Auditing Primary Data and Configuration Changes in NetSuite
Unless identified as a System Notes v2 feature, the information in this topic applies only to System Notes. For more information about System Notes v2, see System Notes v2 Overview,
This section provides details about NetSuite features for tracking changes, including links to a wide variety of related topics. This background about NetSuite’s auditing capabilities is intended to assist you in developing a strategy to achieve your control objectives. This content will be enhanced as new information is added and as existing procedures are refined, so check back regularly for updates.
Tools for Auditing in NetSuite
NetSuite provides system notes that track many data and configuration changes. In most cases, you can determine whether a record, or a group of configuration settings, supports system notes based on whether a System Notes subtab is available on its NetSuite page. For more information about system notes, see System Notes Overview.
You can use NetSuite’s search capabilities to access system notes for auditing purposes.
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A general system note search can return system notes for all record types. A system note search can be filtered by record type, so that the results include only system notes for a particular record type. See Searching System Notes.
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Searches of record types that support system notes can include system notes details in results. For example, a customer search can include values for system notes fields related to customer record changes in results. This support is based on a join between system notes records and their related parent records. See Defining an Advanced Search.
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System notes include a Context field. The context describes how the change was made. For example, users and external systems can perform updates through the user interface, web services, SuiteScript, and a variety of other methods. Each method is considered a context. See Understanding the Context for Changes.
NetSuite provides predefined audit trails for many frequently used records. Audit trails are searches of system notes, with filters and results already defined.
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An audit trail link, available at the top of most list pages, can return system notes for a particular record type. See Viewing an Audit Trail for a Record Type.
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The audit trail for transaction records is available at Transactions > Management > View Audit Trail. See Using the Transaction Audit Trail.
Also see Auditing Data Changes using Searches.
Many record types also include a History subtab where you can track updates to each record, including line-level changes.
The deleted record search type lets you retrieve details about records that have been deleted. See Searching for Deleted Records.
Auditing Changes to Enabled Features
The Enable Features page (Setup > Company > Enable Features) indicates which features are currently enabled for use in a NetSuite account. Although this page does not have a System Notes tab, it does support system notes.
You can create a system note saved search that returns system notes for the Enable Features page, by choosing the Enable Feature filter for the Record Type field of the search. You can run this search regularly to track changes to enabled features.
The Enable Features page includes a link to an Audit Trail page. It is available from the More list in the upper right of the page. See Auditing Account Preferences.
Auditing Changes to Configuration Settings
Changes to general configuration settings that have a financial impact are logged in system notes. Areas covered by these system notes include: company information, general preferences, accounting lists, and tax setup.
For a list of the specific pages covered, see System Notes for Changes to Configuration and Setup Pages.
The Company Information page (Setup > Company > Company Information) has a System Notes subtab. Most of the other configuration pages do not have this tab. You can create a system note saved search that returns system notes for these pages, by setting a filter for the Record Type field of the search. For system notes for the Company Information page, choose the Company Information filter. For system notes for the General Preferences and Accounting Preferences pages, choose the Company Preferences filter. For system notes for an accounting list, set a filter that matches the name of that list.
The General Preferences and Accounting Preferences configuration pages include a link to an Audit Trail page. It is available from the More list in the upper right of the page. See Auditing Account Preferences.
Tracking Roles and Permissions
You can use searches to return details about role and permission assignments in your NetSuite account.
System Notes
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NetSuite provides a simple role search you can use to find a particular role or set of roles, or to return a list of roles and their characteristics. For information about running simple searches, see Defining a Simple Search.
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You can use the SuiteScript Search APIs to create and automate role searches. For more information see N/search Module.
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You can create advanced employee and role record saved searches to find information about roles and permissions. For example, you can verify permissions assigned to a role, or verify permissions assigned to an employee or an employee’s role. For information about auditing permissions, see Use Searches to Audit Roles and Use Searches to Audit Permissions By Employee.
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A History subtab is available on the Access tab of the Employee record, that shows changes to roles and global permissions assignments for the employee. The History subtab includes date/time, user, and a description for each change.
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NetSuite provides a function you can use to quickly review the differences in permissions between roles. See Showing Role Permission Differences.
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As of 2020.1, system notes for roles and permissions captures change information related to primary fields only. It does not capture change information made on available tabs.
System Notes v2
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You can access System Notes v2 for roles and permissions by clicking System Notes in the upper right of the Role page.
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For information about System Notes v2, see System Notes v2 Overview.
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For more information about System Notes v2 for roles and permissions, see Viewing System Notes v2.
Auditing Changes to Customization Objects
See the following for tips for tracking changes to customizations in your account:
Custom Lists, Custom Records, and Custom Transactions
Each custom list definition page has a History subtab and a System Notes subtab. These subtabs have mostly the same information, except the System Notes subtab includes the context for changes.
Each custom record type definition page has a History subtab and a System Notes subtab. The System Notes subtab has additional fields not included on the History subtab, and the History subtab includes Notes. You can include system notes fields in a custom record type search, by selecting them on the Results tab of the saved search definition page. You can create a system note saved search that returns system notes for a custom record type, by choosing the record type name as a filter for the Record Type field of the search.
Currently each custom transaction type definition page does not have a History subtab or System Notes subtab. You can include system notes fields in a custom transaction type search, by selecting them on the Results tab of the saved search definition page. (To create a search for a custom transaction type, you need to create a Transaction search and set the Type field to the specific custom transaction type.) You can create a system note saved search that returns system notes for all transactions, including custom transaction types, by choosing the Transaction filter for the Record Type field of the search.
Custom Fields
Each custom field definition page, for most types of custom fields, has a History subtab and a System Notes subtab, both of which are displayed under History. These two subtabs have slightly varying fields.
System notes for fields with encrypted stored values mask old and new field values, displaying asterisks only, for security reasons.
History and system notes are supported for custom entity fields, custom item fields, custom transaction body fields, custom transaction column fields, custom transaction item option fields, and other custom fields.
History and system notes currently are not supported for custom item number fields or custom segments.
Custom Forms
Each custom form definition page has a History subtab. For each change, this subtab lists the date/time, user, type of change, and any notes.
History is supported for custom entry forms, custom transaction forms, and custom address forms.
SuiteScripts
Script and script deployment record activity is logged on the System Notes subtab.
Each system note for a change to a script or script deployment captures the following information:
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Date when the change was made
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Who made the change
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Context for the change (for example, UI)
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Type of change, for example, Edit
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Field changed
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Old value
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New value
Script and script deployment records created before 2016.2 have a History subtab and a System Notes subtab. The History subtab lists logged activity that occurred before 2016.2, and the information on this subtab is no longer updated.
During script execution, a detailed script execution log is generated when either an unexpected error occurs or the N/log Module is used. See Using the Script Execution Log Tab and Setting Script Execution Log Levels.
NetSuite provides access to the current and past runtime statuses of all SuiteScript scheduled scripts that have been executed in your account. See Scheduled Script Status Page. A similar page is provided for monitoring the status of map/reduce scripts. See Map/Reduce Script Status Page.
You can view a list of all record types that have user event or global client scripts associated with them in your account. See The Scripted Records Page.
Change management for edits to script files can be handled outside of NetSuite, through the source control management system used by script developers.
Plug-in Implementations
Plug-in implementation record activity is logged on the System Notes subtab.
System notes are also logged for Custom GL Lines Plug-in configuration changes.
Each system note for a change to a plug-in implementation captures the following information:
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Date when the change was made
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Who made the change
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Context for the change (for example, UI)
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Type of change, for example, Edit
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Field changed
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Old value
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New value
Plug-in implementation records created before 2016.2 have a History subtab and a System Notes subtab. The History subtab lists logged activity that occurred before 2016.2, and the information on this subtab is no longer updated.
Workflows
The Workflow Manager in NetSuite includes information about changes to the workflow definition. For more information, see Workflow Definition Page History Subtab. You can view workflow history statistics and delete workflow instances and history records on the Workflow History Record Statistics dialog. When you delete workflow instances and history records, the event is logged on the Workflow Definition Page History subtab. Additionally, when the workflow instances and history records are deleted, the user who initiated the action receives an email indicating that the deletion is complete. See Deleting Workflow Instances and History Records. Additionally, you can specify whether workflow history records are saved for workflows.
You can specify whether workflow instances and history records are saved for workflows. You can enable the Only When Testing option to generate workflow history records only when the Release Status is set to Testing. See Disabling History for a Workflow.
You can run a search to get a list of workflow instances that completed or are currently in progress for a specific workflow definition or multiple workflow definitions. See Workflow Instance Search. You can also run a system notes search to see if changes have been made to a workflow. You can find more detailed information about the changes indicated in system notes search results on the Workflow Definition Page History Subtab.
For more detailed monitoring of what a workflow is doing, you can enable logging that tracks all actions and transitions that execute on a record for each state that a workflow enters. See Workflow Execution Log. You can specify that the history records related to the workflow instance’s execution be deleted from the database after the workflow finishes or is canceled. See Workflow History Subtab.
You can use workflow revisions to track the nature and number of modifications made to a workflow. You can track workflow revisions on the Workflow Definition Page History subtab, and through System Notes searches with the new Revision column. For details about the revision changes tracked on the Workflow Definition Page History subtab, see Workflow Definition Page History Subtab. For more information about workflow definition revisions, see Workflow Revisions.
Customized Reports and Saved Searches
You can use the Analytics Audit Trail search to display audit trail data covering changes to the definitions of saved searches, custom reports, report schedules, and financial report layouts. See Audit Trail Search.
Information about execution of saved searches is available through the saved search Execution Log and the Saved Searches list. See Auditing Saved Search Execution.
Tracking User Logins
You can use the Login Audit Trail to keep track of account users, when they have logged in, and from where. See Login Audit Trail Overview. This specialized search includes fields to track tokens associated to users, for accounts that use token-based authentication. See Troubleshoot Token-based Authentication (TBA).
System Notes capture password change information for employee, customer, vendor, partner, and prospect records. The system notes include details about who made the change, the date and time the change was made, and the type of change. Some examples of types of changes include USER_CHANGE, USER_RESET, EXPIRED, ADMIN_SET, GENERATED, and so on.
If a user has access to roles in different NetSuite accounts, the password changes are also tracked in those accounts. For more information, see Password Changes Are Logged in System Notes on Entity Records.
Tracking Emails
The Sent Email List provides a view into all outgoing email sent from an account. You can view email that was delivered successfully as well as email that was not delivered to the recipient.
The Sent Email feature provides information about all outbound email sent from an account and records the following details for all outbound email:
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Send date and sender (From)
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Recipients (To/Cc/Bcc), message ID, subject
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Email delivery status per recipient
For more information about how you can view the Sent Email List, incorporate new saved searches, and schedule saved searches, see Using the Sent Email List.
Tracking Key Financial Record Audit Trails
See the following for tips for tracking changes to key financial records:
General Transaction Audit Trail
NetSuite stores data on each entry that a user makes to create, change, or delete a transaction. This data includes all users involved in the history of this transaction, each user's action, the user’s role, the date and time of that action, whether there was an account impacted, and the amount after the change. This historical data may be referred to as system notes, an audit trail, or as history. NetSuite provides a variety of methods for you to retrieve historical details about changes made to transaction records. See the following for information:
Tracking Transaction Deletion
The deleted record search type lets you retrieve details about records that have been deleted. See Searching for Deleted Records. To search for deleted transactions, choose the Transaction filter for the Record Type field of the search.
Some countries legally require that a reason is provided whenever a transaction is deleted. The Use Deletion Reason feature satisfies this requirement by making it mandatory for users to record the reason for deleting a transaction. For details, see Recording a Reason for Deleting a Transaction. The field that tracks deletion reasons is available to SuiteScript and web services.
Tracking Revenue Recognition Changes
System notes are supported for advanced revenue management records, including revenue arrangements, revenue elements, revenue recognition rules, revenue recognition plans, and advanced revenue setup records. For details, see Change Information for Revenue Recognition Records.
Tracking Changes to Items
An audit trail link is available on the Items list page. This link provides access to a simple search page where you can search for items by old value or new value, as well as by other field values.
Each item record includes a System Information subtab that provides system notes, a list of active workflows on the item, and a history of workflows executed against the item.
Tracking Changes to Journal Entries
Each journal entry record includes a System Information subtab that provides system notes, a list of active workflows on the journal entry, and a history of workflows executed against the journal entry.
Tracking Changes to Projects
An audit trail link is available on the Projects list page. This link provides access to a simple search page where you can search for projects by old value or new value, as well as by other field values.
Each project record includes a System Information subtab that provides system notes, a list of active workflows on the project, and a history of workflows executed against the project.
Tracking GL Audit Numbering
The GL Audit Numbering Sequences page provides general ledger audit numbering information specific to the accounting period in which the sequence was run, even if the period is closed. Each numbering sequence is saved as a separate record and the history is maintained. You can also create a GL numbering sequence from the GL Audit Numbering Sequences page. For details, see Viewing GL Audit Numbering Sequences.
You can customize financial reports including the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, and Income Statement to include or exclude general ledger audit numbered transactions. You can also filter transactions on reports through the GL Audit Number field. For details, see Reports and Saved Searches.
System-Generated Journal for NetSuite OneWorld
NetSuite provides a system-generated, read-only journal. This journal represents the general ledger impact of payments that are at varying states of completeness in your system.
To view system journals, on the bill payment record, click the Related Records subtab. Click the number link associated with the system journal you want to view. You must have at least View level of the Make Journal Entry permission to view system journals.
For additional information about system-generated journals, see System-Generated Journals for Payments.