still lost out, because the outsourced process now became even more opaque.

3. The next wave of BPO activity will be built around partnerships and transparency. The old contracts were built around client/vendor engagements, not partnerships. As a result, the only real tool most enterprises had to control in the GSI was system-wide service level agreements. SLAs are blunt instruments, and don't provide enterprises with the level of visibility and control they need to ensure that their brand is being protected.

4. The public cloud will give enterprise the visibility they have wanted for so long. Because everyone has access to the same data and workflow, the enterprise is no longer in the dark as to how the GSI is achieving its contracted goals. Moreover, business leaders can collaborate on even terms with the GSI to revise and improve business value after the efficiencies are gained.

5. The standard contract length in the public cloud is significantly shorter than in the traditional BPO world. GSIs will be forced to provide more elasticity to the enterprise and make it possible to shrink or grow the relationship based on the changing business climate, rather than forcing a five- or 10-year lock-in at the start of the agreement.

The next wave in BPO is participatory, transparent, and flexible. And it will happen in the public cloud.

-Charles Simmons, Sr. Strategic Alliance Director - BPO/BPaaS at NetSuite

Seven Reasons Two-Tier ERP Fits Growing Enterprises

Whether your business is growing organically or through acquisition, each time a new business unit joins a typical enterprise it creates new headaches for the financial team. Either work will grind to a halt as a lengthy and costly extension of the enterprise ERP system is created for the new unit, or the finance team will need to develop a new, ad hoc system to pass financial data back and forth with the new entity should it choose to run its own accounting software. Both approaches are costly and wasteful choices for a growing enterprise.

Two-tier ERP takes the cost and fuss out of healthy growth by providing divisions and international operations with a nimble, extensible ERP solution in the cloud. Pre-built connectors between the cloud ERP tier and the corporate finance system ensure transparency and visibility, and protect the investment already made in the head office's on-premise ERP. There are seven good reasons why two-tier ERP is the best fit for today's growing enterprise:

1. The whole purpose of adding a new division, acquisition or regional office is to conduct more business. Two-tier ERP makes new business units operational and ready to perform much more quickly than the build out of a conventional, on-premise ERP system.

2. Standardizing divisions, subsidiaries and regional operations on a single solution with global consolidation and rollup capabilities provides the security of a strategic technology partner. More importantly for your business goals, there will be no need to worry about how business data will be reconciled and integrated with the corporate financial systems—the rollup processes will be consistent and easily repeatable every time a new unit is added to the enterprise roster.

3. A standard two-tier ERP solution reduces the complexity of training and supporting users worldwide. Instead of dealing with the peculiarities of a dozen different accounting programs worldwide, the organization can focus on mastering and supporting one powerful financial application in all markets and divisions.

4. Solutions designed for two-tier ERP architectures automate many of the monthly, quarterly and annual reconciliation steps usually associated with a diverse enterprise. This improves financial visibility for both executives and investors, and improves forecast quality.

5. Platforms designed for two-tier ERP make localization easy, with support for dozens of languages, automatic reconciliation of time zones around the world and virtually every global currency. The best come with integrated taxation and regulatory support for a wide variety of countries and territories, further easing your global expansion ambitions. 

6. The "hub-and-spoke" design of two-tier ERP allows enterprises to gain immediate benefits from modern cloud solutions in their subsidiaries, acquisitions and regional operations without causing wrenching disruptions in the corporate finance office.

7. Two-tier ERP solutions from cloud providers are operational expenditures, not capital expenditures. This makes it easier to locate funding and gain consensus for the project.

We have prepared a free Two-Tier Strategy Kit, with insights from Forrester Research and Constellation Research, to help controllers and executives understand the comprehensive benefits of the multi-subsidiary, multicurrency NetSuite OneWorld solution. It truly is the "best of both worlds"—and certainly beats the alternative.

