How NetSuite reorder information is calculated

[Following is extracted from NetSuite SME email which provides another illustration on how reorder point is calculated]

NON-SEASON (Regular):

Lead Time + Safety Stock = Reorder Point
Reorder Point + Days Supply (or Order Cycle) = Preferred Stocking Level

• Order Cycle is defined as a global value (I don’t think we call it Order Cycle but that’s the standard nomenclature in WD) represented in terms of # of days supply. Think about this as how often do you want to be placing PO’s or how many turns are you trying to achieve.

Let’s say you want a 60 day Order Cycle, Average Lead Time is 7 days and you add a small buffer of 3 more days supply in the form of Safety Stock. Let’s also assume that based on this 60 day “look-back cycle (or audit period)” NetSuite identified the fact that you sold 240 units of product X. Therefore, your demand per day is 4 (240/60).

So, Reorder Point is 28 (7 x 4) + 12 (3 x 4) = 40 units.
Preferred Stocking Level is 40 + 240 (4 x 60) = 280

This is a very standard, yet simplistic way of identifying re-order points and stocking levels (we don’t handle lost sales, exceptional sales or backorder tolerance thresholds) but that’s the formula.

SEASON:

The formula is the same, but the difference is the audit period. Instead of counting back the last 60 days of sales to identify our daily demand rate, we instead go back 1 year from today (or whatever day the computer performs the forecast) and count FORWARD 60 days. Those 60 days become the audit period and then we calculate everything else based on the historical consumption during that audit period. Why do we do this? Because we want to see what our demand was – on this seasonal item – LAST SEASON. Counting back the last 60 days from today is irrelevant to seasonality that comes and goes every 3 months.

NetSuite Clinic in Singapore!

NetSuite will be having its first Singapore NetSuite Clinic!

Details as follows:

DATE: Thursday June 18, 2009

VENUE: Singapore Management University (SMU), School of Economics & Social Sciences
Level 5, Seminar room 5.1, 90 Stamford Road, Singapore 178903

AGENDA:
1:30 – 2:00 pm Registration
2:00 – 2:15 pm Welcome and Introductions
2:15 – 3:00 pm Introduction to NetSuite
3:00 – 4:00 pm Live NetSuite Product Demo
4:00 – 5:00 pm Networking Reception


Refreshments will be provided. This is a free event, but space is limited; please register in advance.

Please contact NetSuite at +65 6511 6130 if you are interested.

Don't miss it!

NetSuite Clinics in Manila!

NetSuite had another round of NetSuite Clinics in their Manila Office (RCBC Plaza in Makati) last 9 and 10 June.

While there was a street rally in the heart of the CBD, Prospects and Partners braved through the traffic jam to participate in a great open forum and networking session. Lunch was served to all participants.

Look out for the next one!

Some Global Search Ideas

If you've been running in NetSuite for a while, the number of records coming back on saved searches gets large. Here's a few tips to help you:

Prefixes

To narrow global search results to records of a single type, use a search prefix made up of some or all of the letters of a standard or custom record type name plus a colon, for example: "cu:" for customer searches, or "it:" for item searches. The whole record name works to help you in some cases, like: "invoice:1002". If you had typed "inv:1002" you would have inventory items in the returns as well as invoices.

Inactive Records

Want to include inactive records? Put a "+" after the keywords; for example, "cu:acme+" will return both active and inactive customers with records containing the letters "acme".

Exact Match

You can get returns limited to those that exactly match your input. Put quotation marks around your keyword. Enter cu:"john" to search for customers with a name of John. Customers with names containing the letters john, like Johnson, Johnston, or Johnny Walker, are not returned. Don't worry about numeric keywords; they automatically return only exact matches. You might have returns of several transaction types with the same number though, so see above about prefixes.

Non-exact Match for Numeric Searches

You can get a list of non-exact matches for your numeric keyword searches by using the wildcard "%". For example, if you wanted to see all inventory items containing the number "100," you can search on "inventory:100%". This returns all inventory items that have the number 100 in their name.

