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Unlocking NetSuite's full potential for tech company financial leadership

May 23, 2025
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NetSuite Technology industry

Overview

As company operations naturally evolve with growth, technology processes can become misaligned and create operational challenges and business disruptions. By initiating an optimization project, companies can address issues and align technology processes with new demands, creating a scalable platform for sustained success.  

Background 

A rapidly growing technology company based in Georgia was experiencing significant operational inefficiencies and system instability within their NetSuite environment. Over the years, continual enhancements and direct developments in the production environment had resulted in frequent system disruptions, affecting financial reporting, operational workflows and overall business performance.

Seeking to stabilize and optimize their enterprise resource planning system, the company's chief financial officer engaged RSM US LLP for a comprehensive NetSuite assessment. 

Project

The NetSuite assessment focused on several specific challenges faced by the company’s finance leadership, including:

System instability

System instability and change management complexities

The problem: Frequent system instability occurred due to continual direct enhancements in the production environment.

The impact: Instability created unexpected disruptions, data inconsistencies and inefficiencies in financial operations.

RSM’s recommendation: Solutions included implementing a structured change management process, leveraging sandbox environments for development and testing, and utilizing the SuiteCloud Development Framework to manage and deploy scripts effectively.

Inconsistent roles and permissions

Inconsistent roles and permissions

The problem: Misaligned user roles and permissions allowed unauthorized access, creating compliance risks.

The impact: Users could override financial period restrictions, leading to audit vulnerabilities.

RSM’s recommendation: Issues were addressed by realigning roles and permissions with job functions, implementing stricter controls and restricting sensitive transactions to authorized users only. 

Inefficient subsidiary and intercompany setup

Inefficient subsidiary and intercompany setup

The problem: The existing subsidiary structure was not scalable for future growth, and intercompany configurations were incomplete.

The impact: Challenges resulted in inefficient financial consolidation and missed opportunities for automation.

RSM’s recommendation: Solutions included establishing a holding company structure to help streamline financial reporting and utilizing NetSuite’s automated intercompany management features for efficient reconciliations. 

Financial reporting gaps

Chart of accounts and financial reporting gaps

The problem: A disorganized chart of accounts led to inconsistent financial reporting.

The impact: Inconsistencies created difficulty in generating accurate consolidated reports and tracking financial performance.

RSM’s recommendation: Issues were resolved by restructuring the chart of accounts, merging redundant accounts and implementing parent accounts for better reporting and compliance. 

Month-end close bottlenecks

Month-end close and bank reconciliation bottlenecks

The problem: The company lacked structured month-end close procedures and conducted manual bank reconciliations outside of NetSuite.

The impact: These issues delayed financial reporting and increased the risk of reconciliation errors.

RSM’s recommendation: The RSM NetSuite team introduced standardized month-end checklists, utilized NetSuite’s automated bank reconciliation tools and leveraged the “match bank data” feature to streamline processes. 

Manual budgeting and allocation workflows

Manual workflows in budgeting and allocations

The problem: The company manually processed budget entries and financial allocations, leading to inefficiencies.

The impact: The manual processes increased the workload of finance teams and the chance of data entry errors.

RSM’s recommendation: RSM utilized NetSuite’s CSV import feature for efficient budget uploads and implemented allocation schedules to automate cost distributions. 

System instability and change management complexities

The problem: Frequent system instability occurred due to continual direct enhancements in the production environment.

The impact: Instability created unexpected disruptions, data inconsistencies and inefficiencies in financial operations.

RSM’s recommendation: Solutions included implementing a structured change management process, leveraging sandbox environments for development and testing, and utilizing the SuiteCloud Development Framework to manage and deploy scripts effectively.

Inconsistent roles and permissions

The problem: Misaligned user roles and permissions allowed unauthorized access, creating compliance risks.

The impact: Users could override financial period restrictions, leading to audit vulnerabilities.

RSM’s recommendation: Issues were addressed by realigning roles and permissions with job functions, implementing stricter controls and restricting sensitive transactions to authorized users only. 

Inefficient subsidiary and intercompany setup

The problem: The existing subsidiary structure was not scalable for future growth, and intercompany configurations were incomplete.

The impact: Challenges resulted in inefficient financial consolidation and missed opportunities for automation.

RSM’s recommendation: Solutions included establishing a holding company structure to help streamline financial reporting and utilizing NetSuite’s automated intercompany management features for efficient reconciliations. 

Chart of accounts and financial reporting gaps

The problem: A disorganized chart of accounts led to inconsistent financial reporting.

The impact: Inconsistencies created difficulty in generating accurate consolidated reports and tracking financial performance.

RSM’s recommendation: Issues were resolved by restructuring the chart of accounts, merging redundant accounts and implementing parent accounts for better reporting and compliance. 

Month-end close and bank reconciliation bottlenecks

The problem: The company lacked structured month-end close procedures and conducted manual bank reconciliations outside of NetSuite.

The impact: These issues delayed financial reporting and increased the risk of reconciliation errors.

RSM’s recommendation: The RSM NetSuite team introduced standardized month-end checklists, utilized NetSuite’s automated bank reconciliation tools and leveraged the “match bank data” feature to streamline processes. 

Manual workflows in budgeting and allocations

The problem: The company manually processed budget entries and financial allocations, leading to inefficiencies.

The impact: The manual processes increased the workload of finance teams and the chance of data entry errors.

RSM’s recommendation: RSM utilized NetSuite’s CSV import feature for efficient budget uploads and implemented allocation schedules to automate cost distributions. 

Following the NetSuite assessment, the company transformed many of their key business functions, achieving benefits that included:

Greater system stability and efficiency 

  • Reduced system disruptions by leveraging structured change management practices 
  • Improved operational efficiency by automating processes 

Stronger security and compliance 

  • Enhanced financial controls through proper role and permission alignment 
  • Reduced audit risks with restricted transaction access

Scalability for growth

  • Optimized subsidiary and intercompany configurations, enabling seamless expansion 
  • Improved financial consolidation for multi-entity reporting 

Enhanced financial accuracy 

  • Streamlined the chart of accounts and segmentation, improving reporting precision 
  • Automated month-end close and reconciliations, facilitating timely and accurate financial statements

Cost savings and resource optimization 

  • Reduced the manual workload and errors by automating processes
  • Increased productivity and resource utilization within the finance team 

Outcomes

By working with RSM to assess and optimize NetSuite, the company’s CFO successfully addressed critical inefficiencies and positioned the company for sustainable growth. With enhanced system stability, improved security and streamlined financial operations, the company now leverages NetSuite to its full potential, driving better business outcomes and economic success. 

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