-Kishore Bhamidipati, Director, Product Marketing at NetSuite

 

Time to Get Your Multi-Channel Strategy Right

With the rise of online shopping, pressure on traditional retailers to compete with cheaper prices and greater variety available online provides both risk and opportunity. This continues to be heightened by the strong Australian dollar, which increases consumers’ purchasing power on overseas sites.

An estimated $6 billion of sales from Australia in 2011 were purchases on overseas websites, which equates to around 40 percent of overall online sales, according to Frost & Sullivan. It is becoming increasingly obvious that if many traditional retailers don’t start consolidating their physical store presence and migrating some sales to the online channel, they are both ignoring a very large opportunity and adding additional pressure to stores.

Surprisingly, Frost & Sullivan’s research also found that only around 50 percent of Australian retailers in 2011 offered online sales capabilities, with the proportion of sales via the Internet still fairly low. Many other retailers use their websites only for marketing and customer support. This just goes to show that many retailers are still missing out on market opportunities from the booming online retail sector in Australia.

The slow adoption of online retailing by large department stores and retail chains in Australia is a key reason for the lag in local ecommerce activity overall. This is showing signs of changing, however, as many are being forced to walk a new path. Leading Australian retailer David Jones, for example, is one of the most high profile recent cases, launching a new and improved web storefront last fall after a succession of poor earnings reports.

Despite a shift in focus, however, it became clear during the failed “Click Frenzy” online sales event in Australia late last year just how unprepared retailers are to cope with online channels, despite the hunger for it from Australian consumers. The heavily marketed Click Frenzy sale involving over 200 Australian retailers failed to perform at launch time because the site couldn’t handle two million hopeful shoppers looking for a bargain. Also unprepared were a number of major participating retailers, including David Jones and Myer, whose websites crashed under the high traffic volumes as well.

The lesson learned is that the sheer number of consumers wanting to find a bargain online should be a wake-up call to Australian retailers to take notice and get the right multi-channel strategy in place now—otherwise they will continue to lose out to overseas online sites. The major challenge for retailers is the increasing range of digital channels that customers use to access the Internet. This fragmentation creates a number of hurdles, particularly when it comes to implementing a common customer experience across all channels.

Ecommerce is not a standalone system—customers want stock availability, discount tiers, payment options and specifications, and retailers need to offer these in real time from the back end, along with invoicing, margins, analytics, etc.

Retailers need a single system with a built-in webstore that adapts to any consumer- facing device in real time, links online systems to central business systems, from ERP and CRM to POS, and addresses Internet latency and reliability issues across all channels. For many retailers though, the complexity and cost of running a single transactional system optimised across all digital channels and integrated into internal business systems is overwhelming.

This is where cloud computing really opens doors, by unifying separate retail channels to provide a single view of the customer, sales and revenue. Cloud computing changes the game by offering the opportunity for a lower cost and much lower risk rollout of the ecommerce software needed to support multi-channel retailing, which is particularly attractive for smaller businesses with limited resources. 

The cloud can give you real-time visibility into your entire retail operation, accessibility from anywhere at any time, as well as a single view of a customer across all channels. You can also ensure that your order, inventory and financial information are always up to date. Its infinitely scalable nature can give you the confidence that your site will stay open no matter how many customers cross its digital threshold.

For further information about NetSuite for Retail visit - http://www.netsuite.com.au/portal/au/industries/retail/main.shtml

-Mark Troselj, Managing Director of Asia Pacific for NetSuite

Five Ways On-Premise ERP Fails Growing Enterprises

The cloud is the best way forward for businesses of all sizes, but growing enterprises are particularly handcuffed by the on-premise model of the past. By locking in to a single vendor's costly, infrastructure-heavy products, enterprises actually harm their own interests. Extending the typical "big iron" corporate ERP system to a new subsidiary or operating region is a costly and cumbersome process that can slow a business to a crawl, just when it’s looking for speed. Here are the five top reasons on-premise ERP is failing to serve the interests of growing enterprises.

