, FP&A Manager, Abacum
19 min read · Published: June 26, 2023
Table of contents
🎯 Introduction
Over the past five years, the role of FP&A teams has changed drastically. Moving away from being number crunchers and report runners, finance professionals are now expected to step up as strategic decision-makers and business transformation drivers. The shift in priorities, along with ever-growing datasets and analytical capabilities, requires finance teams to optimize their systems, streamline processes, and find foundational alignment within their tech stack.
Oracle NetSuite is a cloud-based software solution that brings together the functionality of enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, analytical tools, and more. Fast-growth organizations can rely on NetSuite to be the one-stop shop for data storage, analytical insights, and business levers. As powerful as ERPs have been in the past, in an effort to bring finance into the 21st century, businesses need to bring additional analytical tools and other technical capabilities into their ecosystems.
Although it might seem like NetSuite is a quick fix for all finance teams and business leaders, the reality is that many organizations have existing systems that NetSuite must work with to provide a complete business picture. That’s where NetSuite integrations come in. The platform’s integration capabilities enable it to be effective in many business settings and across a variety of industries. By pairing new data capabilities with the ERP power of NetSuite, finance organizations can finally have the impact they are designed to have.
For finance teams specifically, understanding NetSuite integrations can change how the department runs and boost its impact potential.
Our guide of 12 different integrations will highlight effective technologies and make it easier to start setting up any necessary integrations for your organization.
Targeted toward fast-growing businesses, NetSuite is a scalable ERP that emphasizes versatility, reliability, automation, and data integrity. Since it’s cloud-based, NetSuite’s benefits can be accessed from anywhere around the globe, as long as users have access to the internet. The data foundation created by NetSuite enables downstream dashboards, process automation, and detailed reporting, but it doesn’t stop there.
With proper integrations, NetSuite can be used as the foundation for:
The above list is non-exhaustive, and users can customize NetSuite’s capabilities by exploring possible integration options. The platform can be helpful for a zero-based budgeting approach, along with many other financial processes.
As critical as NetSuite is in a number of business settings, recognizing its limitations as a system will help highlight areas where other systems can come into play and have a business impact. NetSuite can’t do it all alone, but with NetSuite integrations, businesses will enter a new era of financial operations.
Because NetSuite stores all actuals and other financial data, it is the base system that many other systems connect back to when conducting analysis or monitoring KPIs. A NetSuite Integration refers to the process of using connectors to bring NetSuite together with an existing business system.
Do you have a CRM that works really well for your customers and you aren’t ready to retire it? You can investigate whether or not it is a potential candidate to integrate with NetSuite.
Because NetSuite serves over 36,000 businesses, the list of possible integrations is thorough, making it easier than ever for businesses to adopt this cloud-based solution to change how the organization operates. Integrations go above and beyond the finance function, enabling seamless cross-functional collaboration and organization-wide data alignment.
NetSuite expands its integration offerings every single year. By providing a number of ways to connect unique or old systems, NetSuite offers its long list of benefits to even the most complex organizations. Depending on whether or not you want NetSuite to write with a target system and vice versa, you’ll need to determine whether a two-way integration or a one-way integration is best for your needs.
Every system connects to NetSuite in a unique way, so it may take some collaboration with NetSuite’s technical team to figure out what works best for your existing systems, but a few of the major integration methods are:
Best for integrating ecommerce and online marketplace platforms with NetSuite, the NetSuite Connector has pre-built integrations to sync inventory data, order data, fulfillment data, and more. Shopify, WooCommerce, and Adobe Commerce are a few systems that can be integrated with NetSuite via this method.
SuiteApps are applications that were designed and built specifically to extend NetSuite’s impact. They run on NetSuite servers and integrate with the platform seamlessly, making it easy to monitor and scrub data.
If you’re looking to connect industry-leading CRMs and other business management tools, SuiteCloud Connect provides the tools to do so. Often used to integrate systems like Salesforce with NetSuite, this method is easy to use.
