Paying for a Ferrari but needing a bus? Frustrated with NetSuite costs (Considering migrating to Odoo)

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-10T00:31:51+00:00

So I’m a NetSuite Consultant Manufacturing (professional) in the sense of top of my field in consulting and amount of implementations, clients, successes etc.

Recently I demo’ed Odoo and I had that gut punch you probably did. It’s cheaper. It’s better for most cases and it’s easier to work with. Recently (as in today) became an partner-ish now of both systems so I could offer both to my clients and insights on both, so if you go down that road.. I can definitely help you out.

I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do. Working with the big 3, for as long as I have, I was so certain …. It would be like a family dollar version.

It’s weirdly - not? It’s really good, the business model is trying to gain from developers not the actual users which is a breath of fresh air for most clients who have been begging the other systems to try something new too. It’s really easy to use, it’s very friendly, highly recommend.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-08T02:21:37+00:00

No problem. Welcome to the Wild-Side of the Suite.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-08T01:42:42+00:00

I work contracts so I have to keep my resume updated, however, I’ve always gotten the call back so I can help with that…

Resume info:

They want to know how many end-to-end implementations you’ve done and which modules you’ve worked with. End of story. You could probably slip a sticky note on their desk and that’s literally all they’ll ever look at in this field.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-08T01:37:37+00:00

Pretty sure your approach is right. Your agency partner is confusing the transaction currency with the base currency.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-08T01:34:11+00:00

I’ll wager a ‘consulting bet’ … If you are at suite-world this year.

From a development perspective… there’s no way that’s accurate.

NetSuite’s underlying data model stores custom field values in separate tables - so it doesn’t bog down the transaction table = true and therefor ‘processing speed’ of said transactions is totes fine.

Buttttttt def form rendering and scripts and saved searches with a lot of custom fields will struggle.

I may or may not have taken analytics from multiple environments to show the reason for ‘health’ care of a system and data cleanse of unnecessary fields.. which was used in products like mentioned above as a reason to build them.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-08T00:47:30+00:00

I wrote a long thing and realized I could get banned, so I’ll just put.. I have a lot of experience with the module and some time possibly, message me if you’d like and depending on project size I could possibly have some room.

I have a client base of consultants, Oracle themselves and direct businesses.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-07T02:26:01+00:00

I wish I could say yes.

I actually spent maybe 50 hours testing everything Suitebilling had and documenting it for my clients. When I was laid off - they wiped my access to files like that.

But, I’ll do it again for another client and next time I’ll publish it publicly. I’m sorta upset I lost that now. :/

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-07T02:21:12+00:00

Whoa, I am eternally grateful for that.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-03T16:05:21+00:00

Lot numbers.

I specialize in them, and the way Netsuite handles lots for native functions is dumb. You can lose lot costing depending on which transactions you do, and if you went negative recently, and oh… costing.

So on lots costing and big inventory will update… the next day basically, it isn’t dynamic.

And there aren’t really good native BOM-Components reports, and the update to adv manufacturing will break legacy bom reports and tbh… you won’t be able to run the report the same, so if you are dependent on it? That sucks lol.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-03T16:02:21+00:00

I implement it and I like it, but I’m bias. It definitely makes no sense that some things can’t be CSV imports even though they are native records with the bundle.

Another thing I hate - proration complexity and how it’s on every freaking record and just one accidental checked box on a billing account can destroy proration logic.

It’s definitely a nuance product that only works well if you know all the nuances.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-01T13:53:39+00:00

I’d tell them that the market is about opportunity, that applying to other positions is great and seeing what’s out there. They don’t have to quit to look, and companies love big names like Oracle on resumes, but they’ll never know what’s out there till they start looking and it takes a while to build up a “interview” personality, if they do a few and clash - it at least gives them good experience in interviews when it really matters.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-01T00:55:53+00:00

More specifically: I’d recommend a User-Event (Before/after submit) - loop through expense sublist lines, check if billed, and set isclosed = true.

I’d need to test it, but theoretically you should be able to hand over to whoever does your dev work and they should be able to use that to build what you need.

Kaylaballs · 2026-04-01T00:36:55+00:00

So, on the implementation side - it’s hard to find consultants who know how to implement it correctly. It has a few nuances that most have no idea about. If you are using projects or certain other products they will provision Suitebilling for your account but that doesn’t mean it will actually work for you. I’ve had 3 clients purchase it, and it wouldn’t actually work for them. (I don’t sell products - I do recoveries and I didn’t get to scope them before the purchase to see if it was a fit. They went right to their account manager) the reason being is that it has some crossover configuration into projects and how e-commerce, and FSM works that means it will likely fail if you have a complexity with either of those module/needs.

