Financial Excel Tips & Tricks

NetSuite Financial Reporting Fundamentals

Any financial report should start from a top-down approach, this is driven by the Subsidiary in NetSuite reporting.  Attempting to use another segment, such as classification or location is not recommended as you risk not getting an accurate or complete picture of your financial information.  In NetSuite, everything is segmented first by subsidiary and it is the main driver for all reports.

Approaching Report Development

1. A subsidiary in NetSuite is a legal entity that always self-balances to $0 at the trial balance level making it a dependable starting point for any financial report. Selecting a subsidiary first captures all financial data comprehensively.
2. Reporting components should always tie back (either in summary or total) to the basic accounting equations
   1. Assets = Liabilities + Equity (Assets - Liabilities - Equity = $0 should be your starting point)
   2. Assets:
      1. Assets = Current Assets + Long Term Assets
         1. Current Assets = Bank + Accounts Receivable + Inventory + Deferred Expense + Other Current Assets
         2. Long Term Assets = Fixed Assets + Other Assets
   3. Liabilities:
      1. Liabilities = Current Liabilities + Long Term Liability
         1. Current Liability = Accounts Payable + Credit Card + Other Current Liabilities + Deferred Revenue + Current Portion of Long-Term Debt
         2. Long Term Liability = Long Term Debt + Deferred Taxes Long Term + Other Non-Current Liabilities
   4. Equity/Net Income:
      1. Equity = Capital Contributions - Distributions + Retained Earnings + Net Income/(Loss)
      2. Net Income (Loss) = Ordinary Revenue + Ordinary Expense + Other Income + Other Expense
         1. Ordinary Expense = Cost of Goods Sold + Selling + General & Administrative
            1. General & Expense technically includes Depreciation Expenses and Taxes
3. Tying out the Trial Balance and Basic Financial Reporting Components is highly recommended for report development.
4. With Finsyte, if you do not select a specific subsidiary for financial reports, it will default to the users default subsidiary. It is recommended for report developers that a subsidiary is explicitly selected when report writing.

Need a deeper understanding of NetSuite Financials, review this NetSuite documentation (opens in new tab).