Workflows are a series of simple individual tasks that form part of your business processes. NetSuite provides SuiteFlow, which allows users to create workflows through a user-friendly interface. SuiteFlow enables users to create workflows without coding, making it a very useful tool for your key users.

 

Workflows created using SuiteFlow aim to direct data through a series of defined stages, actions, and conditions, helping your business to automate manual tasks. The workflow manager is a drag-and-drop tool, making it very easy to use for creating workflows. Some of the most common workflows that our clients create include approvals, lead nurturing, and record management.

 

Here are 5 common business problems that can be resolved using workflows:

 

 

1. Approvals

Approval workflows are one of the primary use cases for SuiteFlows. They can be used for purchase orders, invoices, journals, bank account details, or even sales orders. For example, the workflow could start once the purchase order is saved. This will trigger approval emails to be sent to assigned approvers. Based on their approval or rejection, a notification will be sent to the relevant parties. The PO status will then be modified to reflect the approval or rejection.

 

 

2. Order to Cash Automation

There are several steps in an order-to-cash process that can be automated using workflows. Let’s assume that the creation of a sales order is the starting point of your OTC process. From here, you will create a fulfilment record on which revenue recognition will be based. Next, an invoice will be created and sent to your customer for payment. Most of these steps can be automated using workflows.

Take fulfilment, for example. Assuming you get the fulfilment information from another system onto the sales order record, fulfilment can be automated using a workflow. If you invoice on fulfilment, this can also be automated. The same approach can be used to create vendor bills from purchase orders.

 

 

3. Lead Nurturing

If you are using parts of NetSuite CRM, you can set up workflows to schedule sequences of communications with potential customers. For example, your sequence could send a series of emails to your lead containing information that is useful to them. After 3 emails, it could send a link to download a case study. If the lead downloads the case study, the workflow could send an email notification to the relevant salesperson and create a task to follow up with the lead at a designated time.

A workflow could be set up to notify the relevant salesperson when a lead performs a certain action on your company website. The workflow could create a task for the salesperson to contact that customer and follow up regarding next steps.

 

 

4. Create Vendor Records Using an Online Form

 

If your business deals with a lot of suppliers, you can automate the vendor creation process using workflows. This is done by creating a custom record on which you will need to create an online form. Give new suppliers access to the online form and have them fill out the custom form. Use the information gathered in the custom form to populate the vendor record. It is advisable to have an approval workflow on the custom record before the vendor record is created.

 

 

5. Automatically Add Lines to Sales Orders

 

Workflows can be used to add additional items to a sales order. For example, if you want to add certain shipping costs based on a certain item being added to a sales order, this can be automated using a workflow.

 

Workflows can be set up after implementing NetSuite as part of optimizing NetSuite. Get in touch if you would like to talk about any issues you are having with your NetSuite instance, and we will see if we can help.