How Custom NetSuite General Ledger Lines Can Benefit Clients
When business processes use NetSuite to manage their financial and accounting operations, they often face the challenge with the system’s native accounting processes with their specific requirements. Standard transactions and accounting methods may not always fit to all business needs, which is where Custom GL Lines come into play. By using Custom NetSuite General Ledger Lines, companies can customize how financial data is recorded, giving them more control and flexibility over their General Ledger (GL) entries.
In this blog, we will explore how Custom GL Lines in NetSuite can help clients meet their specific financial reporting and accounting needs.
What Are Custom GL Lines in NetSuite?
Custom GL Lines allow clients to customize and automate their business for creation of additional General Ledger impact (journal entries) in NetSuite transactions such as invoices, vendor bills, journal entries, and more. They provide an advanced way to modify or add accounting logic to transactions without altering the base transaction record itself.
Custom GL Lines can be used to:
- Automate complex accounting processes (like creating intercompany transactions).
- Allocate expenses or revenues across departments or subsidiaries.
- Add custom financial logic that does not exist in standard NetSuite processes.
How Custom GL Lines Can Help Clients
- Automating Complex Accounting Rules
Many businesses have complex accounting rules that NetSuite’s out-of-the-box functionality may not fully support.By automating these rules, businesses can reduce errors, increase efficiency, and ensure that their accounting complies with internal policies and standards.With Custom GL Lines, businesses can automate these rules based on various conditions like account types, subsidiaries, departments, or custom fields. For example:
Intercompany Transactions: For companies operating across multiple subsidiaries, Custom GL Lines can automatically create intercompany adjustments by adding GL entries during the transaction process, eliminating the need for manual journal entries.
2. Enhanced Financial Reporting and Compliance
Businesses often need to comply with industry-specific financial reporting requirements that may not align with standard accounting procedures. Custom GL Lines can be tailored to meet these compliance requirements, ensuring that financial reports accurately reflect the company’s financial health.
3. Customizing GL Entries Based on Business Needs
Standard GL entries often don’t provide the flexibility businesses require for customized accounting logic. Custom GL Lines enable businesses to add, modify, or replace GL impact based on their custom rules.
4. Simplifying Manual Journal Entries
Without Custom GL Lines, businesses often rely on manual journal entries to adjust or correct financial transactions. This process is time-consuming, prone to errors, and difficult to audit. Custom GL Lines automate this process, ensuring that GL entries are created correctly during the transaction itself, eliminating the need for manual intervention.
5. Improving Audit Trails and Transparency
When businesses depend on manual adjustments or complex accounting workarounds, it can be difficult to maintain clear audit trails. Custom GL Lines ensure that all additional GL entries are automatically generated as part of the original transaction, improving the traceability of financial adjustments.
6.Reducing Dependency on Workarounds and Manual Processes
Without Custom GL Lines, businesses may depend on using workarounds such as creating multiple transactions or relying on manual journal entries. These workarounds can create inefficiencies and increase the complexity of managing financial data. Custom GL Lines eliminate the need for these workarounds by directly customizing GL impact at the transactional level.
Steps to Implement a Custom GL Plugin in NetSuite
- Develop the Custom GL Impact Plugin
- Set Conditions for Triggering GL Lines
- Deploy the Custom GL Plugin
- Thoroughly Test the Plugin
- Monitor and Optimize
Custom GL Lines in NetSuite provide businesses with the ability to implement advanced financial controls, automate complex accounting rules, and enhance reporting accuracy. By utilizing Custom GL Lines, clients can reduce manual intervention, improve compliance, and streamline their accounting processes, ultimately increasing efficiency and accuracy in their financial operations.
Whether a business needs to manage complex revenue recognition, intercompany transactions, or simply reduce the reliance on manual journal entries, Custom GL Lines offer the flexibility and control necessary to align NetSuite’s financial processes with specific business needs.