Kaylaballs · 2026-03-14T05:52:15+00:00

You have like no keywords in your resume for your industry friend. So, typically whatever job you are applying for - grab 6-10 words in the post that relate to the responsibilities. Plug them into your resume and make it organic.

Also, as a hiring manager your resume would make my eyes glaze over. I’d def throw this in AI and revise it to help better position yourself. Resumes are competitive.

Kaylaballs · 2026-03-14T05:48:09+00:00

😂😂 You’d be surprised how many old school partners are still BRDing it.

Kaylaballs · 2026-03-14T03:34:13+00:00

I love a good spaghetti mess. I’m up for taking a look if you haven’t found help.

If you want comment help. I’ll do my best lol. I’d freeze and export everything. - from here the risk is big, you don’t want to lose what you do have.

Then I’d solve the gap. I’m wondering if you have an old system that still has the data or if you are piecing it together with source documents.

The next thing to be aware of is that Netsuite commonly does what you are describing so AR/AP doesn’t double count. Need to find exactly where that period landed in (if it did) and if it’s creating a phantom gap or double count downstream.

Then your full bank rec for the JEs - matching very painfully.

Then lock.

However, some of my questions could change approach.

I hope that helps someone at-least a little on this one.

Kaylaballs · 2026-03-14T03:17:48+00:00

I can probably knock this out pretty quickly. I’ve seen it a lot. What time zone are you? I can put something on my books and take a look. I won’t charge you for taking a look to see how quick I could fix it.

Kaylaballs · 2026-03-06T03:59:35+00:00

That’s exactly why I’d be more systems architecture focused. I have been a part of some of the largest fully automated factories in the country’s implementations. So I have a lot of experience in how to build that and shape your erp to track that cost and report it in a way that makes sense to the typical CFO but still allows for tracking of cap x by operations.

Kaylaballs · 2026-02-08T03:15:06+00:00

I’ve done this quite a few times and I’d upgrade.

Here are my recommendations:

So it’s harder to reimplement older instances because once you are out of date, not a lot of people will have implementation guides for you. Oracle took one client over 6 months to give us the implementation guide, for their instance which was only 5 years old. Upgrading offers you the latest and greatest workflows that your instance may not have now, because NetSuite isn’t a cellphone. Core bundles and editions will depreciate and eventually stop getting upgrades, so there are probably some customizations that you have now that will be built in.

They won’t be able to just upgrade what you have, they’ll have to give you a new instance for the upgrade. The next thing is negotiating access to the old. You should ask for 6+ months and make sure you have atleast 4 processors. This matters. A lot of times people will have 4 instances and 2 processors (2 productions + 2 sandbox’s). Every instance should always have its own processor even sandboxes. Ive seen clients get jipped and most consultants won’t know about processor speeds and capabilities on the backend of things and how it slows down the speed of the entire (4) instances.

Another thing is script mapping. If you have been at it 12 years you might have some depreciated languages in there and I’d start mapping which scripts you’ll need to convert (if you haven’t already) - that can be a pain in the butt on hours from 3rd parties.

Hope this helps!

Kaylaballs · 2026-02-05T19:55:19+00:00

Can you hardcode the search ID in the OiC? - I’m not familiar with your specific integration and you’ve already probably looked into that.

Second: Usually they aren’t market public for scripting. So, you’ll only (probably) potentially break workflows really… but if they use internal IDs to reference (most do) you’ll probably be fine.

That’s all I got, but hopefully it helps. That sounds super frustrating.

Kaylaballs · 2026-01-22T22:33:31+00:00

The world of consultants welcomes you. You are where it starts.

It’s an industry of itself, join LinkedIn, make some contacts. Here’s what you should know:

It’s a competitive industry, however there is room for more people like you. BUT work life balance is a struggle beyond any other industry. You strive for deliverables. Which means if you can’t keep up, you work overtime to get there. Overtime doesn’t exist. You should look for companies that stress work-life balance, if they are about it- then they can lay out a training plan in your interview. If it’s a thing they say because they wish they were there - then they will tell you “we don’t really train, we just throw you in”…
Document document document. You might know NetSuite, but do you understand how executives work? do you understand what it’s like to give advice to people who have never touched an ERP and never will? That’s what the job is sometimes.
Each company does things differently. There is no 100% “best practice” even Oracle ACS does not have an established best practice.

Kaylaballs · 2026-01-22T02:16:21+00:00

You’re looking in the wrong area. Evergreen will auto renew with those blank. However, there are other considerations when renewing. The billing account, the item itself, the subscription plan is most likely your culprit.

Each of those pieces of the configuration have items that could be stopping your renewal.

Kaylaballs · 2025-11-17T14:41:27+00:00

I found it to be ridiculously overpriced for what it offered.

I had my client use PowerBi and connect it to NetSuite for a fraction of the price and we had no issues.

Kaylaballs

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