Imagine if you are the CFO of a multinational and are expanding into India, Brazil, and Germany with each having a different currency, tax laws, language and reporting competencies. You had spreadsheets and local ERPs and now you are sinking in intercompany invoices, slow close and a manual reconciliation process. Come the cloud-based, cross-border ERP, namely, NetSuite OneWorld, which is designed to make this very situation easier and straighter. It unites your subsidiaries; combines in one platform, in real time, intelligently automating in single platform-financial, operational and strategically. 

What Exactly Is NetSuite OneWorld? 

To start with, it is important to unravel the fundamentals. The advanced version of NetSuite ERP is NetSuite OneWorld designed to support multiple legal organizations. In contrast to normal NetSuite, capable of supporting only a single company, OneWorld can be used to represent up to 250 subsidiaries (including an unlimited number of elimination entities), each of which can have its own: 

• base currency, 
• tax jurisdiction, 
• language preferences, and 
• accounting chart

This feature could not simply be stickered up it goes deep rooted. All financials and consolidation through to CRM, HR and commerce all run across your globalities. 

And to give you a perspective, OneWorld is already translated in to 27 languages and is 190+ currency savvy which covers all areas realistically: Africa to Asia, Europe to the America. And in case you are dealing with more than one thing, and you love seeing less sheets in spreadsheets, less manual work, and actual real-time visibility, then you could say that your ERP soulmate is … erm … OneWorld.

Managing Subsidiaries and Multi-Currency 

When you have licensed the NetSuite OneWorld, you are going to establish subsidiaries in parent-child hierarchical tree structures. It is a structure in which you can easily control user access, reporting roll-ups, intercompany visibility and elimination rules . 

Every subsidiary has assigned to it its base currency, be it INR, USD, GBP or whatever your part of the world makes sense, and the customer or vendor can be transacted in any foreign currency. This implies that when your subsidiary in Germany bills a client based in the UK in euros, your subsidiary is dealing with euros and making conversions to its base when necessary. The best of it all is that exchange rates would be updated on a nightly basis (or near real-time) and the system would automatically figure out the gain or loss on revaluation . 

What is it really powerful? You are able to produce international consolidated financial statements in real time. With a single click NetSuite OneWorld eliminates across intercompany transactions, rolls up subsidiary ledgers and posts in consolidated currency. Nothing to enter manually, no inter-systems communication.  That is, Use the Multi-Book Accounting function, when your HQ has a distinct set of accounting rules (such as the IFRS or US GAAP) than the local ones. Through this, you will be able to have parallel books, which are maintained under the same subsidiary.

SuiteTax: Global Indirect Tax Powerhouse 

It is notoriously difficult to handle value added tax, GST, sales tax and customs duties at cross geographies. Due to this reason, NetSuite OneWorld has SuiteTax, a dynamic engine that is set in advance into the indirect tax regulations of more than 100 countries.

Once you open a transaction, SuiteTax will auto-charge the correct tax amount computed on nexus, item types, location, or type of customers. Rates are refreshed periodically–the more than 110 tax zones are covered, so you will never have to search exotic jurisdiction tables and can manually keep the VAT rates up to date. 

This also becomes very important when going to submit VAT returns in the EU, meet the TDS requirements in India or when submitting registration in intrastat. SuiteTax will enable you to create the configuration of those rules once and apply them to all the transactions concerned- that is not country-wise. 

And everything is logged in the system: electronics filing, audit trail, role-based permission. It comes box ready to be audited.

Localization & Regulatory Support You Don’t Hear About 

On most blogs you will read “27 supported languages” but then there are some of the reason they do not mention that quote is: 

• India: TDS, e-invoicing via IRP, GST returns directly filed. 
• EU: Intrastat, cross-border VAT handling. 
• China: Localized e-invoice generation formats. 
• Brazil: Nota Fiscal automation. 

Such non-conventional compliance regulations do away with the use of pricey thirdparty tax engines in most jurisdictions. You will have built-in, as opposed to bolt-on, statutory compliance localized reporting.

Intercompany Management & Consolidation Experience 

Intercompany transactions always exist when companies are selling or transferring stock between the subsidiaries. NetSuite OneWorld Automated Intercompany Management (AIM) automatically compares purchase and sales orders between entities in different jurisdictions, and generates matched invoices and journals.

I have witnessed finance departments reducing the amount of days they spend each month closing their books simply because they are no longer required to reconcile these on a manual basis. When transactions occur, the system monitors intercompany payables/receivable and gives the correct eliminations. 

FYI out of the trenches: Not all combinations of multi-VAT orgs (i.e. UK+Ireland) can do the transactions without incurring an additional requirement of scripting or licenses to get the transactions clean . It is highly possible that your structure is complicated and so you should request your implementation specialist to give you their intercompany automation guide.

Multi-Book Accounting (MBA): What You Need to Know 

Recall, when I said I needed parallel books on IFRS and US GAAP? There is where MBA comes in.  When it comes to complying with limited changes, you make the choice of adjustment-only books or you bite the bullet and use a Multi-Book to report to the full in more standards both as to currency and as to depreciation. Starting with adjustment-only books is something that you can do yourself (it is a flip of the settings), to create full secondary accounting books, however, you need professional services (and a data migration). After it goes live, you will have various GL treatments, but you will still have audit visibility in a single location. 

Who Should Choose NetSuite OneWorld? 

In short: anyone running more than one legal entity, especially across borders. This applies to: 

• mid market and enterprise firms comprising 2 or more legal enterprises, 
• those transacting in multiple currencies or those with a high rate of FX exposure. 
• the organizations which, on the one hand, need centralized reporting and, on the other hand, need local autonomy in legal accounting, 
• enterprises exposed to complicated tax or regulation compliances country by country, 
• young companies that want to expand their operations internationally without implementing the ERP solutions at each location. 

