The NetSuite 2023.2 Quick Guide

Author: Tom Pearce Sales Marketing Coordinator


NetSuite is releasing their newest update called NetSuite 2023.2 for the beginning of Autumn, much like the 2023.1 update they released at the beginning of the year, NetSuite 2023.2 is full of new ways to improve your business processes and improve user experience and adoption. At Caravel, we wanted to provide a targeted summary on what new features NetSuite is bringing to its users, if you want to learn more, we highly encourage you to look at the full release notes available to you in your NetSuite portal home screen. If this makes you eager to start with NetSuite 2023.2, please reach out to your Project Manager.

Striving for Warehouse and Manufacturing Efficiency:

NetSuite understands that the strain on supply, and the effect it has on fulfilling customer demand has not wavered at all. With NetSuite 2023.2 release, NetSuite is making their user’s warehouse and manufacturing management even more accessible. NetSuite has updated its mobile application offerings, improving warehouse speed and accuracy with Smart Count barcode scanning, both of which can save you on shipping and more!


The NetSuite 2023.2 release has provided users of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) app with huge updates to its user experience. They have made the navigation smoother and focused on making it user-friendly by simplifying roll changes and allowing user preferences. The update also streamlines the NetSuite Warehouse Management App. Allowing supervisors the expedience in reassigning employees, custom picking orders, and more to help reduce friction in your warehouse on both the supervisor and picker levels.


To help users save money with shipping NetSuite is making it possible to use NetSuite Ship Central to shop for the best rates, create return labels, calculate cost based on weight, and more. Just like the SCM app, user experience is improving for shipping as well allowing for user preferences, workflows, and more automation for customers using Shopify and Amazon. The NetSuite Connector is bringing users the capability to eliminate manual reconciliation for Shopify and Amazon. Users can also sync shipping services that are purchased from Amazon to NetSuite thus simplifying order fulfillment and reducing costs.


Learn more about how the 2023.2 update can improve your warehouse and manufacturing here.

Improving Your Employee Experience and Confidence:

With a tool like NetSuite, it is easy to get lost in all its capabilities and functions. Having to search for solutions, look at notes, or any other way users might help themselves navigate NetSuite slows down the processes and causes interruptions throughout the day. NetSuite 2023.2 aims to eliminate the pause in work to look up a “how to” guide and have implemented NetSuite Guided Learning. The NetSuite Guided Learning experience was built with a focus on streamlining user experience and eLearning. NetSuite Guided Learning now offers users visual walk-throughs, step-by-step guidance, progress tracking and self-managed learning tailored to the users’ roles.

Learn more from NetSuite here.



There’s no denying the importance of data in today’s business environment. Shifting costs, volatile economic conditions, and intense competition necessitate data-driven insights. Yet, many companies encounter roadblocks when it comes to making data usable.


Operational and Financial Focus:

Improving efficiency to reduce business spending while seeing an increase in productivity and growth is one common goal for businesses. NetSuite understands this and NetSuite 2023.2 is providing you with the tools to achieve this. Some of what NetSuite 2023.2 is doing to reach that goal is increasing its use of automation, reducing tedious tasks, and making bill paying simpler.


NetSuite states that the automation in their NetSuite Account Reconciliation tool “automates the entire reconciliation process for the general ledger including intercompany transactions, accounts receivable (AR) and payable (AP), bank and credit card transactions, accruals and fixed assets accounts, and other balance sheet accounts”. This will completely remove the need to pull and makes sense of data from multiple sources manually. With machine learning and NetSuite’s auto-match engine users will be able to have millions of transactions matched in minutes and accounting teams will only need to focus on the exceptions, high-risk, and strategic tasks.

NetSuite is also making updates to the NetSuite Bill Capture, Vendor Invoice Distribution SuiteApp, and NetSuite AP Automation to reduce the workload for accounts payable teams. Users will be able to lean on the machine learning in the NetSuite Bill Capture feature to organize expenses based on past bills and will provide recommended subsidiaries. Teams will be able to expedite the bill-paying process by allowing for batched approvals with the Payment Approval Routing now offered in the NetSuite AP Automation. Also, if you have teams that need to share costs now the Vendor Invoice Distribution SuiteApp allows them to simply distribute costs by percentages or amounts and once the distribution is completed, the SuiteApp automatically creates the needed entries.


