ANS-0223 · ROLES, PERMISSIONS & SECURITY
How to Understand and Search NetSuite System Note Types for Transaction Changes
NetSuite System Notes provide a detailed audit trail of transaction modifications, categorizing changes into distinct types like Create, Set, Change, and Unset, each with specific search implications.
Short answer
NetSuite System Notes track transaction changes, detailing Date/Time, User, Field, Type, Old Value, and New Value. Key change types are Create, Set, Change, and Unset. Understanding these is crucial for auditing. Use {type} is Set for 'Set' changes, or CASE WHEN {type}'Change' OR {type}'Unset' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END equal to 1 to find 'Change' or 'Unset' modifications.
Scenario
Users need to understand the different types of modifications recorded in NetSuite System Notes to accurately audit transaction changes. Distinguishing between initial value settings, subsequent edits, and data erasures, as well as correctly filtering these types in searches, can be challenging.
Solution
The System Notes subtab provides a comprehensive log of changes made to a transaction, including system-generated updates. Each entry details:Date/Time: When the change occurred.Set by: The user or system process that made the change. This includes actions directly by a user (execution context is 'userinterface') and actions triggered by user events via scripts (execution context is 'userevent').Field: The specific field that was modified. If the Accounting feature is enabled, general ledger impact is noted as 'Impact'. For information, see General Ledger Tracking in Transaction System Notes.Type: The category of change.Old Value/New Value: The data before and after the modification.The primary types of modifications recorded are:Create: This type is exclusively for the initial creation of a record. The 'Field' column will display 'Record', and it is always the first line in the system notes for that record.Set: This type indicates that a value was entered into a field that was previously empty. This applies both during record creation (when the 'Old Value' column is empty) and during subsequent edits if the field was empty prior to the edit. It can be difficult to distinguish between a 'Set' on create versus an 'Set' on edit if performed on the same day by the same user.Change: This type occurs when a non-empty field is edited with a different non-empty value.Unset: This type signifies that data was erased from a non-empty field. The 'Old Value' column will show the data that was removed, and the 'New Value' column will be empty.When searching System Notes, it is important to note that a filter for 'Type is Change' will encompass 'Set', 'Unset', and 'Change', which can be misleading. To search for specific modification types:
To search exclusively for 'Set' type modifications, use the following formula text filter:
{type} is SetThis will capture all edits where a value was introduced into a previously empty field, whether at record creation or later.
To search for modifications where a non-empty field was either cleared or updated with a different non-empty value (i.e., 'Change' or 'Unset' types), use the following search formula Numeric filter:
CASE WHEN {type}'Change' OR {type}'Unset' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END equal to 1Expert NetSuite Support
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