Accounting Preferences – Order Management

Like any other ERP process, the crux of the order-to-cash process is set up on Setup | Accounting | Accounting Preferences.

The Order Management tab has a section on sales orders. The DEFAULT SALES ORDER STATUS is used to determine whether an approvals process will be used for sales orders. It has two options, Pending Approval and Pending Fulfillment. We can set the location for orders to a specific location by default using the DEFAULT LOCATION FOR SALES ORDER field, as well as choosing whether NetSuite will commit items to orders in the following fields. Commitment sets specific items aside for specific orders based on various criteria, such as the date of the order or the importance of the customer:

Sales Orders section in Order Management tab in Accounting Preferences under Accounting in Setup

The Pick/Packing and Fulfillment sections contain options for the default values that will appear on the screens during the fulfillment, as well as automation options, such as generating an automated email to the customer when the order has been fulfilled. The Invoicing section contains the INVOICE IN ADVANCE OF FULFILLMENT option. The fulfillment is required prior to invoicing when the checkbox is left unchecked. On the other hand, we can enable the accountant to invoice prior to fulfillment by merely checking the INVOICE IN ADVANCE OF FULFILLMENT checkbox:

Order Management tab in Accounting Preferences 

The DEFAULT RETURN AUTH. STATUS status field in the Returns section determines whether we will be using an approvals process when processing returns. The Pending Approval selection requires the approval step as opposed to the Pending Receipt selection, which sends a reminder to the warehouse manager to expect delivery of the return. There is also a REFUND IN ADVANCE OF RETURN checkbox, as well as the option to restock returned items by default, as opposed to writing them off.