Meets all accounting needs. Support is poor.
Updated December 17, 2014

Meets all accounting needs. Support is poor.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review

Software Version

OneWorld

Modules Used

  • NetSuite ERP

Overall Satisfaction with NetSuite

  • Good at handling most/all accounting needs; very customizable; little or no IT support required; strong revenue recognition module; works very well if used as designed and you are careful with your customizations; lots of add-ons also available to suite specific business needs.
  • Customer support by the vendor is not good - can be very frustrating at times for a lot of reasons, best to find a good third party support vendor and/or strong in-house administrator expertise; cloud based system is not for everyone - can be frustrating for accounting staff not comfortable with the cloud; can be a challenge/expensive if you want to bring high volumes of transactional data into the system.
  • No internal IT support needed.
  • No additional IT hardware needed.
  • Accessible anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Pushbutton reporting.
  • Integrations can eliminate duplicate entry.
  • Automates revenue recognition and billing to some degree.
Intacct - NetSuite was more established and had broader functionality.
It works well overall and expect to continue to obtain more efficiencies and automation.
If you're comfortable with the cloud, it's a great product.

It is very customizable, but error towards keeping your instance as vanilla as possible as over-customization can cause problems too.

Does a good job with revenue recognition.

Using NetSuite

15 - Accounting/Finance
1 - Administrator needs a good blend of accounting expertise and comfort level with cloud based software. I'd also recommend building a relationship with a good third party support vendor that can handle the more complicated issues/changes. Most will have a stable of people well versed in different aspects of the system (financials, sales, integrations, reporting, script writing customizations, etc.).

This person usually can take on more duties than just the administrator role and/or could be a controller type if they are "tech savy" enough.
  • Almost all accounting related processes and some contract management.

Evaluating NetSuite and Competitors

NetSuite Implementation

As mentioned earlier, make sure your key players dedicate time to the implementation. I would also get several references from vendor on other implementations they have done.
  • Vendor implemented
  • Implemented in-house
  • Professional services company
I've worked on 4 implementations in various capacities (NetSuite led, jointly with another third party, and in-house).

NetSuite Training

  • Online training
  • Self-taught
Usually use pretty simplistic business cases, but instructors are able to handle more in-depth questions.
Users with a higher level of comfort working in the cloud and have used other accounting packages will do fairly well; users new to the cloud coming from desktop software systems will need more in-depth training.

NetSuite Support

Many times my issue is not solved and/or I spend an inordinate amount of time re-explaining the issue several times and just get the help guide read back to me. There is a language barrier you have to deal with as well most of the time.
Yes - This is a tough one as I don't find their support line very helpful usually, but you really need to have some level of support in case of emergency ... I haven't noticed much difference in the quality of response in different support levels in the past.

Using NetSuite

Fairly straightforward interface and can be tailored to user roles to give them only what they need to see.

That said, if users are not comfortable with the cloud/internet, it may not be the best solution - all players need to understand it's an internet product and only as good as your internet connections and you will occasionally have minor issues where you may need to re-enter something because of internet quirks (this is VERY minimal in my opinion and doesn't happen any more or less often than quirks with a desktop software like Quick books).

NetSuite Reliability

Very good up time ... if there's ever been a problem, it's usually an internet issue on our side affecting all the company's internet (not just NetSuite). I can only remember one or two times in 5 years of using the product that might have been on NetSuite's side. That said, it's sometimes difficult to determine exactly where a problem is or what is causing speed issues that can occasionally crop up.
Seems pretty good most of the time, but have noticed occasional times where it slows down a little. Can be due to other things going on at the company and/or high volumes of transactions being run through the system.

Integrating NetSuite

  • Optimo event management software and Ticketmaster.
Optimo is still in-work; Ticketmaster done through imports (high volume of transactions makes this a challenge; will be looking at more automated integration at some point).
  • Ticketmaster - currently done through spreadsheet imports; will look at automating this further at some point.
Yes.

Relationship with NetSuite

I've seen pricing for several different companies and they all seem to get pretty close to the same number for each of the modules. Ask for discounts. They will give better rates for longer terms. Make sure you really understand if you need a given module - might be best to start without it if you have any question and then see if it stops you from doing what you need to do and/or for a small amount of extra work outside of the system, you can avoid additional recurring charges (i.e., doing an allocation in a spreadsheet and then importing a resulting journal entry vs. paying for a module just for that purpose).