When more customization is needed to get your system to work with NetSuite properly, Restlets allow developers to customize every step of the way.
If you’re still unsure which method is best for your existing systems, work with your internal technical team as well as NetSuite’s customer support team to make your integration plan.
NetSuite integrations cover a lot of ground; functions from sales to marketing and everything in between can benefit from an optimized system infrastructure.
With NetSuite, finding the right tools to integrate is half the battle. Here are some of the best tools to use with NetSuite, sorted by business function:
NetSuite and Abacum come together seamlessly to create a powerful tool for finance teams. Using NetSuite as your ERP to house all the data and funneling it into Abacum for reporting, analytics, and visualization will uplevel your finance department’s outputs and boost its impact. NetSuite can be relied on to run core business processes and Abacum takes the foundational information to make it actionable.
Advantages: After NetSuite is brought into your organization, Abacum can be connected to it and made functional in just a couple of weeks. Supplementing the lack of budgeting capabilities in NetSuite itself, Abacum provides budget owners the right forum to enter their annual budget plans and monitor periodic changes. Real-time data flows seamlessly from NetSuite to Abacum, making it simple to monitor trends, get real-time analytics, and maintain data integrity.
Standout Features: Abacum works well with NetSuite, but it can also connect directly to other ERPs within your organization if needed. Whether you have multiple ERPs to gather data from or use NetSuite as a data source, Abacum can handle all the reporting and analytics required to make finance teams effective.
Best for: Finance teams that are ready to take their insights to the next level by providing interactive visualizations, complex data analytics, and customizable reporting.
Integration Type: One-way integration.
Customer Review: When asked what problems Abacum is solving for their team, one user responded,
“Being able to aggregate our NetSuite data, connect our data through Tableau and measure against our forecast/budget.”
Connect your ERP or any system of records with Abacum. Easily analyze your revenue, expenses, financial statements, or consolidations.
One of the premier CRM solutions in the world, Salesforce offers robust sales metric tracking and makes customer relationship management easy. When paired with NetSuite, Salesforce pulls data directly from NetSuite to supplement sales analytics and inform sales targets. Backed by NetSuite’s data, Salesforce provides a layer of automation regarding customer outreach and gives sales teams insight into customers that may need attention.
Advantages: The two-way integration means that Salesforce and NetSuite can communicate with each other, and both have the ability to write data into the other system. If NetSuite needs updated sales data or vice versa, the reconciliation is automatic and very easy to track.
Standout Features: Salesforce Opportunities and NetSuite Sales Orders can be synced together and there is an option to sync NetSuite Sales Orders with Salesforce Orders as well.
Best for: Strategic organizations that are looking to benefit from interconnected CRM and ERP capabilities, reduce departmental friction, and improve the customer experience.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Review:
“It’s a one-stop shop for all of our CRM and sales needs, and it’s compatible with other enterprise resource planning software like Netsuite.”
HubSpot pulls data from NetSuite including customers, companies, inventory items, and sales opportunities to personalize marketing campaigns and track the effectiveness of new campaigns. With a two-way sync, both systems stay updated with the most relevant information, equipping sales and marketing teams with the ability to ramp up campaigns, adapt quickly, and segment customers based on certain characteristics.
Advantages: Unlike many other tools, HubSpot is embedded within NetSuite, allowing users to benefit from its features directly within NetSuite’s platform.
Standout Features: When a sale is made, NetSuite can send revenue data directly to HubSpot, ensuring a constantly tied-out state between marketing campaigns and revenue hitting the top line.
Best for: Busy sales and marketing teams that need to establish a cohesive strategy and reduce communication blunders between their operations and their finance support teams.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Review:
“Bringing all of our digital marketing platforms into one place has allowed us to connect processes and build out time-saving automations. This saves our team time and our company money.”
