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As business operations span countries and industries, financial controllers face a mounting challenge - producing accurate, timely reports that adhere to an array of accounting standards. From GAAP and IFRS to country-specific rules, internal controls, and language requirements - reliance on spreadsheets and manual processes invites risk into the numbers everyone counts on. Fortunately, technology finally provides a better way to manage all the complexity.
NetSuite Multi-Book Accounting brings sophistication to managing multiple reporting mandates in one system without laborious reconciliation. Transactions flow instantly to an unlimited number of ledgers and translations according to user-defined mapping rules, while custom real-time reporting provides stakeholder-tailored views. Audit-ready to the transaction level, NetSuite Multi-Book confers the benefits of efficiency, security, and control for global and industry-specific needs.
What Is Multi-Book Accounting?
Multi-book accounting involves simultaneously managing two or more different sets of accounting standards - whether GAAP, IFRS, or country-specific mandates. Companies may have business reasons they follow more than one standard:
• Global companies may standardize on GAAP or IFRS internally but must also produce local statutory reporting in dozens of countries
• Companies with government contracts may require compliance with multiple complex standards simultaneously
• Some industries require adherence to regulation-specific GAAP interpretations
• Internal stakeholders may benefit from customized management reporting apart from external standards
Challenges of Multiple Reporting Standards
Maintaining numerous ledgers manually invites major problems into record-keeping and reporting:
1. Tedious reconciliation of disparate systems and spreadsheets
2. Manual data re-entry that is prone to error
3. Reporting delays from compiling numbers across sources
4. Weak internal controls with little transaction traceability
5. Difficulty adapting to new and changing requirements
The volume and diversity of entries make heavy use of spreadsheets unsustainable for governance, risk management, and decision-making as organizations grow.
Fortunately, spreadsheets are no longer the only option.
Simplify Your Multi-Book Chaos with NetSuite
NetSuite Multi-Book empowers controllers to achieve simultaneous, synchronized management of multiple books while gaining transaction-level visibility that spreadsheets can’t match. Define custom mapping rules once, and NetSuite will handle automated posting to appropriate ledgers and local currencies going forward.
Say your headquarters follows US GAAP while your APAC division adheres to IFRS and local mandates. Meanwhile, business leaders want customized reporting. Configure the books once in NetSuite Multi-Book, and transparently maintain all standards moving forward:
• No more manually entering the same transactions multiple times
• Post in real time to both ledgers from sales orders, invoices, expenses, journal entries, and more
• Store value in local currencies while satisfying headquarters reporting
• Adjust specific periods and books without throwing others out of balance
• Consolidate entities across select books for unified reporting
• Dig into transaction details, audit trails, and reporting for each book
By centralizing rules configuration and automatically handling posting in unified ledgers, NetSuite Multi-Book frees your team from reconciliation duties so they can focus on value-added analysis, planning, and strategy. With real-time visibility and drill-down capability, answers are always at your fingertips without chasing down scattered systems and files.
As regulations change, SuiteCloud customization seamlessly adapts posting rules, reports, and workflows to keep pace rather than maintain brittle spreadsheets. NetSuite Multi-Book grows with your needs - however complex they become.
NetSuite Multi-Book Capabilities
Designed for enterprise agility and governance, NetSuite Multi-Book brings order to chaos with robust tools:
• Maintain Unlimited Accounting Books
• Map Different Charts of Accounts
• Configure Real-Time Posting Rules
• Ensure Local Currency Compliance
• Adjust and Report by Book
• Dig Into Transaction-Level Detail
• Consolidate Across Books
• Customize with SuiteCloud
Maintain Unlimited Accounting Books
While most companies require a few different ledgers, NetSuite support unlimited books for any future need. Common scenarios covered include:
• Headquarters GAAP + Local/IFRS Standards
• External Reporting + Internal Managerial
• Corporate + Divisional Reporting
• Audited + Unaudited Statements
• Cash vs. Accrual Bases
• Language/Currency Translations
Managing data across ledgers stays synchronized with automated posting rather than risky manual processes.
Map Different Charts of Accounts
Centralized management of separate COA mappings is crucial for alignment. NetSuite equips you to:
• Map corporate and subsidiary accounts
• Connect accounts across standards
• Translate accounts into different languages
• Manage accounts across currencies
Reducing the account variability across books aids reporting and analysis.
Configure Real-Time Posting Rules
Defining automated posting rules replaces mind-numbing manual allocation and data re-entry across ledgers. Trigger transaction flows to books based on currencies, departments, locations, customers, ledger type, and more. Enjoy flexibility as rules adapt to changing needs.
Ensure Local Currency Compliance
NetSuite Multi-Book enables operating in local currencies while reporting in foreign currencies required for headquarters. System calculations handle currency conversions and automatic adjustments from ongoing rate changes.