There is much more to see about this update here.


This is just the surface of what NetSuite is offering in the NetSuite 2023.2 update. To learn more, you can look here or on your NetSuite environment home page. We at Caravel are excited for these updates to be implemented. We are also always ready to talk you through what and how integrating these can improve your business.


Caravel Recognized by NetSuite as Winter 2023 Alliance Partner Spotlight Award Winner

We are excited to share that Oracle NetSuite has named Caravel Partners, A BPM Technology Solutions Company, a Winter 2023 Alliance Partner Spotlight Award Winner for Healthcare.

NetSuite’s Alliance Partner Spotlight Awards recognize leading partners and their achievements for outstanding work with customers, including:

  • Demonstrated commitment and success in implementing NetSuite
  • Development of outstanding expertise, customizations, and/or intellectual property in specific micro verticals
  • Demonstrated commitment to and success in implementing NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, OpenAir, SuiteCommerce, and NetSuite Planning and Budgeting

The NetSuite Alliance Partner program provides business consulting services, as well as integration and implementation services, that help customers get even more value from their NetSuite software. Alliance Partners are experts in their field and have a deep and unique understanding of NetSuite solutions.

Caravel Partners continues to show expertise in the Healthcare industry with the goal of helping companies grow.

“We are honored to be recognized for the dedication and increased focus our teams have put in to our growing number of Healthcare customers. We are excited to continue on this path to ensure success for all our clients and their business operations”.

Tai Valenzuela, Director of Strategic Operations

Having worked with over 500 clients, Caravel has consolidated this experience into a repeatable framework for helping companies define lean yet scalable business processes, efficiently determining the right technology to support the business, deploying the software platform, providing project oversight to ensure project, and ultimately business success and providing ongoing support services as needed.

The NetSuite 2023.1 Quick Guide

Author: Tom Pearce Sales Marketing Coordinator

We are past the start of the new year, which means we are finding our footing and life is moving back to normal. This also means there are some very exciting new opportunities on the horizon for us to present to you, and NetSuite has already delivered on one of them.


NetSuite is kicking off the new year by showing us several updates to improve business processes already. They have brought out the sneak peak of NetSuite 2023.1, and we at Caravel are excited to break down the highlights and explain what you can expect us to be implementing this year. If you want to learn more about any of the following, feel free to check the home screen of your NetSuite portal. Learn how to start with the 2023.1 update by reaching out to your Project Manager.


With improved CRM, CPQ, inventory management, data-based recommendations, and more, this first update of 2023 is packed with new tools for your business.

Improving Personnel Management:

NetSuite’s 2023.1 brings with it several tools that will improve tracking productivity while alleviating some of the stress of adjusting wages. Your team can now automate wage calculations with a NetSuite Payroll integration, allowing you to easily capture schedules and adjust wages based on a more accurate review of hours worked.


Utilizing this feature will also open more opportunities to improve customer satisfaction. You will be able to track workforce insights—such as sales data—to learn and follow trends to guarantee you have the scheduled staff to ensure customer satisfaction.


Another interesting element is a more complex employee time tracker. NetSuite explains that this will be beneficial for industries that need to track employee time more specifically. For example, it can track how much time an employee in an office setting puts toward projects and clients, or how much time an employee in a driving industry is traveling before their mandatory rest period. Employees will be able to easily adjust their status and have it accurately tracked to make billing easier, as well as maintaining safety regulations for truck drivers. NetSuite has an article that breaks down more of the impressive opportunities with this tool here.


Simplified Financials:

In the NetSuite 2023.1 update, vendor billing will be simplified by applying automation. NetSuite AP Automation is a new feature that allows you to upload your vendor bills with an email to NetSuite to be processed automatically. Then, a digital version is created and all the important details (vendor name, PO number, items ordered, quantity, pricing, etc.) are populated and matched to the correct purchase order.


If you offer subscription-based services to your customers, this release permits you to easily adjust and plan for percentage changes to apply to any of your subscribers. Learn more about these and some other interesting new features for rebates, nonprofits, and more here.

Warehouse and Shipping Efficiency:

The new NetSuite Ship Central is going to save your warehouse employees time and money. This update allows your warehouses to track if there are multiple orders going to one customer, consolidate, and efficiently ship the orders, thus reducing the number of shipments to a single location. It can even help you improve your order picking process.


