Staying ahead of the curve in today's business world requires constant evolution, and your core business software has to be able keep up with—if not stay out in front of—those pivots and changes. NetSuite understands this and provides biannual updates that not only introduce new enhancements and functionalities, but also help all customers keep their systems up to date, effectively avoiding the much-dreaded “version lock” problem.
It's not just about minor software tweaks or incremental improvements either; NetSuite’s updates are substantial and impactful. It's basically just like getting a regular infusion of innovation, keeping your business on the forefront of technology and without the disruption caused by major software overhauls. Released in February, NetSuite 2025.1 offers a host of powerful new tools, including enhanced automation and advanced analytics.
These updates will empower your business to not only adapt to the changing business landscape, but to also proactively scale and prepare for what’s coming next.
Ready to Transform Your Business? NetSuite 2025.1 Has the Tools
Some of the key changes that customers can expect in NetSuite 2025.1 include:
- Embedded artificial intelligence (AI) across the suite. Use NetSuite narrative reporting to create AI-generated narratives and explanations from financial and transactional data. This will help minimize the amount of manual work that goes into preparing reports. SuiteAnswers also leverages AI to search NetSuite’s help and support content, then creates concise answers to questions (no more sifting through multiple documents). Finally, NetSuite Prompt Studio refines the quality of AI-generated content by letting administrators tailor “text enhance” prompts for specific records and fields.
- Premier procurement tools. NetSuite SuiteProcurement (now available in Canada and the U.S.) offers an efficient and transparent way to purchase indirect goods and services. Buyers can “punchout” from NetSuite to a supplier’s online store, and then automatically create a purchase request, route approvals, generate a PO and send it to the vendor. Other new features include AI-powered bill capture enhancements and NetSuite Field Service Management, which technicians can use to upload multiple documents and pictures from a mobile app with one click.
- New customer and employee engagement support. NetSuite’s new connectors automatically sync data between NetSuite and Salesforce, Shopify B2B sites, and Microsoft Outlook, letting the ERP truly serve as a single source of data—and eliminating the need for manual data entry. NetSuite Customer 360’s new features include charts and metrics on a customer’s status, relationship history, and recent transactions and activities.
- Powerful developer tools and technologies. In the new release, SuiteCloud Platform comes with features for building applications and integrated product functionality based on generative AI services. NetSuite also added capabilities like hardened security with OAuth 2.0, specialized roles for more cost-effective access, and an expanded SuiteScript 2.1 code sample library for software developers. “The new developer capabilities show NetSuite’s commitment to dramatically enhance native product functionality and create a more efficient user experience across the entire suite,” NetSuite’s Erik Klein writes in Developers Get New AI, Enhanced Security, and Sample Code in NetSuite 2025.1.
Transformative, AI-Powered Capabilities
In a recent New Features Overview Webinar, NetSuite highlighted some of the other key features in the new release and offered in-depth insights into how customers can use these capabilities in their own organizations. For example, finance and accounting teams will enjoy the many different AI-powered enhancements that will reduce manual effort and allow them to focus on more strategic projects.
One new enhancement leverages data science, machine learning and generative AI (Gen AI) to automatically generate narratives and explanations from financial and operational data. According to NetSuite, the result is “more meaningful, insightful and actionable reports.” With automated report drafting, NetSuite users can count on improved accuracy, consistency and efficiency.
“This capability elevates automated storytelling, enabling reports to clearly convey insights in a narrative format, thus eliminating the time-intensive manual effort,” the company points out in the webinar. “NetSuite customers can achieve faster [report and month-end close] turnaround times, empowering finance teams to focus less on preparing data and more on analyzing insights that drive impactful business decisions.”
NetSuite’s bank feeds can now be linked seamlessly to bank and credit card accounts when importing banking data. For the 2025.1 update, NetSuite partnered with a new third-party financial aggregator to provide wider coverage of supported financial institutions to the U.S. and Canada. This will allow connections to 14,000 financial institutions and over 700 open banking connections.
“Existing users with previously-unsupported financial institutions will be able to check to see if their connections are available and customers that were experiencing connection challenges can now have a better experience,” NetSuite says. Other changes include updated tax codes that will now include information about which tax authority has levied the tax and the related reporting authority.
Minimizing Manual Work, Maximizing Productivity
This year, NetSuite users also get a new standalone grant management SuiteApp that acts as a single source of truth for organizations that receive commercial or federal grant revenue. This is an excellent enhancement for companies that rely on grants to support revenue goals as it will allow them to track grant records and key performance indicators (KPIs), and also leverage various prebuilt grant management reports.
Finally, NetSuite has updated the SuitePeople payroll module and now allows employees to access digital copies of their annual W-2 tax forms from their employee center. Access to these and other digital forms is secured with a one-time password and leverages a self-service approach that means payroll and accounting staff won't have to interrupt their tasks to manually distribute individual W-2s. And, the process itself is more secure because it doesn’t require sensitive documents to be sent via email.
This is just a sampling of the key enhancements included in NetSuite 2025.1, but it paints a clear picture of the software developer’s ongoing commitment to empowering its customers cutting-edge technology.
Here at Vursor, we’re ready to help NetSuite customers embrace all of these new capabilities, unlock new levels of performance and gain a competitive edge in today's dynamic marketplace.
Contact us today!