1. The overhead and complexity of many "big iron" ERP systems are greater than many small and growing business units can take on or need to. Instead of providing tools to help these new operations grow, the on-premise system can actually stifle creativity, flexibility and speed.

2. Expanding an on-premise system to new territories and subsidiaries almost always means investment in servers and networking hardware, which can represent additional capital expense and increase the burden on IT.

3. Expanding on-premise ERP requires careful coordination with enterprise IT. In fact, expansion can be as costly and disruptive as a new implementation. But IT organizations are already so resource-constrained that in some large companies the wait for serious projects is as long as three years—not counting time needed to customize the solution. These holdups inhibit growth and innovation, and force business leaders to either defer their ambitions or expand the IT roster at significant costs.

4. Organizations that try to pass along the true costs of extending their on-premise ERP to newer divisions and regions sometimes actually steer those units towards underpowered, boutique software packages. Rather than take the hit on their own bottom line, these smaller entities will instead buy off-the-shelf software that supports their short-term goals. (IT delays, as mentioned above, can also drive a business unit to select an easy-to-install, underpowered boutique product.) But these programs are rarely able to interface with corporate ERP. That leaves the organization with no real-time visibility between headquarters and the division, and when the new unit outgrows the smaller system, a costly and time-consuming upgrade will be necessary.

5. Once an on-premise system is installed organizations will ultimately be confronted with an upgrade. Already expensive, time consuming and disruptive to the business, upgrading on-premise systems only gets more complicated if it’s spread across businesses and locations. Businesses can wind up with upgrades in some locations, older versions in others.

Global companies have experienced business pains using multiple, disparate on-premise systems that lack integration and provide little visibility into their business. Plagued by manual processes, bottlenecks, version control, an inability to consolidate global financials, and slow financial reporting, companies are limited in their business efficiency and growth potential. In addition, the high up-front costs and long implementation times for on-premise systems hinder growth even further. Version lock, costly upgrades and maintenance are the burdens companies have to deal with.

Fortunately, enterprise companies don't need to compromise on capabilities when consolidating an acquired business or expanding to a new continent. Two-tier ERP strategy preserves the investment in corporate ERP capabilities while providing a powerful, faster and less expensive alternative for growth units. Want to see how two-tier ERP can serve your interests and support your vision?

Visit http://www.netsuite.com/portal/landing/two-tier.shtml

-Kishore Bhamidipati, Director, Product Marketing at NetSuite

10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of SuiteWorld 2013

With a new location, a new slate of sessions and a wealth of new NetSuite partners and customers, SuiteWorld 2013 promises to be the best one yet.

The NetSuite conference is moving from San Francisco to the San Jose Convention Center this year to accommodate the roughly 5,000 attendees expected to be at the show May 13-16. And a show with that kind of turnout with more than 180 breakout sessions requires a little preparation. Here are 10 ways SuiteWorld attendees can ensure they get the most out of the conference.