Adjust and Report by Book
Maintaining independent transaction controls and reporting for each book prevents commingling results. Perform adjustments and close periods on distinct schedules per book without throwing other books out of balance. Custom reporting, searches, and business intelligence cater visibility to user needs.
Dig Into Transaction-Level Detail
Unlike siloed systems, NetSuite Multi-Book grants easy access to underlying records across books. You can follow audit trails end-to-end, compare journal entries across ledgers, implement controls, and handle exceptions with precision.
Consolidate Across Books
While NetSuite supports consolidated financial reporting across subsidiaries for your primary book, adding this capability for secondary ledgers aids in unified insights. Consolidate financial results across books for business units, product lines, currencies or custom criteria.
Customize with SuiteCloud
Business doesn’t stand still - regulations and internal needs change. SuiteCloud enables configurable rules, workflows, reports, and integrations using cloud infrastructure without involving IT. Customization makes change a breeze not a burden.
Is NetSuite Multi-Book Right For You?
While no two businesses are alike, common motivations for adopting NetSuite Multi-Book Accounting include:
• Adding accounting resources hasn’t fixed productivity challenges
• Finance teams spend too much time on manual allocations and reconciling reporting from different systems
• Period closes, adjustments, and consolidated insights take too long to produce
• Answers to transaction-level questions take longer than they should
• Reliance on spreadsheets and scattered systems introduces risks
• Changes in regulations spur accounting process changes
If any of these issues sound familiar, NetSuite Multi-Book merits consideration. The right technology won’t just ameliorate your most painful problems - it will free your finance team to provide strategic analytical capabilities to drive growth. Replacing isolated tools with integrated automation across ledgers allows deeper partnerships with stakeholders within policy guardrails.
How to Get Started with Multi-Book?
Implementing robust multi-book capabilities may seem daunting upfront given the complexity it aims to manage. However, NetSuite makes adopting multi-book accounting achievable through flexible deployment options:
• Phased Rollout by Entity: Transition one subsidiary or product line at a time to get your feet wet with new capabilities before expanding across the organization
• By Accounting Process: First, automate key pain points like revenue allocation or consolidation while leaving other processes to transition later
• By Ledger: Initiate with just two books, like GAAP and IFRS, before introducing country-specific books
You can leverage certified NetSuite professionals at Seller Universe to avoid any disruption by configuring capabilities tailored to your needs. While achieving full multi-book prowess crosses items off the wish list, phased adoption ensures continuity during onboarding and training.
How to Make the Transition to Multi-Book in NetSuite?
While NetSuite shines best as a complete cloud financial platform, transitions from other systems need not occur overnight. Integration capabilities bridge gaps during gradual modernization efforts:
• Journal entry uploads automatically post transactions to appropriate ledgers
• Schedulable CSV data imports ingest high transaction volumes
• Suitetalk web services integrate external applications
• Endpoint connections synchronize data with on-premise systems
A hybrid approach allows you to realize Multi-Book benefits at your own pace while existing systems remain in place.
NetSuite Multi-Book Vs. Other Accounting Systems
While most accounting systems support basic subsidiary consolidations or multiple reporting currencies, that doesn't necessarily equip you for the rigours of complex multi-book reporting.
Spreadsheets enable endless custom formulas but present governance risks around manual data orchestration. They particularly lack intensive transaction processing.
On-premise ERPs traditionally offered single-ledger architectures that carved out multi-book needs for separate installations and reconciliation routines. Integrating various finance systems introduces fragility.
Basic small business cloud accounting applications may enable multi-currency transactions but still focus on simple use cases. Configurable enterprise-grade capabilities rarely feature.
Among cloud financial suites for mid-market and enterprise needs, NetSuite Multi-Book stands apart. Its customization and automation specifically target multi-book requirements absent elsewhere.
For complex regulatory mandates, value chain intricacy, and globalization dynamics facing decentralized organizations - NetSuite provides unified capabilities lacking in alternatives. Unifying enterprise transaction processing across standards in one system offers continuity benefits beyond consolidating statements after the fact.
Final Thoughts
Now companies can efficiently scale globally and manage intricate books without spreading teams thin or sacrificing integrity. Growing complexity no longer means proportionally multiplying unproductive and risky chores. Automation liberates talent to interpret what the business requires next rather than reconcile what happened last period.
With NetSuite, accounting goes from surviving disorder to driving insights that propel the bottom line. Leading organizations break free from routine restrictions to operate with new flexibility and vision. Is it time to turn financial stewardship into a driver of enterprise growth rather than a cost center? Discover how NetSuite Multi-Book can lift your accounting capabilities higher.
