User Roles in NetSuite

What are Roles?

In NetSuite, levels of access and permissions are controlled by the assigning of Roles. Each role includes a set of permissions that determine the data users can see and the tasks they can perform. For example, the Donations Processor Role lets users enter create designations, process donations, and set up assessments. A user may be assigned multiple roles. When they login, they will be presented with their default role, but they can easily switch among their roles.

Our Roles

As an organization, we have defined a number of roles specific to us. Each role has a set level of permissions and access. This means that an Accountant in one country has the same access and permissions as an Accountant in another country—limited, of course, to the information for their country. We are committed to keeping these roles consistent around the world to facilitate training and ongoing process improvement.

Here’s a brief overview of our relevant roles with some of the actions they can take within their entity/entities. These roles will evolve as we use NetSuite.

Accounting Roles

**Bookkeeper—Journal Entries, International Transmittals entries, CSV imports, Bank/CC Rec, Financial Reports, Vendor Management, Purchase Request/Purchase Order, Vendor Bill Payments, Vendor Credits/Refunds, Sales and Invoices, Expense Reports, Electronic Payments, Item Management, Inventory Adjustments.

**Accountant—COA and RCs, Month End Process Checklist, Budget and Forecast, Tax Management, Journal Entries Approvals, CSV imports, Bank/CC Rec, Financial Reports, Vendor Management, Purchase Request/Purchase Order, Vendor Bill Payments, Vendor Credits/Refunds, Sales and Invoices, Customer Refunds and Cash Refunds, Expense Reports, Expense Report and Purchase Request and Vendor Bill accounting approvals, Electronic Payments, Fixed Asset Management, International Transmittals entries, Item Management, Inventory Adjustments, and Transfers.

**Donations Processor—Donation Management, Donation Processing, CSV imports, Assessments, Assessment Reversals (only to process), Donation Adjustment (cash refund), In-Kind Gifts, Staff to Staff Transfers, Standing Order Processing.

**Finance Leader—This role will be used for both National Finance Leaders and Regional/Global Finance Leaders. COA and Segments, Month End Process Checklist, Budget and Forecast, Tax Management, Financial Reports, RC Balances, CSV imports, Expense Categories, International Transmittal Entries, International Transmittal Payments and corrections, International Transmittals flow-through subsidy approvals, Reverse and create negative Transmittal Entries, Item Management, Inventory Categories, Inventory Adjustment.

**National MCC Leader—Responsibility Center access is restricted to their own RCs and the RCs of those who report to them. Financial Reports, Purchase Request/Purchase Order (approval), Expense Report (approval)

**Leader—No restrictions on viewable RCs within the entity. Financial Reports, RC Balances, Purchase Request/Purchase Order (approval), Expense Report (approval).

**Local Ministry Team Leader—Restricted to their own RCs. View transactions and reports, approve transactions related to own RC, Purchase Request/Purchase Order (approval), Expense Report (approval).

**Financial Reporting—Entity level view-only access for the purpose of financial reporting insights. View and manipulate reports. Set the audience of a saved search.

**Financial Reporting—XXXX Area. Area level view-only access for the purpose of financial reporting insights. View and manipulate reports. Set the audience of a saved search.

HR Roles

**Human Resources Generalist— Create and Update employee records, view RC account balances, terminate & inactivate accounts when staff leave.  Responsible for Onboarding & Offboarding staff.  Can use CSV Import to import or update HR Data.  Able to give any Role to any employee in their entity - very powerful, be careful who you give this to.

**Payroll Manager—Payroll/RC Balances, data imports from payroll integrations, update employee fields.

Fund Development Roles

**Field Representative—Donor Management, Donation Management, Donation Yearly Reports

**FD Administrator—View donor activity, assign tasks and donors to field reps, manage reporting.

**FD Manager—National/Area director of fund development. Donor Management, Donation Management, reporting.

Other Roles

**Employee Center—Role all staff are assigned if necessary (if they need to personally submit or approve expense reports). Purchase Request/Purchase Order and Expense Reports, Approval Delegation.  See also Concerning **Employee Center (EC) below.

**Report Writer — This Role can create Saved Searches for both Finance & HR data and share those searches so that others can use those searches.  Can schedule searches to be emailed to users on a recurring basis.  This is very powerful, for Data Security & Data Privacy, Only users with CCD email address should have this role or have reports emailed to them. 

Assigning Roles:

Concerning **Employee Center (EC)—Initially, we would like to limit the number of EC access licenses to NetSuite to keep costs down. When filling in the Employee Template, you’re instructed to specify only one EC access per married staff unit (husband or wife). If both husband and wife need to approve expense reports (reimbursements or advances) separately, both will need the **Employee Center role. For employees who do not need to use NetSuite (example, they have no individual RC’s), no **Employee Center access is needed.  

For Global Leaders Approving Global or Regional Leaders' Out of pocket expenses,  Do Not give the Approver the **Employee Center Role.  Do follow these directions Reimbursement for Global Leaders via National Ministry

For Accounting, HR and Fund Development Roles

Some principles to consider when assigning roles…

• Every role other than **Employee Center requires a more expensive user license. Make sure the user actually needs the role assigned.
• Consider giving out the minimum roles necessary.
• Resist the temptation to assign every role to everyone.
• Consider the need for redundancy (at least two people in a role in case one is not available).