NetSuite
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NetSuite is a comprehensive cloud-based ERP solution that offers businesses a robust platform for managing their finance, operations, and customer relations. For companies utilizing ION to manage manufacturing processes and workflows, integrating with NetSuite can significantly enhance data visibility, streamline operations, and consolidate financial reporting. This integration bridges the operational efficiency of ION with the financial intelligence and scalability of NetSuite, empowering businesses to achieve a holistic view of their operations and strategic financial outcomes. However, the integration between ION and NetSuite is not a one-size-fits-all solution; it requires careful configuration to align with specific business needs and the existing setup of NetSuite. Tailored integration ensures that organizations can maximize the benefits of both systems, making critical business data actionable and enhancing operational decisions.
High-level goals of the integration:
Billing integration with proper 3-way matching functionality
AP/AR/GL tracking
Accurate cost of goods sold (COGS) for make parts (labor and materials)
Controlled sales order process
When thinking about how your systems interact it is important to define a business process "swimlane." The swimlane should contain key business processes and in which system you desire them to be performed. Here is a common NetSuite<>ION business process swimlane:
In the above example, Business A wishes to do all their factory operations like purchasing, receiving, warehouse management, work order execution, etc... in ION and use NetSuite for sales, employee configuration, vendor onboarding, billing, etc... The two systems need to talk to one another to ensure the right data is available to perform said processes.
Once you have a high-level idea of your business processes and where they will be performed it is helpful to understand how and where the systems will interact & the level of detail required to be pushed between systems. Here is an example NetSuite configuration diagram based on tried and true business practices & with the simplicity/reliability of the integration in mind:
In the above diagram, ION handles everything from plans to work order execution. Telling NetSuite when it makes purchase orders, consumes material on runs, and scraps material due to quality defects. An (optional) addition to the software stack is a PLM to manage engineering development and part release. The PLM sends parts to both systems, and BOMs to ION, so that activities can happen on the ION side and GL configuration can happen on the NetSuite side. A few additional notes:
Sales orders, created in NetSuite, transfer over to create Autoplan inputs
Purchase orders are generated from plans in ION. These purchase orders are duplicated on the NetSuite side to add inventory to the system and to enable billing
Receiving activities in ION to generate item receipts in NetSuite to enable a 3-way match
Billing activities can take place in NetSuite
Runs are generated from ION plan items using procedures. Runs can generate workOrder objects in NetSuite (optional) or upon run completion an assemblyBuild record can be generated to put assemblies into NetSuite at cost (labor and materials)
When material is scrapped in ION, the material is scrapped in NetSuite
Both systems have inventory but ION maintains the granular location-based tracking & NetSuite has a bucketed view. Doing so gives finance teams a simplified, yet accurate, view of inventory. Bucketizing the inventory in NetSuite also greatly simplifies the integration between the two systems.
Remember, this is our recommended flow and can be altered based on the preferences of your business. We recommend this flow for its simplicity and efficiency although we have seen other customers be successful with other configurations.
In the following pages, we outline the details of various flows.