1. Research.  SuiteWorld offers a wealth of information for getting the most out of your NetSuite deployment with sessions that cover every facet of the suite. Factor in some free time, but be sure to spend the time up front figuring out your business needs and the schedule that makes the most sense for you. Then you’ll be better positioned to come home with actionable information.
2. Go Early. SuiteWorld’s preconference in-depth training workshops offer a deep dive into all areas of the solution for intermediate to advanced NetSuite users, spanning reporting, OneWorld, workflows and more.
3. Take Note of the Keynotes. NetSuite leadership (CEO Zach Nelson, CTO and founder Evan Goldberg, and COO Jim McGeever) will open each day with a keynote session providing entertaining, informative insight into NetSuite’s progress, product roadmap and vision for the future of the cloud.
4. Learn at Lunch. SuiteWorld has three ways to make your lunch more than just a break from the show to scarf down some food.  Tuesday offers a chance to sit down with show sponsors to get answers to your questions about the cloud, integration or simply network. Wednesday offers the chance to meet with the user group community and share best practices across multiple roles. Wednesday also presents the chance to have lunch with SuiteWorld bloggers and NetSuite product experts. Just sit down at the table with the topic you’re interested in.
5. Brainstorm. If the excitement of the show and the energy of progressive companies executing on their vision has you inspired, wander over to the SUITEideas area to whiteboard your ideas and get insight from NetSuite product experts on how to execute on your own vision.
6. Network. There’s perhaps no better way to learn and grow at SuiteWorld than by talking and sharing with fellow customers and partners. In the session rooms, the hallways, the coffee area, it’s a chance not only to learn how to get the most out of your NetSuite implementation, but potentially find the right partner or business opportunity. Better yet, chill out in the SuiteLife lounge where you can rest, recharge and network in comfort.
7. Meet the SuiteGuru. Sit down with our technical experts and get your specific questions about CRM, Ecommerce, ERP, OneWorld, OpenAir, the SuiteCloud platform or Web design answered in 30-minute meetings. But be sure to schedule them, pre-registration is required and seating is limited.
8. Tour the Floor. Wander the show floor, pick up some schwag and find the solution your business needs to accomplish its vision. It’s all on display. When you’re done, wander over to the SuiteStore to pick up your official SuiteWorld gift from customers such as Incipio (iPhone 4 or 5 case), Nakajima (Hello Kitty swag), Philz Coffee (lb of coffee), Liberty Water Bottle (official SW water bottle) or School of Rock (t-shirt). 
9. Get Out. You’ve traveled to San Jose, now take some time to get outside. Take a walk, go out to eat at one of the area’s signature restaurants, soak up Silicon Valley.
10. Get Down.  After all the contacts are made, the questions answered and your mission accomplished, be sure to grab a cold drink and have a suite time at Wednesday night’s SuiteCelebration Gala.

We look forward to seeing you. Be sure to follow @NetSuite and #NSW13 on Twitter to keep up to date on the show. If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out the scene
from last year:

 

For more information on SuiteWorld 2013, please visit: http://www.netsuite.com/portal/press/events/nsw2013/main.shtml

NetSuite OneWorld Helps Eco-Friendly Packaging Company Manage Growth While Maintaining Corporate Goals

Starting a business isn’t always just about money. Sometimes, more than just making profit, someone comes along with a business plan that genuinely makes a difference. This is exactly what BioPak is all about. In the words of BioPak’sRichard Fine, “BioPak is about doing something that has a positive impact on the planet and in people’s lives.”

That focus on making a positive impact didn’t stop BioPak from growing though.

Sydney-based BioPak designs, produces and distributes plant-based, biodegradable and compostable packaging solutions across Australia and New Zealand. Coffee cups are its best-selling product. The company was founded in 2006 and it wasn’t long before it found a significant market for its eco-friendly products. The company now ships out 25 to 30 million total items per month. BioPak’s 176 percent year-on-year growth for the past four years led to a FY2012 turnover of $11.2 million, and a ranking as the eighth-fastest growing company in the BRW Fast 100 in 2012.

That growth was becoming too hard to handle using disparate systems and applications, and the company knew it needed an integrated solution to more efficiently manage its core business processes and its growth.

After reviewing ERP solutions from SAP and Microsoft, BioPak decided that NetSuite’s cloud-based ERP suite was the perfect solution to support its growing business. The company implemented NetSuite OneWorld in 2011 and has seen an increase in its average daily orders from around 40 to more than 90 a day without needing additional headcount.

“I am confident knowing that NetSuite will scale as the business scales,” Fine said. “I don’t see any issue with having to worry about our ERP platform keeping pace with the growth of the business. I see it as customizing it, tweaking it, so that we become more and more efficient, and eventually scale into a large multinational company.”

