Frustrated that you can’t customize Departments, Classes, or Locations the way you’d like? Custom records tied to custom fields don’t hold enough weight? Get the best of both worlds with NetSuite Custom Segments.

 

What are NetSuite Custom Segments?

 

If you were to combine the ability of a normal segment (Class, Department, Location…) and add the customizability of Custom Records and Fields, you would have a NetSuite Custom Segment. Relatively self-explanatory if you’ve dealt with either of these before. If not, let me explain.

 

Normal segments in NetSuite are somewhat locked down. They are a key piece of NetSuite, so there are not many ways to customize them beyond deciding what forms to show them on and whether they are mandatory. Sure, some of it can be managed with workflows, but that can be a good amount of work.

 

On the flip side, custom records and fields can be used that give a lot more flexibility. Unfortunately, they don’t tie into records and transactions as closely as a segment would. Yes, you can add them as a field, get reporting numbers from them, and so on, but it is just not the same – especially if you’re looking at company financials. This is probably the greatest impact.

 

How to Create NetSuite Custom Segments

 

With the appropriate permissions, go to Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Custom Segments. This will open the Custom Segment window.  Most of it is pretty self-explanatory, such as entering the Label, ID (all lowercase and use underscores for spaces), and Description, but here are a few more notes:

• Click the GL Impact box if you want to ties this segment to financials (commonly chosen for segments).
• Type can be List/Record for a single value or Multiple Select.
• Use the Filtered By to refine it by other segments. I have found this to be one of the best uses for Custom Segments – to create a sub-segment dependent on other segments. You will set up the rest of this after saving the record.
• On the Application & Sourcing subtab, you can control which transactions and records will have this field, and whether they will source it from somewhere. This removes the needs for a lot of workflows to manage passing this value back and forth. Yes, custom fields can source, as well, but I have found this to work on another level with its other features.
• Permissions allow you to control access to the lowest levels. Again, similar to custom records, but it is a bit more tightly integrated.

 

There’s obviously a lot more to it than this, but I thought this would be a good primer into the world of NetSuite Custom Segments. Instead of renaming the standard segments to new names and eventually getting frustrated with their lack of flexibility, use Custom Segments instead to have better control over how they behave.