A Complete Guide to NetSuite Integration

NetSuite is often the core of operations for enterprise-size organizations, centralizing a number of essential workflows. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best platform for every workflow. A one-off project with a contractor might be managed in a tool like Asana or Trello. Specific reports might be run in spreadsheets. Software development projects happen in dedicated tools. NetSuite integrations can pull data from these different tools back into NetSuite, giving you an overview of everything going on in your organization.

Here’s everything you need to know about NetSuite integrations.

What is NetSuite?

NetSuite is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, a type of system that centralizes finance, customer relationship management (CRM), product inventory, HR features, and e-commerce. Many enterprise-sized organizations use ERPs like NetSuite to handle the vast majority of their operations without needing to build a massive tool stack. That said, organizations might also rely on separate project management, ticketing, and software development tools.

What is NetSuite integration?

A NetSuite integration connects NetSuite with other tools, bridging the gap between them. This can give your finance team complete context on work happening in a separate project management tool, tie specific expenses to software development work, and more. All without long email chains or copying and pasting data back and forth.

NetSuite is often integrated with tools like:

• Project management tools like Asana, Smartsheet, and Jira.
• CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce.
• Customer support apps like ServiceNow and Zendesk.
• Software development platforms like GitHub and GitLab.

Why does NetSuite integration matter?

Integrating NetSuite with the other tools you use creates significant benefits, such as:

• Better reporting: NetSuite has deep reporting features that gives everyone from finance to HR a better look into what happens throughout the organization. But without the right integration, these reports can miss essential data from other tools.
• Increased productivity: Having to manually ship data back and forth between NetSuite and other tools takes time. With a NetSuite integration, your teams can get that time back and dedicate it to more productive tasks.
• Full context for all teams: NetSuite integrations can pull data from just about every business function into NetSuite. That means any team can get context on software development, project management, and more.
• Alignment across teams: With NetSuite integrations, every team in your organization can have access to the same data. They all work with the same context, allowing them to collaborate more efficiently.

4 types of NetSuite integration

NetSuite integrations aren’t all created equal. This can be due to a difference in the technology behind them (e.g., one-way automation vs. two-way sync) or the reason they’re built (e.g., covering as many connectors as possible or covering a single use case). NetSuite integrations can vary across three important factors:

• Ease-of-use: How easy is setting up the integration? Can any business user build and maintain integrations or are technical skills required?
• Breadth: How many integrations does the platform offer? Are they spread out over different types of tools or only cover a specific kind?
• Depth: Does the integration platform only support a few fields or is it more comprehensive? Can it reliably automate a range of actions or only a few?

Here are some of the most popular types of integrations for NetSuite:

• NetSuite Connector: NetSuite Connector is a built-in integration solution NetSuite users can deploy to map integrations between NetSuite and ecommerce, marketplace, logistics, point-of-sale systems, and more. Using these integrations can be technically limited and hard to customize, but they’re built right into NetSuite.
• Automation platforms: Platforms like Zapier use simple, trigger-action logic to automate a wide range of actions across thousands of apps. These actions range from automatically creating new work items to updating individual fields and even archiving work items. The advantage of these integrations come with the wide breadth of tools they support, but they can perform fewer actions in these tools.
• Two-way sync: A two-way sync tool like Unito builds relationships between work items in NetSuite and other tools. This allows work items to be automatically created to match items you create manually, as well as automatically updating fields across tools.
• Agentic AI: AI agents are the closest you can get to having robotic coworkers. They can independently take actions and make decisions the same way a human can. Some AI agents can even work across tools, transferring data and taking actions.

How to integrate NetSuite with Unito

Here’s a look at how an integration between NetSuite and other tools works with Unito.