With the NetSuite Warehouse Management System update, you can even section your warehouse into zones and allow multiple employees to pick order items based on zones, then pool items together for packing. Teams will be able to easily mark orders as partial or complete while also tracking empty bins or damaged goods in their sections to expedite restocking. There are some other very helpful updates for warehouse teams like improved smart counts and reports that you can read about here.


Improving Your Customers Experiences on Multiple Levels:

Utilizing the NetSuite 2023.1 update aims to not only improve your internal business processes but also to assure you are providing your customers and end users with the best service possible. With improved CRM, CPQ, inventory management, data-based recommendations, and more, this first update of 2023 is packed with new tools for your business. We can’t wait to help you learn and implement these features to help expand and optimize your business. To start, reach out to your project manager. If you haven’t started with Caravel yet and want to learn more about how we can help integrate these new features to serve your business, we are always ready to talk.


The Dos and Don’ts of Performance and Optimization Inside NetSuite

Author: Luke Pirtle, Director of IP Development

Overview

Performance inside NetSuite is usually done incorrectly due to misunderstandings on where to optimize, what to optimize, how to optimize it, and what NOT to optimize.

There are numerous statements and definitions of good code all over the internet written by various people with varying credentials. Most definitions bear a resemblance to the following.

The code must be:
• Readable
• Scalable
• Testable
• Fail Gracefully
• Easily Extendable
• Reusable

The biggest takeaway from this list is that performance is toward the end of the list. A few will even mention avoiding premature optimization, stating it’s harmful. It cannot be overstated that quality code is not the fastest-running code; rather, quality code follows the tenets above. If a solution is 10x faster but has intermittent errors and doesn’t indicate when it fails, you’ll end up with a client who is upset because their integration has been turned off for a month without any notice.

Performance should be considered but only after the other tenets are addressed. Typically, it’s also an afterthought and should only be done if requested. Rarely is there an issue with a solution being “too slow,” so there is no reason to risk the possibility of a bug or client escalation due to an unsolicited update. Before optimizing, always write good quality code.

Optimization: Breakout and Isolate

What needs to be optimized is commonly misunderstood. The first step in optimization is breakout and benchmarking to identify what needs to be prioritized. Developers typically want to create cool, clever solutions and use this as an excuse to theorize what needs an upgrade instead of investigating further. It can lead to severely overcomplicated data structures and algorithms because it’s fun, versus doing the legwork that will produce tangible results.

For example, I once had a solution that took mere seconds to commit a line on a sales order but was a painful UX experience. I optimized it with bulk searches and async calls and made it as streamlined as possible. Then, I discovered that my solution had never taken more than 0.1 – 0.2 seconds to run on average. The slowdown was due to the absurd number (over 250) of custom fields that were on the transaction line with over 25% being list / record fields. The system needed to work with those extra columns and references and that was taking 95% of the time needed to commit.

I had only shaved off tenths of a second at most and spent a week or two in the weeds. Testing the same pre-optimized code base on a standard form without these fields resulted in instantaneous performance. Without my investigation, the solution could never have taken less than the 2 seconds I started with. I was fighting an unwinnable battle. I only did this analysis at the end when I ran out of ideas on how to increase performance further. You need to start with the low hanging fruit and work your way up the tree. There are times you’ll need to climb all the way up to the top, but typically you can make quick and easy changes to optimize solutions to an acceptable range.

What to Optimize

HTTPS Requests and Network Calls

Computers are fast and have been for a while. For a frame of reference—CPUs are rated in GHz which is measured as instructions/seconds. This means a 1 gigahertz (GHz) computer completes a billion clock cycles per second. However, HTTPS have an actual physical distance to travel and when you make a request it drastically slows things down.

Numerous strategies and caches are used by ISPs and data engineers to mitigate the number of calls and distance required for calls, but there is always a physical distance slowdown. HTTPS calls usually take 1.5 seconds on average and lines of code execute in less than a millisecond. HTTPS calls should be consolidated and minimized. It is far “cheaper” and more efficient to do client-side computations rather than multiple HTTPS calls. Bulk operations should be performed as well. For a simple analogue, consider going to the grocery store several times throughout the day for each ingredient versus going with a list and getting it all at once.

