Ensure Efficiency with NetSuite Project Management Software

Introduction to NetSuite Project Management Software

When starting a project, you constantly worry about:

Will it run over budget?
Will it be completed by the deadline date?
Will the right resources be available?
Will the project be manageable with the available resources?
Will the project achieve the stated goals?

All these worries are nothing but the result of the lack of a unified solution that takes care of all these project factors and more. What you need is an integrated solution that provides complete visibility, improves collaboration, and tracks budget and time. This is possible through Oracle’s NetSuite PSA solution – SuiteProjects.

Yes, you need an NetSuite ERP Solution for managing all your processes seamlessly. But, if you handle multiple projects for clients or provide services, you need to have the NetSuite project management software. It is a project-based ERP solution with the capability to improve the flow of information between and across different business functions.

Let’s look at how the NetSuite cloud-based project management software and its modules help organizations effectively manage projects.

Capability of NetSuite as a cloud-based Project Management Tool:

As a part of its cloud-based ERP software, NetSuite comes with a project management module. The project management tool within NetSuite helps companies streamline their business processes.

Key Capabilities of NetSuite Project Management Software:

NetSuite Project Management Software comes with task management, resource management, time tracking, collaboration and communication, reporting and analytics, integration support and customization capabilities.

NetSuite Project Management helps organizations optimize their task management and achieve higher efficiency and growth.

What does PSA mean in Project Management ?

The PSA module in NetSuite stands for “Professional Services Automation.” The businesses providing professional services can reap the benefit of an all-in-one cloud-based ERP solution by implementing the NetSuite PSA. The NetSuite PSA comes with the following functionality:

Billing
Expense Management
Project Accounting
Project Management
Resource Management
Timesheet Management
Analytics

NetSuite Professional Services Automation works in sync with the financials, HR, and CRM modules of NetSuite and provides a complete solution for a service business. SuiteProjects comes with a mobile app that supports anytime, anywhere access to capture time and expense data.

What does Professional Service Automation do?

Professional Services Automation (PSA) seeks to automate a service business’s ‘bid to bill’ business processes with one unified cloud-based solution. PSA helps Professional Service Providers like accountants, lawyers, and consulting firms to gain complete visibility and control over their business by streamlining project lifecycle management, optimizing staffing and resource utilization, tracking time and expense, and utilizing dashboards and analytical tools.

What is SuiteProjects in NetSuite Project Management?

NetSuite SuiteProjects is a natively built Professional Services Automation Solution. It supports project management, resource management, time and expense management, billing, project revenue calculation and allocation, project accounting, and analytics.

SuiteProjects is a cloud-based PSA solution. It supports mobility. SuiteProjects can be combined with financials, CRM, and HR to deliver a full-fledged solution to a service business. Combined with NetSuite OneWorld, it provides a robust solution to manage multiple business units, legal entities, multi-currency transactions, and operational control from a single solution.

NetSuite SuiteProjects comes with a mobile app to capture time and expense data from anywhere, anytime.

Features and Benefits Of Oracle NetSuite Project Management Software

NetSuite project management software – SuiteProjects has the following features and benefits that you must be aware of:

1. Organize project tasks and activities with NetSuite Task Management Functionality

Many tasks, activities, workflows, information sharing, etc., comprise the entire project lifecycle. It is vital to keep a tab on them to track their status. You need to know whether these are completed, pending, in process, or anything else.

Project management in NetSuite enables all these. You can do this for multiple projects simultaneously to keep you up-to-date on every project. You can also organize calls, events, or meetings with clients to ensure attendance in all in complete preparation.

You can organize tasks based on their planned starting and end date and dependency on other tasks. You can do this by adding the ‘finish no later than’ constraint while creating project tasks. You can also assign resources for each job and keep track of their performance on NetSuite project management software. Thus, using NetSuite Project Tracking Software, you get a complete, real-time view of the entire project, which helps in the management and successful completion of the project on time.

2. Monitor project performance with project dashboard

While managing a project, you need a full display of all the project essentials. You must monitor the project performance through charts, graphs, timelines, visualizations, lists, etc. This gives you a better idea of your project status, helping you make decisions and communicate with your team members.

