Fieldpoint’s NetSuite Integration: The Missing Link to Increased Field Service Capacity
As a service company, one question that drives us all is “how do we grow service management capacity without increasing administrative resources?” To achieve this, we need to reflect on the relationship between service capacity and administrative resources for a field service business. Increasing service capacity for a field service business essentially means being able to provide more billable services. By billable services, we refer to actual in-field services performed by technicians. To provide more billable services, you’ll need more customer-facing service technicians working in the field. To streamline the jobs of service technicians, you’ll require additional administrative resources. This administrative workforce will look into tasks like data entry, inventory updates, purchasing updates, invoicing, quote management, and other such tasks. Deploying resources to these administrative tasks burdens the profitability of your field service company.
The Solution: Use the Power of Your ERP System
Integrate your service department and the software they use. Let the transactions that occur in your field service software integrate into an ERP system like NetSuite. The objective is to automate the flow of information from one system to another so that you don’t need people doing the job that an automated system can do. We, at Fieldpoint, pride ourselves on our ability to integrate with ERP systems that you’re currently using, like NetSuite. Fieldpoint and Netsuite’s integration builds the necessary linkages for an automated flow of data and information.
THE LINK BETWEEN REPAIRS SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND NETSUITE SUPPLY CHAIN
The adjoined work order and sales order system are the pillars of Fieldpoint and NetSuite’s integration.
Repair service management is done through Fieldpoint’s work order management system. This system keeps track of the resources consumed to complete the work order. The primary billable resources consumed for repair service work orders are time and inventory. The time consumed by the technician is recorded on the work order, and when the work order is finalized, that time is automatically entered into NetSuites’s sales order system. The adjoined work order and sales order are the pillars on which the integration between Fieldpoint and NetSuite is built on. As information is inserted onto the Fieldpoint work order, that information is transferred to the NetSuite sales order. Billable hours inserted on a work order by a technician are calculated accordingly and accurately placed on the sales order. For inventory, there is a direct view of NetSuite’s inventory control system from Fieldpoint. This inventory control system provides you with real-time insight into your stock levels. The bridge between field service software and inventory control systems is critical for a company that wants to keep track of the resources consumed but does not want to increase administrative expenses. For a streamlined supply chain, the ability to initiate purchases for low-stock materials becomes a matter of importance and a higher linkage. Through the integration, a technician can now initiate the purchasing process from within Fieldpoint’s system and which updates the NetSuite sales order with a purchase order, with the details of the transactions. This entire process is completed without having to employ any other additional resources for administering the payroll updates, inventory balances, or purchase orders.
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THE LINK BETWEEN FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND NETSUITE ACCOUNTING
The seamless communication between Fieldpoint and NetSuite results in a single comprehensive automation system, managing both field service management and accounting.
While Fieldpoint is automating your field services, an end-to-end business optimization is incomplete without an integration to your accounting system. The seamless communication between Fieldpoint and NetSuite forms the base for a single, comprehensive automation system that manages both field service management and accounting. Once the invoice is generated, it gets posted to the accounting system, and the general ledger and further sales analysis is updated. This optimized process of expedited invoicing works to your advantage when paying vendors, suppliers, and/or subcontractors. Timely payments help you stick to your budgets and maintain good relations with your stakeholders. Let’s not forget billing and invoicing involves a lot of numbers and demands accuracy. Fieldpoint’s integration with NetSuite’s accounting system eliminates the possible common error patterns of wrong part numbers, inaccurate descriptions, inexact costs or tax calculation errors. The shared relationship between the Fieldpoint work order and the NetSuite sales order ensures accuracy in the information, costs, prices, rates and quantity being sent from the field service management software to the accounting software.
NetSuite also acts as the CRM system. When initializing the Fieldpoint software, transfer customer, employee and vendor information, and import your products and equipment with descriptions and costs into your Fieldpoint system to use when creating work orders, projects and contracts.
THE LINK BETWEEN NETSUITE SALES AND SERVICE INSTALLATIONS
The two-way communication ensures accuracy at each step.
Fieldpoint and NetSuite have a two-way communication system. While a lot of the transactions mentioned above move from Fieldpoint to an ERP system like NetSuite, there are scenarios where the ERP feeds data back to Fieldpoint. Let’s look at an example of a product sale through NetSuite: the sale is billed through NetSuite’s sales order system, and the installation is done through Fieldpoint’s work order system. All the necessary data from NetSuite’s sales order becomes the base for Fieldpoint’s work order. The ability to move the sales order items into a work order for installation purposes is essential to a field service business. This level of communication enables sales teams to work within the confines of their own software, while giving service teams the ability to complete the installation projects using a field service software that is designed for project management. Initiate service from NetSuite and push it into Fieldpoint, building out tasks, work orders and appointments for the many steps that are part of the project. As time is entered on the project, it is then entered onto the sales order for the project. Billing triggers can also be setup in Fieldpoint that will initiate invoices when the intervals or parameters of the trigger are met, such as a percentage of completion or specific dates, with hold backs enabled as well to ensure projects come in on time and on budget.
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THE BIGGEST COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR YOU
It is achieving complete automation with higher accuracy and lower administrative costs.
The result of this integration is what we call ‘end-to-end field service automation.’ The chances of duplicating data and data entry errors are reduced significantly simply because that data is no longer being manually entered by an office administrator, but is completed between the field service software and NetSuite accounting and ERP system automatically. The two-way communication between Fieldpoint and NetSuite minimizes the number of administrative employees required to transfer information from one task to another, hence lowering administrative costs. Field service businesses can allocate more budget to hiring technicians who will provide billable services rather than spending that money on employees to manage your data entry. By using an integration from your Fieldpoint field service software to your NetSuite ERP and accounting system, you can add people to your organization who will have a positive impact on your bottom line, as their billable hours will outweigh the cost to pay them for their work. Meanwhile, you can reduce the number of office administrators who are a constant expense in the organization, because field service automation takes care of the tasks of data entry, transferring data and converting that data into useful information to make better business decisions.
To learn more about Fieldpoint and its integration with NetSuite, contact an account executive or visit www.fieldpoint.net.