NetSuite Multi-Book Accounting: A Solution for Companies With Multiple Reporting Requirements

Multi-Book Accounting provides the ability to maintain multiple sets of accounting records based on a single set of real-time financial transactions. This enables businesses to support different managerial and regulatory compliance needs such as:
• Deliver different financial reports to serve different purposes.
• Provide detailed transaction-based reports for each accounting book.
• Automate posting to multiple accounting books according to pre-defined accounting rules.
• Adjust financial results on a per-book basis.
• Close and then reopen accounting periods associated with any accounting book.
• Ensure data integrity across multiple accounting books.
• Enable customization to leverage the multi-book Accounting context.
• Run financial consolidation on a per-book basis.

The Multi-Book Accounting feature includes options for chart of account mapping, foreign currency management, revenue and expense management, and accounting book period close management to address these needs.

In addition to the Full Multi-Book Accounting feature, NetSuite offers you the ability to post book-specific adjustments to a secondary, adjustment-only book at closing. Adjustment-only books differ from standard secondary books in that they don’t duplicate the data in the primary book. Instead, adjustments are made in the adjustment book to data from the primary book. You can then utilize the standard NetSuite reporting tools to display financial reports on the data from both the primary book and adjustment book.

Chart of Accounts Mapping
The feature enables you to configure secondary accounting books to post to accounts that are different from those the primary book uses for posting. Unless differences are specifically mapped, secondary accounting books use the same account values for transactions as the primary book.

Chart of accounts mapping provides the rules to determine which accounts to use for different accounting books. To select which mapping rule to use, the system first identifies the source of the account for the transaction. If the account is derived from the item records, the system uses item account mapping rules. If the user determines the account on the transaction record itself, the system uses global account mapping.

Accounting Book Period Close Management
With Multi-Book Accounting you can individually close and reopen accounting periods associated with any accounting book, without impacting your other accounting books. When you enable the Extended Accounting Period Close Process feature, unique period close checklists become available for each of your accounting books including newly activated secondary accounting books.

You choose the accounting book for which you want to close a period through the Filters section at the top of the Manage Accounting Periods page. The accounting books available for selection depend on your user role and associated permissions.

Foreign Currency Management
Foreign Currency Management in Multi-Book Accounting enables you to manage foreign currency transactions and generate financial reports for different accounting books using different base currencies assigned to the same subsidiary. When Foreign Currency Management is enabled, the base currency for each subsidiary in a book must be configured before a secondary accounting book can be activated.

For book-generic transactions, the foreign currency exchange rate in the main transaction record is for the primary book. The exchange rates for secondary accounting books are on the Accounting Books subtab. Book-specific transactions include an Accounting Book list.

The general ledger impact of each transaction is translated into different base currency amounts for each accounting book. The GL Impact page displays the impact for the accounting book selected in the Accounting Book list. The list includes the option to display all accounting books.

Revenue and Expense Management
Revenue recognition and expense amortization often require different rules for different countries and industries. When Revenue and Expense Management is enabled, all revenue recognition and expense amortization features become book specific.

Book-Generic and Book-Specific Records
Multi-Book Accounting groups NetSuite records into two categories:
• Book-specific: Records that are created for only one book.
• Book-generic: Records that are created and shared across all accounting books. Some book-generic records may have book-specific attributes.

CRM records are not affected by enabling Multi-Book Accounting. Entity and general ledger records are book-generic although some such as subsidiaries, may have book-specific attributes.

Item records are book-generic with book-specific attributes. The item record is visible in all books, but book-specific information for revenue recognition and expense amortization is derived from the item record. When chart of accounts mapping is enabled, the accounts specified in the item record also used as the source for item account mapping.

Most transactions are book-generic, many with book-specific attributes. Some NetSuite processes, however, can be performed using only one base currency. Transactions and templates related to these processes are book specific. The processes are:
• Inventory COGS
• Revenue recognition
• Deferred revenue reclassification journal entries
• Expense amortization
• Fixed asset depreciation
• Intercompany elimination journal entries
• Month end currency revaluation

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