Netsuite ERP Workflows – Control The Business Flow

Definition:

A workflow is tailoring a custom business process to bypass a standard flow of standard or custom records in NetSuite. Business processes include transaction approval, record handling, addition/removal of buttons, sending emails, and transforming records. Workflows cater to your needs, and a background process runs for them.

You define workflows for a specific record type containing states of a record as it moves through the business process. A workflow defines the actions performed in each state, like sending emails or adding buttons to a record form, before the workflow completes or transitions to another state. A workflow can move between different states or transition, depending on the business process requirements. The actions and transitions can contain conditions that must be met before the action or transitions execute.

Workflows can have multiple trigger points. Trigger points can be defined as the fulfillment of specific criteria, which will stimulate the workflow—for example, sending an email to a customer when the Sales Order status is changed to Fulfilled.

Let’s look at a business case to understand workflow usability better.

Business Case: 

Scenario: A client wants to set up a 2-stage approval workflow for Purchase Order in NetSuite. The workflow should be based on user roles.

1^st level: Purchasing Officer

2^nd level: Purchase Manager

Need:

Purchase orders are raised within their company by the warehouse manager looking over the inventory. A purchase order is raised as soon as the inventory levels hit the re-order point. It goes ahead without any checks, and bills are raised. Approval is needed to have a check and balance over every Purchase order created in the system.

Solution:

None other than a Workflow! A workflow will be defined for the transaction type “purchase order.” It will have two approvers, as stated in the requirement, multiple actions, and stages. As soon as the purchase order is created in NetSuite, the record will be locked and only editable/approvable by the concerned user, i.e., Purchasing Officer. INTERESTING, NO?

Let’s have a broader look at how the workflow looks when designed.

This feature can benefit any industry globally. Everything revolves around controls within the companies, and workflows provide you with that safe zone without much ado. Maximum benefit could be obtained if the client clearly understands their requirements. 

Conclusion:

Approvals, creating buttons, sending emails, and locking records are some of the primary uses of Workflows, and this feature comes out of the box with every NetSuite vertical. As I showed you, the example of a purchase order, invoices, bills, payments, and employee expenses can also have custom approval workflows. No complex JavaScript is needed. SAVE TIME AND BE EFFICIENT!