New Feature to Balance Transactions by Segments
With the new Balancing Segments feature you can now balance transactions by segments. In NetSuite, the general ledger always balances for the company or, in OneWorld accounts, for the subsidiary.
Now you can identify custom segments to balance for other dimensions. For example, you can create
balancing segments for product lines or business units. When you run the new Balancing by Segments process, NetSuite automatically balances your transactions by their balancing segments.
For instructions to set up the Balancing Segments feature, see Setup for Balancing Segments. The setup
When you check the Balancing Segments box, you receive a message that lets you also enable the Custom Segments feature if it is not currently enabled.
- Intersegment account configuration – Intersegment accounts enable you to balance by segment without general ledger impact to your regular transaction posting accounts. After you enable the feature, the Accounting Preferences page includes a Balancing Segments subtab. On this subtab, you must select default intersegment due-to and due-from accounts. You can select the same account
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for both the due-to and the due-from accounts. If you want, you can also select due-to and due-from accounts for specific transaction types.
- Balancing segment creation – Balancing segments are custom segments. To create balancing segments, check the GL Impact and Balancing boxes on new or existing custom segments. For information about custom segments, see the help topic Custom Segments. After setup, you can add values for your balancing segments to your transactions. Depending on your custom segment configuration, you can select a value in the transaction header, the transaction lines, or both. The transactions do not balance by segment until you run the process, usually at the end of the period. The Balancing by Segments Process is one of the tasks on your Period Close Checklist. You can, however, run the process at any time from Transactions > Financial > Balance Transactions by Segment. Posting
Period is a required field, which is set automatically in the period close task. In NetSuite OneWorld
accounts, you must also select one or more subsidiaries. When Multi-Book Accounting features are enabled, you must also select one or more accounting books. The process automatically includes all balancing segments. You can have a maximum of two balancing segments. The process creates a balancing journal, a new transaction type. The balancing journal includes lines for all balancing segment values. Each line has a Details link to a page with lines for the related transactions.
From the detail page, you can click through to the individual transactions. These transactions display
the status Balanced by Segments, and their GL Impact subtabs include a Balancing by Segments Details subtab. In this subtab you can see that the transaction header segment value (debit or credit) balances with the line segment values. You can rerun the balancing by segments process for a specified period and subsidiary combination. When you rerun the process, the system deletes the previous balancing journal and a creates a new one. A warning at the top of the Balance Transactions by Segments page alerts you when you select a period and subsidiary for which the process has already run.
On reports, you can select your balancing segment as a Column filter or add the column when you
customize a report. Some major financial reports that support custom segments as Column filters or in customization are the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement. For detailed information about the Balancing Segments feature, see Balancing Segments and Journals.
Advanced Revenue Management Enhancements
NetSuite 2020.1 delivers some significant enhancements to the Advanced Revenue Management feature. The following sections provide a brief summary of the enhancements for this feature:
- New Revenue Summary Subtab for Revenue Arrangements
- Enhanced Revenue Allocation Support for SuiteBilling Change Orders
- Return of Element Renamed to Linked Element
- Documentation Enhancements For more information about Advanced Revenue Management, see the help topic Advanced Revenue Management.
New Revenue Summary Subtab for Revenue Arrangements
The Revenue Elements subtab of revenue arrangements includes a new Revenue Summary subtab. This subtab combines key information from the Revenue Element subtab with recognized revenue from the general ledger and amounts actually invoiced. In addition, the subtab consolidates revenue
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elements from related sources when you merge revenue arrangements. By default, the subtab collapses consolidated lines as shown in the following screenshot. You can expand the consolidated lines to view the details. When you add the amounts in each column of the detail lines, they equal the amount in the summary line for the column. (The detail lines are outlined in red in the following screenshot.) Use the Expand All and Collapse All buttons, or click the plus and minus signs to expand and collapse individual lines. The amounts in the previous screenshots show values for the January activity in a reclassification example in the Help Center. Note that the billed amounts include only the invoice in this example. The customer credit has not yet been generated. For details, see the help topic Foreign Currency Combined Revenue Arrangement Prior to Billing. Enhanced Revenue Allocation Support for SuiteBilling Change
Orders
Prior to 2020.1, subscription change orders updated the original revenue elements for the subscription. The update sometimes overrode the dates or allocation of existing elements. A new accounting preference, Create Revenue Elements for Subscription Revisions, lets you chose whether to keep the current behavior or create new revenue elements for subscription change orders. When you check the box for Create Revenue Elements for Subscription Revisions, you can use either retrospective or prospective merge to combine revenue arrangements for subscriptions. When the preference box is clear, you can only merge revenue arrangements for subscriptions retrospectively. For more information about retrospective and prospective merges, see the help topic Combination and Modification of Performance Obligations. For more information about the accounting preference Create Revenue Elements for Subscription Revisions, see New Accounting Preference Related to Advanced Revenue Management.
Return of Element Renamed to Linked Element
Previously, the Return of Element field only linked revenue elements from a return (negative elements) with their associated positive element (sales element). Now you can also link the revenue element from
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a subscription revision with the original element for the subscription line or other associated revenue element. The new name for the field is Linked Element to indicate the expanded function.
Documentation Enhancements
The 2020.1 Help Center for Advanced Revenue Management reflects these 2020.1 enhancements. To avoid confusion between subscription change orders and prospective merges, the documentation no longer uses the term “prospective change orders.” Beginning in 2020.1, contract modifications are referred to as either retrospective or prospective merges. Entity Merge User Interface Enhancements as duplicates and merges into a master record.
- The Merge Into field is now the Master field. This field indicates which record NetSuite merges duplicates into.
- The Entity Merge page now includes a Duplicate/Master Summary with a summary of the entities NetSuite will merge. You can select which entity-specific information appears in the Duplicate/Master Summary. These changes appear on the Manual Merge page. To access this page, click Merge in a duplicate entity’s record. For more information, see the help topic Merging Different Types of Records.
SuiteAnalytics for Accounting Enhancements
Related Transactions – Previous fields are available in your SuiteAnalytics reports and pivot tables.
- If you use Multi-Book Accounting, the workbook includes a Primary Accounting Book filter by default.
- A Transaction Overview pivot table is now available. The default definition includes a row for account type, a Transaction Count measure, and a grand total of all accounts.
- OneWorld accoutns include an Account Turnover pivot table. The default definition includes a row for Account, a Subsidiary column, and Amount (Sum) measures.
- The Do Not Display Line field, which includes information which was usually hidden in Global Search, has been renamed to Technical Line. For more information, see the help topics SuiteAnalytics Workbook Data Source Overview and Transaction Detail Workbook (Beta).
Transaction Email Enhancements
In NetSuite 2020.1, you can use the Standard Transaction Email Template at Documents > Templates > Email Templates and build customized email templates. You can also set custom templates as the default
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for standard transactions with a new Default Email Template preference at Setup > Company > Email > Email Preferences > Transactions subtab. For more information, see the help topics Working with Email Templates and Setting Email Preferences.
Budgets for Secondary Subsidiaries
If you use the Multi-Subsidiary Customer feature, in 2020.1 you can create a budget for any of the customers’ assigned secondary subsidiaries. For information about creating budgets, see the help topic Setting Up a Budget.