When managing customer complaints, returns, or other customer service challenges, NetSuite makes it easy for customer service teams to have all the data they need at their fingertips. By funneling customer data and even existing service tickets from NetSuite directly to Zendesk, customer service teams can resolve complaints quickly and reduce the number of times customers have to explain their situation or share details about their accounts.
Advantages: When Zendesk Users are synced with NetSuite Contacts, running your business gets much easier. It’s also possible to sync Zendesk tickets with cases in NetSuite, driving alignment between your base ERP and the customer service function.
Standout Features: A popular feature for Zendesk users is that a custom records tab including warranty information, RMA data, and more can be written into NetSuite by using the Zendesk ticketing functionality.
Best for: Growing customer service departments that are facing higher demand and need tools to manage customer interactions and resolve submitted tickets.
Integration Type: Many features offer a one-way sync while some others offer a two-way sync.
Customer Review:
“Zendesk is a highly customizable, versatile, easy to use tool for customer support teams. As a new hire, I found the learning curve to be pretty low. Seamless integration with knowledge management makes managing a large email queue a breeze — no need for support agents to hand write every single response.”
Streamlining processes that fall onto finance and procurement teams, PayEm is a platform that brings together spend management, accounts payable automation, and procure-to-pay processes in one place. Within 30 minutes, PayEm can be connected to NetSuite to reconcile bill payments with journal entries, manage purchase orders in real time, create invoices automatically, and remove data discrepancies at every step of the way.
Advantages: With automatic amortization by entire bills or by line item, NetSuite makes PayEm even more effective. There are also many customization options to build fields, forms, and segments that work for your organization.
Standout Features: Purchase orders can be imported from NetSuite into PayEm where they can then be assigned to credit cards, mapped through an approval flow, and closed out when complete.
Best for: Accounts payable and accounting teams that are looking to transition old processes into new, digitized, or automated processes.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Review:
“Easy to use and very helpful in controlling day-to-day expenses, and synchronizing with NetSuite is working great.”
On its own, WooCommerce is a powerful ecommerce platform that enables businesses to create their own online stores, customize the online shopping experience for customers, and easily track product sales and other metrics. When combined with NetSuite, WooCommerce becomes even more powerful. When integrated, WooCommerce syncs orders and customers to NetSuite in real-time; product prices, customer updates, coupon uses, and other features use the bi-directional flow to keep both systems updated and aligned.
‍Advantages: Because of the ability to synchronize inventory and prices, the financial close process is made easier than ever. Revenue management is simple to audit, expense management can be tweaked with one click, and the financial performance of your business will be clearer than ever.
Standout Features: The “Orders Sync” feature allows companies to assign location on order items, sync coupons, delete or restore orders as needed, and more.
Best for: Organizations that are entering or operating in ecommerce and need to have streamlined communication between online sales, orders, and customers when closing the books each month.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Review:
“The interface is intuitive, and the customization options are endless. Plus, there are tons of great plugins and integrations available to extend its functionality even further.”
Bringing the order processing power of Shopify and the financially-powerful ERP capabilities of NetSuite together enables organizations to streamline front-end and back-end processes. Accounting tasks are simplified with this integration because product information and pricing data can be updated once, flowing through to other systems and platforms, driving alignment and financial reconciliation multiple times a day. The NetSuite ERP features help automate transaction records, payable actions, and even tax collection while Shopify is providing your customers with an intuitive purchasing experience.
Advantages: Able to handle a large volume of transactions, both Shopify and NetSuite grow with your business. Managing multiple locations and tracking a complex web of transactions has never been easier.
Standout Features: Fulfillment sync, order sync, and price & quantify sync features ensure that all sales data and financial records are constantly updated, revolutionizing how effective finance can be when it comes to analytics, reporting, and the financial close process.
Best for: Well-connected finance teams that are tired of spending time waiting for sales numbers to finalize, systems to reconcile, and all entries to be made. This NetSuite integration creates a trustworthy data source that is always up to date.
Integration Type: Two-way integration for most features.
Customer Review:
“Shopify is an all-in-one solution for setting up and managing an online store because it offers scalability for companies of all sizes and offers a variety of payment processing choices.”