New Window

If you don't want to lose the record you're on while you go look at another record you need to search for, add an extra colon between the prefix and the search string. Your results will open in a new browser window. You could combine this with a wildcard too; as in, "inventory::120%" which would open a new browser window displaying the list of inventory items with name/numbers containing the digits 120.

Happy searching!

Another great tip from one of our favourite contributors, Jay!

Indian Localization for NetSuite

Proquest Solutions Pvt. Ltd. provides customization of NetSuite to cater to Indian taxation. Taxes covered in this module include Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), VAT, Sales Tax along with Statuatory reports to be submitted to the Government.


Call 020-25635383/+919766628333 or email: sales@proquestsolutions.com

Asia Web Designer for NetSuite

Enterprise Global Limited creates tools to custom build specific API's to integrate to NetSuite platform. These tools can be part of a port to NetSuite of an exisitng site or an entirely new build within NetSuite.



Website and Intranet integration (new site build and integration to NetSuite (Custom API's for e-commerce, CRM and ERP). Localised Asian Langauge support.

Mobile Marketing solution for Netsuite

Mobile marketing channel is now available in NetSuite via integration.

A Partner, TheTMSway, provides tools

• to build rich mobile web sites automatically optimized for all mobiles,



• to deliver the mobile offer via Mobile alert from all Media (print, web, traditional), and



• to collect and manage users data.

Tip-Bit: Emailing Preferences

For emailing transactions, you can give your users options when sending.

From the Administrator role, go to Setup>Company>Printing, Fax & Email Preferences, and click on the Email subtab. In the Transactions section, check the Use Popup For Main Transaction Email Button checkbox, and then Save.

When users click the Email button on transactions, they will now get a pop-up box with tabs to add additional recipients, add a message, choose how to send; e.g., inline, HTML, PDF, and much more.

Mahalo to Jay for this Tip!

Tracking of Offset Transactions

This is a way to clearly account for offsetting a vendor's balance against sales to that same company. It provides a trail of transactions that are clearly visible in the system.

Assumption: We have a vendor who also sells us goods or services. They desire to offset what they owe us against what we owe them.

Setup

1) Create an Expense Account called "Exchange Account." This account will serve to pass the money from one record to the other. It will return to a zero balance after each offset's series of transactions.

2) Set up an Other Charge Item For Sale called "Exchange Item."

Procedure

1) Set up the vendor with a customer record on the same entity:
a) Edit the Vendor record and go to the Info subtab.
b) Click on the plus sign next to Other Relationships.
c) In the Type pane, click on Customer.

2) Always invoice that entity on the Customer record you just created. Always bill on the existing Vendor record.

3) When it is time to apply their vendor balance to their customer balance, proceed as follows:
a) Create a Vendor Credit for that vendor for the amount to be offset, using the Exchange Account. This moves that amount out of their A/P and into the Exchange Account.
b) Go to the customer record for that entity and create a credit memo for the same amount using the Exchange Item. This adjusts the Exchange Account to zero, and adjusts the customer record's balance to the adjusted amount (moves that amount out of their A/R.)

Mahalo to Jay for this Tip!

Validate XML before submit to NS

Sometimes you may find NS rejects your XML submit due to non-validating error.

Try to use xmllint to validate new xml file against http://www.netledger.com/xml/dtd/smb_5_01.dtd before submitting to NS. This should eliminate validation error and reduce turn around time.

Personally I use the xmllint processor embedded in UltraEdit.

csv export image field

There is a requirement to export images to Excel file. What you get by csv export will be a URI similar to /core/media/media.nl?id=xxxx&c=yyyy&h=zzzz

I've written an Excel .xla which search for this pattern, prepend https://system.netsuite.com/, then use ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(url).Select to attach the image to Excel.

The customer finds this useful.

Paging all NetSuite Fans in Asia!

If you're based in Asia (or would like to move here soon!)...

...and if you're a NetSuite fan (or a fan-in-the-making)...

Read, digest, and enjoy our Blog as we talk about ours and your favourite SaaS killer app!