The NetSuite project management software allows such a detailed and clear view of your project performance. You can see the project status as well as key performance metrics in a single glance. If you want to go deep into details, such as what aspect of a project is taking the time or the smallest breakdown of the project cost, you can find it on your dashboard.

As a project manager, you can assign the editing rights of the dashboard to specific team members. As and when anyone makes a change in the dashboard, it updates automatically to give viewers the real-time, updated performance report. It helps you make decisions related to the project and have meetings for relevant updates.

3. Monitor project costing and scheduling with NetSuite Project Management Software

During a project lifecycle, you aim to monitor the costs and timelines of each task or activity. It can help you keep everything under control, explicitly costing and scheduling.

The Project P&L Tab of the NetSuite project management module can help you supervise the project costs. It gives you a view of every costing aspect of every project to keep a watch on your project’s financial performance.

The NetSuite project management platform also contains a Gantt Chart. With this, you can keep an eye on the project schedules. You can put the start and projected finish dates of every task, plan it well, and monitor the task completion on the deadline date to get a clear view of the project status.

4. Estimate resource requirements and manage them efficiently with NetSuite Project Management Module

Before starting a project, you need to be sure of the number of employees required and their related skills. You need to know if the in-house capabilities are enough or if you need to hire more people. This depends on the timelines and budget for the project.

The module of project management in NetSuite makes your life easy with estimated labour functionality. When you enter project tasks and activities, and the time required for each, you can mention the specific employees needed for the job. This gives you the estimated billing amount for every task related to the project.

Also, the NetSuite project management software allows you to manage your employees dedicated to each project. There are timesheets, which your employees can fill in daily, giving you a complete view of tasks completed and time taken. It also has the timesheet approval process, which helps you manage your human resources better.

You can also estimate the actual labour costs of your project. You can feed in the salaries and payroll contributions of companies of each employee for each project. This helps you get a complete picture of the financials of your project. Thus, efficient and effective employee management is possible with the NetSuite project management module.

5. Streamline your client billing processes with NetSuite project management software

Client billing is different for each project. Some percentage is before starting the project, some portion is paid after half completion of the project, and the remaining at the end. You need an effective solution to determine the completion percentage and the cost to be paid.

The NetSuite project management solution solves this problem. On this platform, you can create jobs, sub-jobs, and activities. You can record each activity’s timelines, giving you a clear picture of the percentage completion of the project.

With the availability of time spent by employees on each task and monitoring of actual and estimated time, you can calculate the total bill for each client. You can also attach milestones with each project, thereby helping you in the calculation. Thus, you have a smooth and accurate billing process, making your and your client’s life easier.

6. Measure performance and produce relevant performance reports

Performance reports for each project are essential. These reports help you track your employees’ performance as well as keep the reports as benchmarks for the following projects. Therefore, measuring your project performance and generating performance tracking reports is critical.

The NetSuite project management software can achieve this for you. With records of estimated and actual start and end dates, the cost for each task, and resources allocated, you can have complete project visibility. You can measure the performance with these indicators.

You can also generate an employee utilization report for comparing two projects or two employees. You can know the backlog of project/s based on the work remaining for each project and each employee. The platform also helps you review the project profitability based on the costing and expense transactions.

How NetSuite can streamline project management processes

NetSuite Project Management Software provides a single platform to keep projects on track. It helps manage project scope, resources, tasks, schedule, and associated risks. NetSuite Project Management software can be integrated with third-party systems such as CRM, mobile applications, etc.

Further, it comes with strong customization capabilities to meet unique customer needs. It helps companies to execute projects on time, keep costs in check, and improve profitability.

How NetSuite compares with other project management tools

NetSuite Project Management Software can be compared with other tools in terms of the following aspects:

NetSuite Pricing:

NetSuite is a subscription-based cloud ERP software. The initial cash outflow is small but it is recurring in nature. The other project management tools may come with a perpetual license allowing companies to pay for it once and use it forever.