Watch the video to learn more:

 

For more information about NetSuite cloud ERP solutions, please visit www.netsuite.com.au

Mark Troselj, NetSuite Managing Director for APAC

NetSuite SuiteAcademy Now in Australia

One of the most talked about technology trends in 2012, cloud computing has seen its popularity grow exponentially as more and more companies choose cloud computing over on-premise systems. Schools like UTS already offer courses for on-premise software like SAP and Oracle. Now they’re recognizing the importance of teaching NetSuite and cloud computing -- both for the country’s future workforce and the job prospects of their students.

Cloud computing has become so ubiquitous that it’s now a major source of employment throughout the world. This is the main reason why NetSuite continues to preach the power of the cloud to colleges and universities worldwide. Through the SuiteAcademy Program, NetSuite offers these institutions a great way to strengthen business curriculum by giving students hands-on instruction on NetSuite's cloud-based ERP/financials suite.

Now it’s made its way to Australia.

In use at more than 90 member institutions, SuiteAcademy provides no-cost NetSuite licensing for instructional use that meets student demands for educational value and real-world experience. SuiteAcademy helps make students more marketable to employers—and makes universities more attractive to students.

Since officially launching SuiteAcademy in 2011, the program has grown 83 percent, with more than 100 tertiary institutions around the world now teaching NetSuite. The NetSuite cloud business solution is predominantly introduced in the third and fourth year of degree, and MBA programs, meaning that the next generation of managers, entrepreneurs, and business professionals can come to the job market with a stronger understanding of business operations and a clear understanding of the power of cloud computing.

The most recent addition to NetSuite’s growing portfolio of Academic beneficiaries is the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), which is also the first Australian university to join the NetSuite SuiteAcademy program. The UTS Business School plans to incorporate NetSuite cloud ERP, including supply chain and accounting functionality, into the postgraduate degree curricula in 2013 for students pursuing MBA and Master of Business in Operations and Supply Chain Management degrees.

During the next four months, NetSuite will work closely with the UTS Business School to prepare curricula for next year’s MBA intake. This will focus on providing students with practical, hands-on experience with NetSuite’s modules, as well as a better understanding of how it supports process flows and revenue cycles throughout an entire organisation. Schools like UTS already offer courses for on-premise software like SAP and Oracle. Now they’re recognizing the importance of teaching NetSuite and cloud computing -- both for the country’s future workforce and the job prospects of their students.For further information about NetSuite Suite Academy program please visit - http://www.netsuite.com.au/portal/services/suiteacademy/main.shtml

- Mark Troselj, Managing Director of Asia Pacific for NetSuite

Accounting and Finance Charged with Achieving Real-Time Visibility, Improved Reporting

In today’s complex and competitive world, organizations are increasingly calling on their accounting and finance teams to go beyond their traditional role of information suppliers and to provide analytical insight into the business. A recent report, “Rising to the Challenge - Achieving Real-Time Visibility Across the Organization,” examines two key difficulties in fulfilling this new role: improving the management reporting cycle and achieving real-time visibility across the organization.  

This report, co-sponsored by IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants) and NetSuite, was released the week of February 4th. It contains the findings of a survey of more than 1,500 IMA members from a wide range of finance and accounting organizations.

The survey found that many companies possess disparate information systems, that are inadequately integrated, and too outdated to meet current business requirements. While most manufacturing-related systems are highly integrated into companies’ overall ERP systems, other key related areas, such as business intelligence and budgeting and forecasting, typically are not.   

In order for accounting and finance teams to be able to provide analytical insight into the business and to provide real-time visibility into their organizations, companies will need replace or update these ERP systems. By doing so, finance and accounting teams will have the tools needed to provide the predictive insights and transparency that is now being demanded.

This is the latest study from an ongoing research partnership between IMA and NetSuite which includes thought leadership presented through IMA’s webinars, conferences, and professional publications. IMA and NetSuite share the goal of delivering value-added information and insights that are timely, relevant, and helps move the accounting and finance profession forward. Such research will provide finance professionals with the information they need as they assume more strategic roles within their organizations.

- Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CPA, IMA vice president of research and professor-in-residence, chief researcher of the report.

Transparency Taxes Traditional ERP

Tax authorities around the world are becoming more sophisticated, aggressive and cooperative in enforcing regulatory compliance within their jurisdictions. In particular, they are taking a long, hard look at businesses that appear to be reporting and paying lower taxes than expected.

Look no further than recent high profile cases like that of Amazon in the United States where the company is now required to charge and report sales tax in many more states. Similarly, the Starbucks UK Financial team had to answer questions from the British Government regarding their corporate structure and tax liabilities when it became public that they weren’t declaring profits in the UK. Amazon was also in hot water in the UK regarding the zero-rated VAT treatment of electronic books delivered to their Kindle Reader based on their regional eBook facilities being in Luxembourg.

With well-known companies such as Amazon and Starbucks attracting such public attention from authorities, finance teams around the world are increasingly looking to avoid compliance risk by providing greater transparency within their financial statements and, critically, their tax reports and submissions to local authorities.

Transparency for indirect taxation requires that a business be able to clearly demonstrate the calculation methods and source of taxable values as reported on its tax returns. For many businesses, running traditional ERP systems, this is much harder than it might seem.

Indirect and transactional taxes such as Sales Tax, VAT/GST and Witholding Tax are typically based on six criteria:

• Who is doing the selling – is the business a for profit, non-profit or other form of organization that has some specific treatment for indirect taxation purposes?
• Who you are selling to – as above, does the customer you are selling to fall into one of the special categories?
• Where you are selling/shipping from – the location from where you are selling your goods or service will drive certain tax behaviors (for example, if you are not in the same State or Country as your customer)?
• Where you are selling/delivering to – similarly, the location of the customer will also determine certain taxable treatments and which tax rates are applicable?
• What type of item/service you are selling – certain types of item attract different rates of taxation over and above any of the other criteria; children’s clothes are exempt from VAT in the UK, for example. Another example is that products deemed to be Luxury Goods are taxed at a higher rate in some US states than others?
• Last but not least, the tax that is being charged may itself have some specific properties; perhaps it is only valid for a certain date range or, it is calculated on a basis other than the actual item price.

Given such complexity, it is no wonder that many businesses find calculating indirect taxes challenging in the first place. Beyond that, being able to clearly justify those calculations and demonstrate the audit trail after the fact can be even more difficult with traditional point solutions.

NetSuite’s integrated business system approach carries over to how we have developed our Tax Reporting capabilities. From the top level tax report for each country of operation (Nexus) the finance team can drill down to successive layers of detail to clearly demonstrate how those tax reports are constructed. So, a quarterly VAT100 Return report – as required for VAT registered businesses in the UK – enables a drill down from the total values for each ‘Box’ to the sub-total by Month. From there further drill-down is provided to the monthly totals by Tax Code and from there to the individual transactions from which those values are derived.

That’s not the end of the story, however, as users with the appropriate permissions can drill-across from the transaction in order to see details of the Customer – their business type, their business address, VAT Registration No., etc. - the Item(s) that they have purchase and even the attributes of the Tax Codes themselves. The ability to drill-down from the summary level all the way down to this level of granularity is something that NetSuite has offered its customers for more than a decade. Yet, to this day it continues to be beyond the capability of most other ERP systems that require manual data entry, separate reporting tools and excel spreadsheets to compile tax reports.

The degree of Transparency that NetSuite provides to finance departments in support of their tax reports has reduced the time and effort required to both submit accurate tax reports in the first instance and further reduces the stress and complexity of justifying those tax reports during audits and tax inspections for thousands of companies around the world.

Beyond transparency, NetSuite also assists businesses in addressing the need for simplicity, automation and control and consistency that are key to strong compliance in your business systems. I will provide further insights into how NetSuite can help you in these areas in my next post.

-CRAIG SULLIVAN | SVP, INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS