In today’s fast and competitive business world, companies constantly look for ways to improve their processes, productivity, and operations. One such solution that has gained significant popularity in recent years is NetSuite. This powerful and adaptable cloud-based business management tool has highly effective dashboard features.

By delivering a comprehensive and fully integrated suite of applications, NetSuite has helped thousands of organizations across various industries to achieve greater visibility, control, and efficiency in managing their core business processes. 

In this article, we will explore the NetSuite dashboard, its features, and its capabilities.

Exploring the NetSuite Dashboard

The NetSuite Dashboard is a customizable, real-time view of your organization’s most critical business data and metrics. The dashboard offers a complete view of your business and presents data dynamically.

It gives direct access to your key performance indicators (KPIs), reports, graphs, and charts. Data is shown in easy-to-read portlets for users to spot trends and potential issues and make data-driven decisions swiftly.

Moreover, the information shown is related to your role. The platform creates a center for each user, made up of tabbed pages catering to their respective roles’ needs. These pages provide quick access to the links and tools necessary to carry out daily tasks effectively.

The dashboard is available on every page of NetSuite except for the documents, setup, and customization pages.

Furthermore, editing records is made easier with a real-time view of your business operations. Centralizing and combining information enables easy monitoring of your business’s health and performance, providing valuable accessibility and transparency. With a real-time view of your business’s performance, you can make quicker, more precise, and faster decisions.

How Does Optimizing the NetSuite Dashboard Improve Your Business?

Harnessing the power of the NetSuite Dashboard can lead to significant positive changes in your business operations. Most notable are the following:

1. Better decision-making: Optimized dashboards facilitate better-informed decision-making by offering real-time data on KPIs.
2. Increased productivity: Optimized dashboards increase productivity by providing quick access to information necessary for daily tasks, saving time and effort.
3. Improved collaboration: Dashboards can be shared among teams, allowing for greater collaboration and transparency in decision-making processes.
4. Increased visibility: Optimized dashboards increase visibility for identifying areas of improvement and taking appropriate action.
5. Customized reporting: Customizable reports on an optimized dashboard enable data analysis and informed decision-making for unique business needs.

How to Create a NetSuite Dashboard

Creating a NetSuite Dashboard is a straightforward process. You design a tailored, data-driven workspace to support your organization’s unique needs with three essential steps: selecting a layout, adding content, and configuring the setup.

Choose a Layout

The first step in creating a NetSuite Dashboard is to pick a layout or format for your dashboard that works best for you.

Go to the drop-down menu in the NetSuite interface’s upper right corner to do this. From the options provided, select a layout that best fits the type and amount of information you wish to display on your dashboard. NOTE: Once you select a layout, you can customize it further by clicking and dragging sections to the exact spot you want to see them.

Add Porlets

Once you have chosen a layout, the next step is to fill your dashboard with the necessary content. NetSuite offers a wide range of portlets—interactive elements that display specific data or functions—each designed to provide valuable insights into different aspects of your business.

To add a portlet to your dashboard, access all the different content options by clicking on the ‘Personalize’ drop-down in the upper right of your dashboard. NOTE: There is a custom portlet option if you don’t see exactly what you need.

Configure Dashboard Portlets

After adding the desired portlets to your dashboard, you must set them up to ensure they display the correct information for your needs.

Hover over its top edge to configure a portlet to reveal the “Setup” option. Clicking on this will allow you to adjust various settings, such as the fields displayed within the portlet, the data sources used, and any applicable filters or criteria.

Setup Is Complete!

As your business evolves, you can quickly adapt and refine your dashboard, ensuring it remains an invaluable tool for managing your organization’s performance.

How to Max Out NetSuite’s Performance

Dashboard Customizations

NetSuite dashboard customization empowers users to design and tailor their dashboards with relevant information, ensuring they can access the data and insights needed to excel in their roles.

Specifically, this flexibility ensures that each individual has access to the data they need to make informed decisions and drive results for their area of responsibility. Users can tailor the NetSuite Dashboard to meet the unique requirements of various business functions, allowing users to focus on the metrics that matter most to their success.

The dashboard’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to rearrange, add, or remove components as needed, enabling organizations to adapt and refine their dashboards as their business needs evolve.

Benefits of Customizing Your Dashboard

Without a doubt, customizing your dashboard helps to optimize your experience.

1. Meeting specific business requirements: Tailor your dashboard to reflect your organization’s unique needs and objectives, ensuring that you have access to the most relevant information and tools.
2. Streamlining business processes: Tailor your business processes from start to finish to fit your company and industry specifications, improving efficiency.
3. Developing new functionality: Build workflows, processes, and functionality that cater to your organization’s specific demands, driving innovation and growth.
4. Integrating with other applications: Connect your NetSuite dashboard to legacy systems, third-party applications, and content providers, creating a seamless and unified platform for managing your business.
5. Optimizing productivity: Personalize roles and dashboard configurations to maximize individual and team productivity, ensuring each team member can access the data and tools needed to excel in their roles.
6. Facilitating informed decision-making: Customized dashboards provide users with easy access to relevant data, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that drive positive outcomes for the organization.
7. Enhancing collaboration: By organizing and sharing tailored dashboards based on roles and functions, businesses can foster better communication and collaboration between teams and departments.

Basic Options for Customizing Your Dashboard

Some of the fundamental customization options include:

1. Analytics dashboard: This dashboard displays real-time analytics, helping you monitor and assess your organization’s performance.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Present KPIs in various formats to give users an at-a-glance understanding of an organization’s overall health.
3. Portlets: Add interactive elements to your dashboard that display specific data or functions related to your business processes.
4. Custom searches: Design searches for specific functions or roles. This gives your team easy access to the information needed to make informed decisions.
5. Graphs: Visualize data trends through graphical representations, which are helpful for sales-related roles and tracking performance over time.

How to Publish a Dashboard in NetSuite

Publishing allows you to share a customized dashboard with specific roles in your organization. This gives your team members access to the information and tools they need to excel in their roles.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click on the “Settings” option and go to the “Publish Dashboard” section.
2. In the “Publish Dashboard” section, enter a name for the dashboard. Then, add any relevant notes, and specify any locks on shortcuts, if necessary.
3. Choose the roles you want to be published by selecting them from the list of available roles.
4. Click “Save” to publish the dashboard to the selected roles.

When publishing a dashboard, administrators have the option to choose between three different modes:

1. Add/Move Content Mode: Users can move items around and add items to their login page. They cannot remove any content from the dashboard.
2. Unlocked Mode: Users have no editing restrictions and can freely modify the dashboard as needed.
3. Locked Mode: Users cannot make any edits to the published dashboard. This is used when content and layout must remain consistent across the organization.

DataOngoing NetSuite Consultants have the expert qualifications to assist you with your NetSuite needs and solutions.