NetSuite Features and Functionalities:

NetSuite offers task management functionality and provides a way to manage resources. NetSuite Task Management functionality allows timesheet management and comes with a handy communication and collaboration tool. It provides reports and analytics that one can use to track the project’s status. NetSuite is a full-fledged solution integrating with ERP modules such as accounting, inventory, CRM, eCommerce, etc. Other project management tools may or may not be as comprehensive as NetSuite.

NetSuite Scalability:

NetSuite is scalable. It handles multiple projects, users, and resources. One can upgrade or degrade the functionality depending on the needs of the company. Other project management tools do not offer the same level of scalability.

NetSuite Customization and Integration:

NetSuite is highly customizable to meet the specific needs of the organization. It can be integrated with other NetSuite modules and third-party applications. Other project management tools may not be as flexible as NetSuite.

NetSuite Project Management: Use Cases and Examples

A variety of businesses of different sizes use NetSuite Project Management Software.

Here are some use cases and examples:

Professional Services Project Management:

For Professional Services, it is important to track the time and efforts of their employees. NetSuite helps track time and resources, and project budget. NetSuite Project Management is used by professional services to create and maintain project contracts, invoices, purchase orders, and team collaboration purposes.

Construction Project Management:

NetSuite offers cloud-based project management software. It is used by the construction industry to maintain multiple construction projects. It helps businesses maintain labour resources, track tasks, and create contracts, purchase orders, and invoices.

Service industry Project Management:

Time is money for service industries. NetSuite project management helps companies track time, resources, and project status. Organizations can automate Project wise costing and billing mechanisms using NetSuite Project Management Software.

Manufacturing Project Management:

The manufacturing industry can take benefit from time tracking and resource management functionality offered by the NetSuite Project Management Software. NetSuite offers a highly-integrated system where project management software can be integrated with the accounting and inventory modules.

Be it CRM project management, ERP project management, IT project management, industrial project management, engineering project management, non-profit project management, or finance project management, NetSuite Project Management Module is capable to handle the complexities involved.

How to get started with NetSuite Project Management Software?

It is advisable to seek help from Oracle NetSuite Implementation Partner like Cloudio Technologies to get started with NetSuite Project Management Software and configure it as per your business needs.

Ensuring a Successful NetSuite Project Management implementation

Here are some recommendations to ensure the success of NetSuite Project Management Software implementation:

Just like any implementation project, it’s necessary that the scope and objectives of NetSuite Project Management implementation are clearly defined and communicated with all the stakeholders.
Once the expectations from the NetSuite Project Management Software implementation are set, it is necessary that individuals taking part in the process are clearly identified and their roles and responsibilities are defined and communicated.
Start tracking time on each task of the implementation and monitor the project progress with the help of reporting and analytical tools available in NetSuite.
Customize NetSuite for the specific needs of the organization and integrate it with third-party apps to enhance the user experience.
Undertake NetSuite Project Management Software training for the power users and end-users to ensure that they know the features and carry out their day-to-day work.

Our NetSuite Project Management Services

Thus, the NetSuite project management solution helps you have complete control over your project. You can complete projects quickly with a detailed, accurate, and clear view of all project factors. You have full visibility of each factor in real-time, starting from the planning phase to delivery, including invoicing. You enjoy the features of:

Management of a good number of projects in parallel of different types – fixed price, time and materials billing, etc.
Availability of project templates to simplify your project processes.
Better handling of resources to ensure matching of qualification and experience with project requirements.
Capturing each project’s time spent and expenses in detail to generate project profitability reports.
Automation of billing process based on milestones achieved or dates.
Accessibility of NetSuite project management anywhere and anytime, depending on your work location.

With these features of NetSuite Project Management Software, you can have streamlined operations, high productivity, faster project completion, improved project visibility, and real-time reporting.

And, Cloudiotech can bring these benefits closer to you with the offer of NetSuite project management software. We are a leading NetSuite Implementation partner in the UAE, offering NetSuite to several clients in different industries. We help our clients with the NetSuite implementation, customization, integration, and training services.

So, whatever type of projects you deal in, you can use the NetSuite project management module of PSA for your benefit. You can achieve automation of project-related tracking processes and thus gain more efficiencies.

Make your project a smooth experience from start to finish

With Cloudiotech’s NetSuite project management software services.