NetSuite Version 2014.1 – New features for Service Companies

3 March 2014 | BlueBridge One

As discussed last month NetSuite Version 2014.1 is currently being rolled-out and all customers are expected to be on the new version by mid-April. Last month we reviewed some of the new functionality available to product distribution companies. This month we look at some of the new features that are specifically applicable to SERVICE companies.

Release 2014.1 of NetSuite incorporates a number of new features related specifically to service based companies. If you are a service company then the following are some of the new enhancements that may be of interest to you:

1. Project Profitability

In previous versions only estimated project profitability was available. With the new Job Costing feature enabled you can calculate costs for labour based on tracked time, and account for those costs directly in your general ledger. There is now also a new P&L sub tab on the project record itself displaying the real-time current revenue, cost, profit, and margin for your project.

Additionally the new Project Budgeting feature enables you to set cost and billing budgets for project labour and expenses at both the project and task level.

New reports available for project reporting are:

  • Project Cost Budget vs. Actual
  • Project Billing Budget vs. Actual
  • Project Task Cost Budget vs. Actual
  • Project Task Billing Budget vs. Actual
  • Project Profitability

2. Resource Allocations

You now have the ability to allocate resources to projects based on availability, skill sets, and other criteria. After a resource has been allocated, or reserved to a project, a project manager may then decide to assign that resource to a specific task. There is a new graphical resource allocations chart that provides visual management of your resource allocations with the ability to edit existing allocations and create new allocations directly from the chart. There is a also a new SuiteFlow approval process for approving of resource allocations.

3. Resource Skill Sets

You are now able to add information to employee and vendor records about skills and expertise and then search that employee database for the best matched project resource.

4. Advanced Project Templates

New project templates enable you to create project records for projects your business performs repeatedly. You can also now create a project template from and existing project. Previously you could only copy an existing project and then modify it.

5. Project Dashboard

Similar to your main Home dashboard, you can now access a project dashboard with information specific to an individual project. Previously, this information was only available on several different tabs and sub tabs within the project record.

6. Time Sheets

The new Time sheets feature enables you to track time in bulk using time sheets rather than individual time entries. If you track time for projects, cases, tasks, or events you can now use time sheets to submit a whole week’s worth of time at one time. Previously, time entries had to be recorded by a single date and the weekly time sheet option did not permit editing of time entries.

Next month we will look at some of the new general features unrelated to specific sectors only.