ANS-0858 · CUSTOMER & CRM RECORDS
How to Report on Customer and Agency Relationships in NetSuite
Leverage custom fields and workflows to track sales and aging across complex customer and agency billing structures.
Short answer
To manage complex customer-agency relationships in NetSuite for flexible reporting, implement custom entity fields and workflows. This allows linking customers to agencies, tracking liabilities, and generating sales and aging reports at both individual customer and aggregated agency levels, accommodating various billing scenarios and direct customer purchases.
Scenario
A client manages relationships with both direct customers and agencies that represent multiple end-customers. While the end-customer holds ultimate liability, the agency is often the bill-to party. The client requires the ability to maintain the end-customer as the primary "customer" record while also generating comprehensive sales and aging reports at both the individual customer level and aggregated across all customers represented by a specific agency. Additionally, some agencies may also function as vendors.
Solution
For scenarios involving complex customer-agency relationships where reporting is needed at both levels, a robust solution involves leveraging NetSuite's custom fields and workflows. This approach allows for detailed tracking and flexible reporting, even when agencies make purchases on behalf of end-customers and are liable for invoice payments, while also accommodating direct purchases by end-customers. The implementation typically involves:
Creating a custom entity field on the customer record to link to the representing agency. This allows for associating multiple customers with a single agency.
Developing workflows to automate the population of agency-related data on transactions, ensuring accurate reporting.
Utilizing saved searches and reports that can group and filter data by both the end-customer and the associated agency, enabling comprehensive sales and aging analysis across these relationships.
Expert NetSuite Support
Need help with this NetSuite issue?
Customer & CRM Records consulting and configuration support