Step-by-step integration guide

1. Connect tool accounts to Unito: After signing up for Unito, click +Create Flow and connect NetSuite and the tool you’re integrating to Unito.
2. Choose flow direction: Most Unito integrations support both one-way and two way flows, allowing you to choose between syncing data out of NetSuite, into NetSuite, or both.
3. Set rules: With Unito rules, you can build simple trigger-action logic chains to filter out work items you don’t need synced or automate certain actions. All you need to do is pick a trigger and choose the action you want the rule to take.
4. Map fields: Unito’s field mappings match data in NetSuite with similar data in other tools, so information always ends up in the right place. In most flows, Unito can map these automatically, and you can customize them further from there.
5. Launch your flow: Once you’ve mapped your fields, your flow is ready to launch. After an initial sync, Unito will automatically update work items as you work.

Want to see this Unito integration in action? Check out this video demo.

Challenges to watch out for when integrating NetSuite

Before you pick a NetSuite integration, consider the following challenges.

Deployment times and technical resources

NetSuite is a platform used by enterprise organizations, and these organizations need enterprise-grade integrations. But some of these integrations can take weeks or months to deploy, meaning it can be some time before you see any return on your investment. Additionally, they might require significant technical resources to deploy, troubleshoot, and maintain, and not all organizations have the resources to do this internally.

Integration depth

Integration depth refers to the number of fields an integration can modify or sync data out of, as well as the types of actions it can automate. Some integrations, for example, only handle a few fields. They might even not allow you to interact with data between tools, only giving you a snapshot of a connected work item in a read-only view. Deeper integrations aren’t always better — this will depend on the workflows you need to automate.

Real-time integration

Not all integrations support real-time data transfers, which are essential for some workflows. When researching integration platforms, you’ll want to investigate this capability. Some vendors may advertise real-time integrations but, in reality, only sync data every 15 minutes or so. Not all workflows need real-time integrations, but it’s something worth researching when comparing vendors.

Performance and scalability

Enterprise organizations have different integration needs than smaller businesses. A smaller team with workflows that only see a small amount of data might be well-served by a single Zapier automation. An enterprise organization might need multiple automations to accomplish the same result, but this approach rarely scales well. Automation chains require significant maintenance to work right, and they start to crumble with enterprise-level data needs. When researching integration solutions, consider this challenge carefully.

How to keep NetSuite integrations secure

Because NetSuite integrations move data between platforms, data security is especially important. Here are some ways you can keep these integrations secure.

Compliance

As an organization that handles data, you’re subject to various regulations covering your responsibilities in keeping that data safe. But if you’re in specific jurisdictions or industries, you have to abide by additional regulations, such as California’s CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) or healthcare’s HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). When researching integration vendors, ensure they use processes that comply with whatever regulations you need to comply with.

Access control

Access control allows you to do two things:

1. Restrict who has access to a specific platform or service.
2. Determine what someone who has access to that platform or service can do.

Many integration solutions have role-based permissions, which allows you to strictly control who has access to an integration platform without managing individual credentials — which rapidly becomes untenable when you have hundreds of teams. Picking an integration solution with rigorous access control features can help you keep your integrations secure.

Security certifications

Security certifications like SOC 2 Type 2 give you a framework to follow for keeping customer data secure. Integration vendors can acquire these certifications just like any organization, which allows you to quickly compare data security across vendors.

Best practices when integrating NetSuite

When rolling out your first NetSuite integration, consider these best practices:

1. Start with a small pilot project between a few NetSuite records and work items in another tool. This allows you to test out an integration solution before it has access to all the data in your NetSuite workspace.
2. Evaluate the results of a pilot project before implementing integrations at scale. Look for situations where the integration solution saves essential time, where it stumbles, and where your team had to adapt the way they work.
3. Consider whether you need an integration solution that can be restricted to technical users (e.g., your IT team) or one that’s more accessible for all users.
4. Once a year, review the integration vendor you’ve chosen and compare their offering to the broader market to ensure they’re still competitive.
5. Use built-in NetSuite integrations when possible to enhance any third-party integrations you deploy.

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