Optimization Tips:
• Try to consolidate multiple calls to external resources.
• Use Async calls, when possible, to unblock the CPU while these are working.
• Avoid unnecessary calls by removing any relics from your code.
• Use caching methodology and keep local copies of values and files when possible and only look them up when necessary.

API Calls

Most API calls in NetSuite initiate a request to the server, perform a database operation, or utilize some internal resource on their network. These requests are optimized and travel shorter distances but have the same detriments as the HTTPS calls mentioned above. Every search, query, record load, file saved, etc. makes a call to a server or database and should be minimized or consolidated in bulk.


Optimization Tips:
• Don’t use database operations unless you need them. Record.load should only be used if you are going to write to the record or get something only available by loading a record. Use the search module instead.
• Prioritize bulk searches. If you have to look up a value for each line on a transaction, identify all elements up front and run a search to get them all at once.
• Remove debugging logs from scripts once you have a working solution. Rather than removing all logs, keep the logs informative and useful by removing the “Got here” and spot check variable logs.
• Modify log levels when not debugging. Turn a script from “debug” to “audit” or “error” to prevent log noise and increase performance.

CSV

CSV import is a robust, simple, and very performant operation for updating and creating records in NetSuite. You can multithread imports, have them run on multiple queues, and disable scripts and workflows if you don’t need them. They can be manually used by non-functional resources but also triggered from server-side scripts for complex automations. You don’t have as much control over the logic as you do with a script, but it’s usually not required for bulk operations or can be done beforehand.

Optimization Tips:

  • SuiteCloud + Licenses are key. If you have 0 licenses, you have 1 thread and 1 queue for the entire account. If you have 1 license, you have 2 threads and 5 queues which is roughly 10x the speed. SuiteCloud + licenses can be prohibitively costly, so design after you take this into consideration.
  • Use CSVs whenever possible. They are easy to setup, faster to execute than suite script, and provide built-in error handling. Developers tend to always favor scripts but the performance and simplicity of CSVs can’t be denied. Use the best tool for the job.

Map / Reduce for Multithreading

The Map/Reduce design pattern is powerful. However, developers usually just need a multithreading option and skip the map or reduce stage. Typically, the biggest slowdown / process intensive tasks are running a search, saving records, and network requests. Multithreading these elements scales down the highest latency code in your script, saving you precious time.


Optimization Tips:

• SuiteCloud + Licenses are key. If you have 0 licenses, you have 2 SuiteCloud Processors for the entire account. If you have 1 license, you have 5 threads with 5 time the speed. SuiteCloud + licenses can be prohibitively costly so design after you take this into consideration.

• Prefetch static values (meta data for queues)

• Break out searches if they are large and complicated. If possible, chunk out search pages to the map stage and run them there to multithread your search. This also prevents timeouts for large or complex searches.

  • Break out API calls into separate threads to multithread the most impacting part of development.

What NOT to Optimize

Anything at the JavaScript level, you do not need to optimize. You should not be trying to augment NetSuite code like Google or Apple. I can imagine the developers who use binary trees and layers of typescript screaming right now, but if you use binary trees in JavaScript and with NetSuite you are doing it wrong. There is no room for preference or subjectivity. This is the truth specifically for the NetSuite ecosystem due to its size and typical use cases. NetSuite’s core demographic is small to medium sized businesses and an enterprise level client here and there. This business model and demographic does NOT benefit from micro optimizations that can save milliseconds over millions of computations by leveraging advanced data structures and algorithms. If you are struggling that much you are on the wrong system or need to simplify your process.

  • Google developers deal with billions of search results, while NetSuite searches are capped at 10,000 data results.
  • Google deals with C++, Java, and Python. NetSuite uses a Java Virtual Machine to run JavaScript on an ECMA standard.
  • Micro optimizations are usually dependent on low-level understanding of processors, registries, and datatypes. JavaScript can’t do any of that because it only has one datatype for numbers and its “float.” JavaScript also can’t add correctly, which is why you will see gems like the screenshot below:

Typically, the overhead from advanced data structures and algorithms isn’t even realized until you get to large datasets that exceed the usual 10,000 elements. In JavaScript, sometimes this never happens. It’s actually harmful in the NetSuite ecosystem by adding extra overhead, test cases, and complexity, and it provides no benefit. Take a look at the example below using a benchmarking tool I created:

I wanted to know which array operation was faster in NetSuite. I had a Suitelet run both examples 100,000 times each and received the following results: 255ms vs 117ms.

