Searching online you can find almost anything you need to know about NetSuite but the one thing you will struggle to find information about is how much it is going to cost? Coras Consulting is systems agnostic, but has done many NetSuite implementations. This allows us to give you independent advice during ERP selection on how much you are likely NetSuite will end up costing your business before you sign up. Read on for our NetSuite pricing guide.

When implementing an ERP there are 2 main types of cost – implementation costs and ongoing license costs.

Implementation Costs

Implementation costs are the one-off costs to get you live on NetSuite. See more information on the steps involved in a NetSuite implementation timeline. You can see here the main steps that will form part of your implementation. The most time-consuming and therefore costly tasks on this from a systems integrator point of view are:

• System Configuration
• Data Migration
• Any process deviations from standard NetSuite configuration

Other factors that can impact the time and cost taken to implement include:

• Number of subsidiaries and countries you operate in
• Number of banking relationships and how you want to do payments
• Data quality
• How much your processes vary from NetSuite standard processes

NetSuite implementations start from approximately £60,000 for more straightforward implementations and can be delivered in quick timeframes. Some points to consider about the price of a NetSuite implementation include:

• When choosing an implementation partner you will mainly have 2 options, selecting NetSuite to do your implementation or selecting a third-party implementation partner.
• Sometimes the lower upfront costs will get you live on the system but will mean that they result in less time sent on discovery. This can result in problems after go-live which will end costing more money and definitely more stress than if you had paid additional costs up front.
• There are other implementation costs to consider such as if you will need an

Other implementation costs include:

Please consider that there will be a lot of additional work required for your finance team during and after implementation. This will be especially important during training, user acceptance testing, cutover and hypercare. You might find it best to hire additional resource on a temporary basis during this period.

It will be important to get the system users involved during the implementation so it might be best and cheaper to backfill their roles.

NetSuite charging model is complicated and includes changes for essential parts of the service such as licenses and then also charges for additional modules, training, support etc.

It is important to get your implementation right and spend money up front. Otherwise you will need to do a NetSuite optimisation post go-live which will cost more money.

NetSuite License Costs

Like most ERP pricing, NetSuite licensing is multi-layered, and it can be difficult for new users to work out exactly what they are paying for, what they need to pay for and how much it will all cost when you put it together. We help to advise businesses about how to maximise their investment in NetSuite ERP and we can also speak to you about other ERPs that might provide better value.

NetSuite Suite Success

The main NetSuite cost is its Suite Success Services license. NetSuite lumps most financials modules and some others into this cost. There is also a cheaper more lightweight option that you can opt for but this does not include some functionality particularly around advanced revenue management.

NetSuite Financials First

The more lightweight legacy version of Suite Success is termed Financials First. Crucially this doesn’t come with advanced revenue management which basically means deferred and accrued revenue will need to be calculated outside on NetSuite.

Service Tiers

The other variable when pricing NetSuite license costs is the different service tiers. NetSuite includes the following service tiers:

User licenses

In addition to the SaaS license, you will also need to pay NetSuite for individual licenses. These will cost. Typically, you get 1 user license included in the SaaS license and you need to buy additional licenses.

One thing to bear in mind regarding user licenses is that all users will require licenses. This will likely include people submitting expense claims and approving POs. NetSuite offers employee self-service licenses for these situations offering limited functionality. These are sold in bundles of 5 licenses.

Additional NetSuite Modules

There are additional NetSuite modules that you might want to license in addition to the Suite Success of financials first. Some prominent examples of these include:

• Fixed Assets. The fixed assets module is not included in Suite Services and needs to be purchased in addition. The alternative will be to manage fixed assets in another application, calculate depreciation and load as journals which will not create much efficiency.
• OneWorld – The biggest additional cost to your NetSuite licenses will be NetSuite OneWorld. When you purchase NetSuite, you are only getting it for one currency/tax nexus combination. If you have subsidiaries in multiple currency and tax jurisdictions you will need to buy OneWorld licenses for each area. This can get costly.
• Dunning Letters – NetSuite can include the functionality to send automated reminders to overdue debtors, however this is an additional module.
• NetSuite Planning and Budgeting is an EPM solution that you use as the single source of truth for storing budgets and cost v budget variance analysis.
• Suite Analytics is a reporting package that will allow you to produce more detailed reports and analysis.
• Suite Billing – SuiteBilling provides additional billing functionality that allows business with complicated billing cadence and structures to automate more parts of their billing process.
• Advanced Inventory and Manufacturing Modules – NetSuite has a range of tools to help inventory-based business. The advanced modules and warehouse management systems required additional investment.

Do I have to pay for anything else?

There are other optional services that NetSuite will offer when signing a contract:

• Learning Cloud is a library of online training resources. This can be a good idea especially if your team is new to NetSuite
• Premium Support is the NetSuite premium support line. This may not be necessary especially if you are working with a good support partner
• Depending on your service tier, you may need to pay extra for a sandbox environment. A sandbox environment is pretty much essential so you should include this in your budget.

Contract length & Discounts

NetSuite contracts are generally for a three-year period and the contract begins once implementation commences. One thing that is central to the NetSuite pricing model are discounts. NetSuite heavily discount list prices by anything up to 50% (and even higher) so bear this in mind if you see prices written down.

I appreciate there is a lot here to digest in relation to how much NetSuite will cost your business. Like most ERPs the contracts are complex and multi-layered. Try our NetSuite pricing calculator if you would like to get an estimate of how much NetSuite will cost your business.

Get in touch if you have any questions and would like a free conversation with one of our consultants.