Project Management & Resource Planning
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Gartner survey conducted in July 2023 revealed that:
- 18% of accountants make financial errors daily.
- 33% make several errors weekly.
- 59% make several errors monthly.
These errors are closely linked to capacity constraints. 73% of accountants report increased workloads due to new regulations, and 82% attribute increased demands to economic volatility.
Finance leaders are under increasing pressure to deliver accurate, timely, and auditable financial data while maintaining compliance across jurisdictions. Legacy systems and disconnected processes often lead to inefficiencies, data gaps, and increased audit risk. NetSuite financial reporting addresses these challenges with a unified financial management platform that simplifies reporting, strengthens internal controls, and supports compliance with multiple accounting standards.
This article highlights how the platform’s core financial features—custom reporting, multi-book accounting, period close automation, and audit tools—support finance teams in maintaining accuracy, transparency, and control.
Financial Reporting
Finance and accounting professionals use NetSuite financial reporting to prepare auditable financial statements for 3rd party use.
In addition to the standard Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows, the platform allows custom financial reporting for any statutory reporting requirement. The system’s Financial Report Builder enables the creation of financial-like statements based on Income Statement or Balance Sheet data, offering a unique perspective not typically found in other ERPs.
NetSuite financial reporting and drill-down functionality allow users to directly trace figures from summary statements or general ledgers to the source transaction line, ensuring full transparency and auditability.
Period Close Process
The platform’s period close process ensures that all relevant activities related to closing the books are completed. For example, during the close process, this ERP requires that you check for inventory that has a negative value. Some accounting systems allow negative inventory values, but NetSuite does not. That is a sound accounting practice that is widely recommended.
Multi-Book Accounting
NetSuite’s Multi-Book Accounting allows organizations to maintain separate books for separate accounting principles. For example, you can track one organization’s books in US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and another in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Frequently, local governments require accounting books to present data in specific formats to meet local regulations.
Transaction-level detail by the book allows transaction line-level reports to satisfy internal and external audit requests.
The system enables automated transaction postings based on configurable accounting rules. The rules that can be created are unlimited, so compliance with local requirements is easily accomplished.
You can also create journal entries by accounting book to maintain financial integrity while complying with multiple accounting principles.
Audit Compliance
NetSuite has outstanding compliance capabilities for the vast majority of audit requirements.
The platform provides item-level details for every transaction so that financial auditors can see all the relevant data related to any transaction line. Enabling transaction line data analysis allows much greater assurance that all General Ledger account totals are accurate and worthy of a clean opinion.
In addition, It allows you to limit access to sensitive financial information with configurable role- and user-based access and permissions. This ensures that only employees who should be creating and modifying financial transactions and records can do so.
Further Reading: NetSuite Account Reconciliation Best Practices
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Request a DemoSystem Notes
It includes system notes that log various configuration and data changes across the platform. System notes can track almost any data input to the system.
You can leverage this ERP’s advanced search tools to access system notes for audit and review purposes.
- A general system note search retrieves notes across all record types. You can filter the search by specific record types to narrow the results. All General Ledger posting transaction types have system note capability.
- When searching record types that support system notes, you can include note details in the search results. For example, a search for customer records can display system note fields related to changes made to those records.
- System notes are linked to their parent records, which allows detailed tracking of how and when changes occur.
- Each system note contains a Context field that explains the method used to make the change. This could include manual updates, web services, SuiteScript, or other integration methods.
The platform also includes built-in audit trail reports for key record types, using system notes with preset filters to simplify tracking and compliance tasks.
The Transaction Audit Trail report offers a chronological view of all transaction entries, including who created or modified them and the exact time of each update.
Deleted Records
It provides the ability to search and retrieve information on deleted records, a capability not commonly available in other ERP systems. This can reveal important details about a transaction that can be used for future efforts.
Accelerate Month-End Close and Eliminate Bottlenecks
Contact AlphaBOLD's experts to evaluate your financial systems and see how we can improve reporting, automate period closes, and ensure compliance with multiple standards.
Request a DemoConclusion
The platform equips finance teams with the tools to meet complex reporting and compliance requirements without compromising efficiency or accuracy. Its built-in support for multi-book accounting, NetSuite financial reporting with drill-down capabilities, and transaction-level audit trails ensures readiness for both internal and external reviews.
With strong access controls and visibility into system activity, it creates a secure, compliant environment that scales with business needs. NetSuite financial reporting provides a reliable foundation for consistent, audit-ready financial management for organizations operating across multiple entities, regions, or regulatory frameworks.
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