Victoria Freeman Certified Adminstrator and SuiteCloud Developer II. Passionate about building PCs, gaming, and all things technical. Lifetime Learner. Knowledge Sharer. IT & Customer Service Professional.

How To Audit Changes to Enabled Features in NetSuite

2 min read

Have you ever found yourself wondering who turned on a certain feature in your NetSuite environment, or how long it has been turned on? If you aren’t already, you can start keeping track of this, and even set up scheduled email alerts.

TL;DR

With NetSuite’s System Note saved search type, you have the ability to create a search that is filtered to System Notes for the ‘Enable Features’ record type. With the fields available to you in this search type, you can track the feature, its old value, new value, date changed, who changed it, and their role.

Steps

1. Navigate to Reports > Saved Searches > All Saved Searches > New or Lists >> Search >> Saved Searches >> New

Path to Create a New Saved Search

2. Choose the ‘System Note’ search type

Select system notes saved search type

3. Fill out your Criteria

Saved search criteria

4. Fill out your Result columns

Saved search results

5. Add Highlighting and Filters as desired

Saved search filtering and highlighting

6. Set up Email Schedule as desired
Important: For optimal results, make sure your criteria in Step 3 include a date filter, e.g. changes within the past week; otherwise, your scheduled emails will keep coming with the full list of results.

Email Recipient
Email message
Email schedule

7. Save & Run to view the changes to your Enabled Features!

Saved search output

Considerations

Here are a few things to bear in mind:

  • System notes are not copied over during a Sandbox refresh. Therefore, in the Sandbox, your search will only show changes that were made since the last refresh. That should not be an issue as you most likely care more about what has changed in Production.
  • Only the Administrator role has access to the System Notes of all users and record types. So, when setting up your search, be sure to do so via the Administrator role. When run from non-admin roles, your search will yield zero or incomplete results.
  • There are other record types that a NetSuite Admin can monitor in this way, for example, Company Information, Company Preferences, or Timezone changes. Review the “Record Type” values in the system notes search criteria for a full list of supported record types.

The “Why” is often more important than the “What”

While this approach helps you understand what features have been turned on/off, when and by whom, it does not tell you why the changes were made. Interestingly, the “why” of a change is often the most important aspect in any successful long-term management strategy.

NetSuite does not offer any standard way to capture the rationale for actions. However, as a good admin, you should find effective ways to track the “why” of your changes. It could be as simple as a spreadsheet, user notes added within NetSuite, a custom record, or using a third-party tool. Whatever option you choose, the key to success is being consistent at it.

Wrap Up

In this article, I’ve shown you how to easily set up a detective control to track enabled/disabled features in your NetSuite environment. This is particularly useful in an environment with multiple administrators. It is also a good way for a new administrator to get an overview of what features are enabled in an account.

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Victoria Freeman Certified Adminstrator and SuiteCloud Developer II. Passionate about building PCs, gaming, and all things technical. Lifetime Learner. Knowledge Sharer. IT & Customer Service Professional.

2 Replies to “How To Audit Changes to Enabled Features in NetSuite”

  1. There is actually an Audit Trail on the Enable Features page as well. It’s hidden under “More” on the top right hand side of the page.

    /app/setup/featuresaudit.nl

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