Over 130,000 merchants use ShipStation to save money on shipping costs, print labels in less time, and reduce the time it takes to get products out the door. When paired with NetSuite, ShipStation enables record order fulfillment timelines and optimizes your shipping experience. Part of customer support is getting products to your users quickly, and with ShipStation and NetSuite, managing partial fulfillment, processing shipping labels, and recording shipped items is a 2-way, cohesive procedure.
Advantages: When order fulfillment is tracked back to the ERP, NetSuite, finance teams can get a complete snapshot of upcoming orders, enhance cost models with more accurate information, and account for the cost of returns based on actual customer return rates.
Standout Features: Order management can be automated with this integration; the two systems will work together to automatically send orders to 3PLs, vendors, and warehouses.
Best for: If freight costs and shipping timelines cannot be tracked with a certain level of accuracy, spend forecasts and budget management are extremely challenging. This integration helps warehouse teams while making them better partners for their finance counterparts.
Integration Type: Finance teams that struggle to drive alignment around order fulfillment, shipping, and customer returns. With ShipStation and NetSuite, teams can worry less about singular transactions and focus on the bigger picture.
Customer Feedback:
“ShipStation has been one of the awesome wins with our small business. It saves us hours on shipping time, and it is reliable and keeps records of everything. The ability to run through dozens of orders and get shipping labels printed for them so rapidly is honestly priceless.”
This Integration Platform (iPaaS) for NetSuite makes it easy to connect your favorite platforms and services with NetSuite itself. With Celigo, it’s possible to transform and automate a multitude of business processes because it enables such a lengthy list of integrations with the NetSuite platform. Customized templates, quick integration timelines, and NetSuite-specific functionality make Celigo a critical tool in overall digital transformation for businesses. The possibilities are limitless when Celigo is being used.
Advantages: Celigo’s intuitive design and no-code requirements allow non-technical resources to benefit from its long list of NetSuite integrations. The customization possibilities that are possible without a programmer make Celigo stand out from similar solutions.
Standout Features: Celigo is more than just an integration connector; it provides a dashboard and interactive platform where system updates and software integrations can be made in one place. Mappings, configurations, and other settings can be set once and made to flow through all integrated systems.
Best for: Increasingly-complex businesses that are looking to closely manage all integration apps and ensure systems work well together, maintain alignment, and don’t require coding to be updated.
Integration Type: Celigo offers a proprietary NetSuite integration that is unique to the platform.
Customer Review:
“Pre-built connectors make it easy to integrate with popular business applications like Salesforce, NetSuite, Shopify, Magento, and more added frequently. This saves businesses time and money on development and ensures that integrations are reliable and efficient.”
One of the most advanced business intelligence (BI) tools, Tableau has been a pioneer in visualizations, interactive reporting, and long-standing dashboards. When pulling data from NetSuite, Tableau’s reports are seamless, easy to read, and offer actionable insights. NetSuite customers can boost their financial capabilities, sales reporting, and marketing analytics all via Tableau.
Advantages: With many pre-built reports, Tableau is accessible to new users. However, its complex customizations make it a strong tool for more technical resources and growing data analytics departments.
Standout Features: For many FP&A software solutions, unstructured data throws a wrench in processing and reporting, but with NetSuite and Tableau, unstructured data is automatically scanned, identified, and flagged to be reviewed, removing the source of many errors and reporting issues.
Best for: When finance teams are attempting to uplevel their responsibilities as strategic business partners and cater to a variety of business needs, the dashboarding power of Tableau working with the enterprise resource planning in NetSuite helps drive that dynamic adjustment.
Integration Type: Mostly one-way, though some mapping and data updates can be written from Tableau to NetSuite.
Customer Review:
“Tableau desktop is allowing our company to gain visibility into our NetSuite and Salesforce data. This provides the company with valuable information that is easy to understand and see in order to make insightful and educational decisions.”
