NetSuite 2020.1 Release Summary

For 20 years, NetSuite has been delivering regular updates to its business management suite, addressing needs from the customer base as a whole, down to the needs of particular roles in specific industries. Today, NetSuite 2020 Release 1 delivers new functionality to more than 19,000 customers in more than 200 countries. From global financial capabilities and new employee engagement features to new and enhanced functionality for an array of vertical industries, NetSuite 2020 Release 1 introduces features designed to help customers be at their best, not just today, but for the foreseeable future.

Intelligent Cash Management

• North American companies can take advantage of the Bank Feeds SuiteApp, which allows them to link their bank and credit card accounts and automatically imports transactions and account balances from financial institutions directly into NetSuite, providing real-time access to cash balances.
  For companies outside the U.S., or those looking to create their own framework to import financial transactions, NetSuite has introduced the Bank Connectivity API. This API allows developers to build their own plugin to NetSuite to connect to any bank they choose and access all the same data flows available through the Bank Feeds SuiteApp.
• An intelligent rules engine powers automated bank data reconciliation, resulting in improved matching and eliminating manual processes.

Continuous Employee Engagement

• SuitePeople HR provides new insights into salary and experience data, allowing managers to make employee change requests with confidence.
• With the bonus dispersal and pay feature, organizations can now setup bonus types and targets, track historical payouts and enter current / future bonuses that will flow seamlessly over to SuitePeople U.S Payroll.
• HR can perform employee record bulk updates with effective dates to reflect changes from a review cycle or changes resulting from a department re-org.
• Organizations can streamline employee exit processes with the new ability to create an offboarding plan and set tasks to be due for assignees based on the exiting employees’ scheduled termination date.
• The new SuitePeople Planning and Budgeting SuiteApp helps CFOs forecast growth with up-to-date employee data from SuitePeople HR and also eases setup, reduces manual data entry and includes necessary permissions to run saved searches.

Autonomous Supply Chain

• Extended capabilities to the Supply Chain Control Tower now provide intelligent predictions and simulations on transfer order risks and recommended actions that will proactively optimize your supply chain.
• The new SuiteAnalytics Supply Chain Workbook provides a way to efficiently analyze supply chain imbalances.
• Meet delivery promises by automating the re-allocation of inventory when supply is constrained with new supply allocation exceptions capabilities.
• Optimize outsourced manufacturing operations by automatically creating work orders when placing a purchase order on your contract manufacturer activities.
• The ability to schedule automatic creation of fulfillment requests simplifies supply allocation while predictive analytics can determine what deliveries might be at risk for a delay and make recommendations.
• Food and beverage companies can now automatically close backordered order lines and view fill or kill candidate exceptions, and new order guides provide an option to automatically add new items to guides.

Optimizing Project Lifecycles

• Improved tools and smarter analytics simplify management of project budgets. Organizations can now easily see how costs are impacted when adding and editing activities.
• Automated cost calculations help to increase accuracy while miscoded time or expenses can now be quickly identified. What’s more, NetSuite now offers system suggestions for updating time estimates when unexpected costs arise.
• New time-modification enhancements provide better control of billable time, and NetSuite Analytics now supports time-modification requests and entries, improving visibility into changes.

Financial and Operational Excellence

• Better revenue trace-through and an enhanced audit trail combine means improved visibility into how changes to subscriptions impact revenue, as well as more precise revenue recognition.
• NetSuite has added the ability to update and make bulk changes to subscriptions, which saves time and improves invoice accuracy.
• Improved visibility into contract revenue brings better insight into revenue allocation and increases an organization’s understanding of whether offerings have been fully billed or not.
• SuiteApprovals of requisitions provide nonprofits with tighter control of their spending, and the custom approval chain routes documents for review.
• Custom transactions allow organizations to create their own unique transaction types, such as pledge write-offs for nonprofits.

More Integration, Less Code

As with every NetSuite release, NetSuite 2020 Release 1 delivers plenty for developers, with numerous enhancements to the SuiteCloud Platform:

• The new REST API enables external applications to be securely integrated with NetSuite, and includes full support for custom records, expanded CRUD operations support and record collection filtering.
• The REST API also supports executable record actions, and a new API browser provides a visual overview of API structure and function.
• The updated SuiteScript 2.1 programming language, which supports the latest ECMAScript 2018 JavaScript syntax and is powered by Graal virtual machine technology, enables developers to write powerful apps with less code.
• SuiteScript 2.1 also supports relative file path preferences, and the SuiteQL API enables the creation of fast and scalable applications, speeds up performance and improves efficiency.
• The new SuiteApp Marketplace introduces a modern, consumer-like experience, native within NetSuite, for distributing and consuming SuiteApps.

Learn More About NetSuite 2020 Release 1

These are just the highlights; regardless of what industry you’re in, there’s much more in NetSuite 2020 Release 1 than can be covered in a single blog post. For more specifics on the complete list of new features, be sure to read the 2020.1 Release notes (Download)

New to the release process? Learn more about it here.

Finally, be sure to request access to your Release Preview test account. There, you can preview and test how the new features will work with your own data, workflows and customizations.

Industry and Platform-Specific Features

NetSuite 2020 Release 1 also adds enhancements for specific industries and the SuiteCloud Platform. Read these posts to learn more about capabilities for:

Manufacturing

Food and Beverage

Wholesale Distribution

Advertising, Media and Publishing

Retail

Software

Services

Nonprofit

The SuiteCloud Platform

Article written by: Gavin Davidson – NetSuite

If you have any questions about the upcoming New Release or would like help preparing your organisation for the transition, please contact us at support@abvt.com.au.

Need more info?

Find out more at the NetSuite Blog page