I was able to run an entire benchmark of 100,000 iterations for both unit tests in significantly less time than a single average HTTPS request (1500ms).

Now, watch when I add a single log into this operation:

Twelve whole seconds versus the 0.152 seconds because I added a single log to each iteration.

Javascript code is fast, network request and API calls are not—use this information as best you can. Don’t overcomplicate your JavaScript; if you want to optimize performance, you can have much more impact by removing unnecessary logs first.

The strategy should not be how to implement a hashmap or binary search into your code to make things lightning fast, it should be how to implement these things to make better quality code. These features aren’t taboo, but rather their misuse is. I do not have a pet peeve against complex code—I write a lot of crazy Map / Reduce scripts and have even used classes on more than one occasion. The difference is I used a class because the data structures were polymorphic and benefited from the approach. Code can be basic and complicated as long as the complexity is not driven from a misguided attempt at optimization.

Caravel Partners Recognized by NetSuite as Summer 2022 Alliance Partner Spotlight Award Winner

We are excited to share that Oracle NetSuite has named Caravel Partners, A BPM Technology Solutions Company, a Summer 2022 Alliance Partner Spotlight Award Winner for Software.

NetSuite’s Alliance Partner Spotlight Awards recognize leading partners and their achievements for outstanding work with customers, including:

  • Demonstrated commitment and success in implementing NetSuite
  • Development of outstanding expertise, customizations and/or intellectual property in specific microverticals
  • Demonstrated commitment to and success in implementing NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, OpenAir, SuiteCommerce and NetSuite Planning and Budgeting

The NetSuite Alliance Partner program provides business consulting services, as well as integration and implementation services, that help customers get even more value from their NetSuite software. Alliance Partners are experts in their field and have a deep and unique understanding of NetSuite solutions.

Caravel Partners continues to show expertise in the Software and High-Tech industry with the goal of helping companies grow.

“We are honored to be recognized for the hard work our teams have put in to ensure the success of our software and high-tech customers. Our goal remains the same for all our clients, help drive the right decisions as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible”.

Tai Valenzuela, Director of Strategic Operations

Having worked with over 500 clients, Caravel has consolidated this experience into a repeatable framework for helping companies define lean yet scalable business processes, efficiently determining the right technology to support the business, deploying the software platform, providing project oversight to ensure project and ultimately business success and providing ongoing support services as needed.

Shipping Integration with NetSuite ERP

Learn How NetSuite’s Quality Management Bundle Can Help Your Business

Designing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling a product of high quality does not happen by accident, it requires a company-wide commitment to enforcing policies and standards. NetSuite’s Quality Management solution has been designed to help you deliver the highest quality in your products with minimal overhead regardless of the size and complexity of your business and product line.

 Key Benefits 

  • Formalize quality policies, standards, and practices. 
  • Improve product quality. 
  • Initiate quality activities from business transactions. 
  • Work with large volumes of raw data sets. 
  • Collect in-process and incoming inspection results. 
  • Compare to the pass/fail criteria. 
  • Integrated non-conformance reporting. 
  • Reduced cost of quality.

Inspections 

The inspection record defines exactly what it is that you want your quality engineer to check. These inspection records can be re-used so, for example, you only must create a “check for material certificates” inspection once—these are later grouped into specifications that are then applied to items, etc. There are currently two main types of inspections that are supported. 

With qualitative inspections, the inspector can verify that the item is in good overall condition or verify that the appropriate certificates are in place. Quantitative inspections, on the other hand, allow you to define multiple measurable elements along with criteria for acceptance, i.e. diameter, width, length, temperature, or even chemical composition.

Skip Lot, Sample Size and Failures 

Within each inspection, you can also specify how many items need to be inspected and define rules for inspecting specific sequences of lot or serial tracked items. Failures then define how many of the inspected units can fail inspection before the inspection itself is failed—kicking off the non-conformance workflow. 

As an administrator, you are able to distinguish sample data from summary or aggregate data and control whether sample data should be recorded in NetSuite or stored externally, allowing you to easily work with larger volumes of raw data sets. 

Test Definition 

Each inspection can be set up with multiple data elements that define the parameters of the inspection process.

Fill out this form and one of our team members will be in touch shortly!