Last week, we tackled how to partially bill a purchase order in NetSuite. In today’s Suite Guide, we’re going to discuss useful general preferences. NetSuite general preferences can be configured by the administrator or any role that has permission to general preferences.
Setting General Account Preferences
To set up NetSuite general preferences, navigate to Set up > Company > General Preferences. To update or make changes to these preferences at any time, return to Setup > Company > General Preferences, make changes, and click Save.
NetSuite has numerous general preferences. Some were straightforward forward like the time, date, and number format settings.
For this session, we’ll be going through the preferences that can be configured which can ease the use of NetSuite to users.
Use Last Name First For Employees
Checking this box lists the employees’ last names and lists in NetSuite as well as for tax and payroll. This affects the main field of the employee record when being used in CSV importing.
Use Last Name First For Entities
The next NetSuite general preferences affect contacts, customers, partners, and vendor records. This would only affect records that have been created after these preferences were set and if the record was created as an individual type.
Pre-Populate Contact Address
When enabled, this automatically fills in the address fields of the contact records created from a custom record, so it copies if there’s already an address set in the contact record.
Show Display Name With Item Codes
This NetSuite general preference affects all the item records and what it does is that when selected items in transactions and records would also show both item name and display code populated.
Password Policy
There are three password policy options: Weak, Medium, and Strong. The Medium option increases the length requirement to 8 characters, and also requires that passwords consist of at least two character types. The character types are upper case letters, lower case letters, non-alphanumeric ASCII characters, and numbers. With the Strong option, passwords must be at least 10 characters long and must consist of at least three of the four character types. For obvious reasons, the weak option is not recommended.
Minimum Password Length
The minimum password length is affected by the default set minimum password or rather the password policy that’s set so if strong is selected the default minimum password length should be 10 if it is set to lower then NetSuite would have help when trying to save a general prefers nets suite would have a message warning that you would need to have a minimum length of 10.
Password Expiration In Days
This sets the number of days before a password expires for all users and valid values are ranged from 1-365. This should be set up as per the company policies for account security.
Idle Session Timeout In Minutes
This NetSuite general preference sets the number of minutes before a user interface session meaning the person. By default, it is set to 180 minutes. By default and the minimum value is 15 the maximum would be 720.
Allow Free-Form States In Addresses
When this preference is enabled, the state province field is a freeform text field so you can type anything in this field and it won’t be converted into a state or province identifier.
Use State Abbreviations In Addresses
So this affects the state province field on any records, location records, and transactions. It also affects the search fields on location and transaction searches based on addresses.
Delay Loading Of Sublists
What it does is it would delay the loading of data on sub-tabs for records until opening the specific sub-tab. This helps out in decreasing the page load times.
Number of Rows in List Segments
This NetSuite general preference sets the number of records displayed in the list. You can select the number of rows in the list segments you would like to display in search results.
Maximum Entries in Dropdowns
In the Maximum Entries in Dropdowns field, users enter the maximum number of records that they want to appear in dropdown lists. This also affects the load times of the dropdown. The highest number that users can enter is 500. To update, simply change the number to less than the total items, customer records, vendor records, etc., and click Save.
Log System Notes on Update Only
When enabled, this preference will only log changes to a record in the system, not a tab. This allows servers storage settings and some performance improvements as this does not log the creation of the record in the system notes.
Show Quick Add Row on Lists
When this NetSuite preference is enabled, it allows the quick ad of new records with basic information on direct editable enabled lists.
Show List When Only One Result
Once this is enabled, this would affect the search results and show the record as a list even if there’s only one record. If disabled, NetSuite throws down to the single record by default. By default, NetSuite opens the individual record when there is only one record in search results.
Default Customer, Lead, Vendor, and Partner Type
The four have similar functions, choose whether they are classified as individuals or companies by default. For companies, company names are used. If it’s set to a Company, you can create a contact record.
Auto Name Customers
Once enabled, this preference sets the auto box on custom records to be checked by default so that the customer id field copies the entered customer name. If Auto Name Customers is not checked, the id field would be a free-form text field, which users can enter in.
Hide Attachment Folders
This preference would hide the attachment folders from users and will only be available to administrators. The folders are the attachment received, attachment sent, and mail merge folders so this is more of a control administrator setting and would provide more security restrictions to the account for custom roles.
Email Employee On Approvals
Check this NetSuite general preference to automatically send email messages to employees when their supervisors approve their purchase requests, expense reports, and time transactions.
Time Selectors Use Fiscal Calendars Based On First Month
When this NetSuite preference is checked, date range selectors for fiscal elements account for the First Fiscal Month setting in Setup > Company > Company Information. When this box is not checked, time selectors strictly reflect definitions for accounting years, quarters, and periods, as defined in the custom Fiscal Calendar.
Show Transaction Numbering Setup
The show transaction numbering setup NetSuite preference displays the Transaction Numbers subtab at Setup > Company > Auto-Generated Numbers. Auto-generated numbers for transaction records are internal numbers that cannot be overwritten. These are unique, gapless numbers that are generated when transaction records are created. This NetSuite preference also affects Global search results.
Create Automatic Memorized Transactions As -System-
This NetSuite preference will show System in the system notes instead of the user and a memorized transaction is created. If this is cleared, the last user who edited the memorized transaction definition would be logged instead.
Allow Subsidiary Hierarchy To Be Modified (Max: 30 Days)
This preference specifies a period during which authorized users can modify the subsidiary hierarchy. This can allow changing to the parent/child subsidiary setup and would be open by the inputted number of days. The best practice is to only have admins or account controllers have edit access. The modification period can be a maximum of 30 days long. This is a very important general preference to set and should be planned accordingly.
Wrapping Up
As a highly accredited NetSuite Solution Provider, ScaleNorth is well positioned to help you with the full scope of your NetSuite customization needs. If you require more NetSuite assistance, contact ScaleNorth today.
About the Author
Andrew Alvarez is a seasoned NetSuite expert with 14+ years of experience in project management, consulting, and ERP system implementation. Skilled in process improvements, customization, and functional consulting, he excels in optimizing business operations for success.
With a strong background in system analysis and team handling, Andrew continues to make a significant impact in the world of NetSuite.