Payroll is a joint effort between HR and finance teams, and it’s one of the most important functions for a business to get right. With ADP — a global leader in payroll processing — and NetSuite, the journal entries associated with payroll can be automated and set to run right after money is disbursed. But it doesn’t stop there; this integration allows simple expense reimbursement, new hire additions, and labor allocation calculations.
Advantages: Out-of-the-box, this connection offers 28 prebuilt fields in both NetSuite and ADP, but more can be added as needed. With alignment, journal entries, payroll, and tax payment tracking can be automated each year.
Standout Features: With labor allocation codes, time spent on different projects or with different clients can be tracked and billed accordingly. This process is normally a painstaking, time-consuming endeavor, but with these systems as endpoints, it no longer has to take away from more value-add tasks.
Best for: Tackling ever-growing payroll challenges; whether your headcount is growing, changing, or even shrinking, the ADP/NetSuite integration helps manage every change within your organization.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Feedback:
“I have used this software for over 8 years now, as an employee of companies that use it for payroll services. It is easy to use and navigate as a user and provides accurate data.”
Whether you need to get customer signatures, close a deal with a supplier, or finalize a contract with a new hire, DocuSign allows your organization to complete these tasks from anywhere. With NetSuite, this platform enables agreement tracking and populates final contracts within the enterprise resource planning system itself. Instead of dealing with the back-and-forth of collecting written signatures, this integration provides a secure, efficient way to keep all your contractual ducks in a row.
Advantages: The no-code integration is one of the best parts of this dynamic duo. You don’t need technical resources to set up the integration or manage the transactions; everyone from your legal team to your executive assistants can work independently.
Standout Features: When finance processes require leadership approval, those signatures can be collected, monitored, and archived all in the same place. They are easy to look back on if needed and remove a lot of manual data entry work.
Best for: When you need to depend on contractual agreements and approvals to be accessible and traceable.
Integration Type: Two-way integration.
Customer Feedback:
“At my company, we use DocuSign to send out electronic sales agreements with our clients. I like that the software allows for quick and secure e-signatures, and it easily integrates with various systems and platforms.”
Depending on what your organization needs are, becoming NetSuite customers can lead to massive process overhauls, streamlined business interactions, and a single source of truth when it comes to your data.
When paired with other integrations, your NetSuite account becomes even more powerful, benefitting finance teams, sales teams, marketing teams, and more. You know your business best, so you may choose to focus on one or two of the above integrations first, but hopefully, you now have a picture of how NetSuite integrations can transform your business from the inside out.
If you’re implementing any new systems — NetSuite or something else — our implementation guide is a helpful starting point.
When you pair FP&A software with an ERP like NetSuite, you enable automation, system alignment, and overall process optimization. By letting systems do a lot of the heavy lifting, your critical business teams like finance and HR spend less time recording data and untangled system errors and more time serving customers, partnering with business leaders, and boosting analytical capabilities.
There are two types of NetSuite API: SuiteScript and SuiteTalk REST. Depending on the system you are integrating with NetSuite, you may encounter both of these secure, tested API options. Your NetSuite support contact can help you determine which one you should work with if there are ever any questions.
SuiteTalk is a web service tool that enables the connection of third-party systems with NetSuite. It is compatible with all programming languages and includes real-time data integration. SuiteScript, on the other hand, is built on JavaScript and is used more for automation-related endeavors.
The NetSuite SuiteTalk API, as noted above, is one of the main APIs used for NetSuite integrations. It can be relied upon to bring third-party platforms together with NetSuite; many of the examples in this article would lean on SuiteTalk for full functionality.
This customization and integration platform helps make NetSuite more customizable to fit your business needs. You can adapt the platform’s functionality, build custom integrations, and much more.
The price points for integration solutions vary widely. Some offer free, out-of-the-box integrations while other systems require customization and a higher price point. Work with NetSuite support to determine the exact fee schedule based on the target system, your organization’s size, and feature enablement.
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