Still working off a hodge podge of spreadsheets and intercompnay accounts in Excel? It can be done but, most companies will do it till about 50M a year in worldwide revenue at which point, NetSuite OneWorld has an immediate ROI where it standardizes world wide financial flows in a single platform. 

Benefits & ROI: Real Numbers You’ll Actually See 

What say the effect? According to the customers who use NetSuite OneWorld, they say: 

• They have saved tight time by 4-8 days a month. 
• The finance departments save 5-10 man-hours per month, simply by reconciling intercompany transactions. 
• There is less spending to maintain thanks to less need in having several instances of ERP or localized reporting tools. 

Under the assumption that enterprises standardized on NetSuite OneWorld will implement their new ERP system within the same period, save on IT management in terms of reduced IT support, improved process automation, and software system after three to five years, the total ERP cost savings might be up to 30 percent when considering all three factors as presented by the Oracle Corporation itself . 

Integration with CRM, Commerce & SRP 

NetSuite OneWorld is not just about money, it is interactive. Out of the same backend: 

• CRM information such as pipeline, quotes and commissions roll up worldwide. 
• SuiteCommerce sites respond to change dynamicly – regionals pricing, compute taxes, shipping charges, change language dynamically. 
• SRP functionality keeps the project-based services (such as consulting) in time entry, resource planning and revenue recognition at the same time worldwide. 

It implies that you carry out global campaigns in a single system, operate storefronts locally, and implement service projects across legal entities under a unified ERP platform. 

Automated Intercompany Management: The Solution

The Automated Intercompany Management (AIM) that is found in NetSuite NetSuite OneWorld is a genuine scheduling wizard. When it is turned on, the system creates cross-charges, intercompany accounting, and elimination entries–and displays all the juicy results in Period Close Checklist (reddit). 

Here’s how it works: 

1. Make an intercompany PO in Subsidiary
2. It auto-generates a mirrored SO in Sub company.
3. A paired AR/AP entry is made by the system when the goods or services are moved. 
4. In the close AIM makes up elimination journal entries, which is done automatically. 

One of my finance leads said: “We are saving days in our monthly close since we do not have to manually reconcile and post and intercompany entry”.  pro tip: Create a special set of subsidiaries along each rank of your org chart- this will help your audit track stay clean reddit.com.  reddit.com. 

Intercompany Time, Expenses & Job Costing 

AIM deals with invoices, products and services, but what about employees who bill cross subsidiaries or intercompany project expenses? 

Go into the modules of Intercompany Time and Expense and the Job Costing. Activate these functions, and the employees will have the possibility to log time and expenses on the projects related to various subsidiaries. This system would then make journal entries to transfer cost of the employee to the project entity. 

Real-world insight from Reddit: 

“The expense debit still posts to the employee’s sub … then there is an Intercompany transfer process … to recover the amount from the other sub” reddit.com. 

External citation wrapping internal link 

And to save you time you can also automate these adjustments through the task Create Intercompany Adjustments. 

Multi-Book Accounting: Why It Matters 

Multi‑Book Accounting (MBA) is your savior, say your HQ also follows US GAAP with subsidiaries abiding by IFRS (the converse is okay, too). It can be imagined as taking care of two sets of books but on the same platform. The minor differences can be accommodated in the set up of the secondary books referred to as adjustment-only, or go to full MBA in case of deep compliance . 

he result? You are able to receive concentrated reporting of holding currency and real-time compliance reports in every accounting standard (it is a top of financial close, disclosures, depreciation, it is all that). No gyrating independent platforms and manual reconciliations. 

Global Financial Close & Consolidation 

Close time–Close time is time. Let us discuss how much time NetSuite OneWorld with Close Management & Consolidation saves you on closing your monthly books. 

Here’s what it does: 

• Concentrates near activities and verifies cross subsidiary event. 
• Configurable work flows allows you to secure certain accounting modules by subsidiary- with drill-down into those elimination entries.
• Creates a visual dashboard to ensure that the finance team is certain about what should be done and where bottlenecks are. 

Still exporting spreadsheets and fighting mismatched charts, then you are also missing out, NetSuite OneWorld brings you to one source of truth and there are no more manual consolidations that have to be done..  

Best Practices for Clean, Global ERP Operations 

1. Go Phased, Not All-at-Once 
Introduce regionally or even in the business unit–let subsidiaries scale-up separately. This will provide room to train and troubleshoot without causing disruption in the world. 

2. Build a Global Governance Team 
Create an international conviction board As there is no international conviction board, the creation of a global one will be essential.  Get finance, tax, IT and HR reps in each region. Every week during implementation and then once a month after go-live. 

3. Invest in Training & QA 
Misconfigurations of ERP are quick. Conduct pre-go-live sandbox tests. At least one Reddit user said: 

It will be a quarter million to start with, without offering employees trainings … ” 

4. Centralize Configuration Naming 
One should ensure that there are regular naming conventions when it comes to the subsidiary naming, when it comes to intercompany items, GL accounts such as Interco Payable EUR, so that reporting can be searchable and can cross to various functions. 

5. Use Elimination Subsidiaries Strategically 
Mark parent-level one in each of the branches and financial groups. This makes elimination journals open and traceable, as opposed to subsumed in GL clutter. 

So is NetSuite OneWorld the right fit for you?

NetSuite OneWorld provides multinational companies with the visibility and control required to grow without fear. It delivers on complex processes of real-time financial consolidation as well as SuiteTax compliance and the automation of intercompany financial processes that allow it to streamline its operations and at the same time execute operations in a localized manner.

NetSuite OneWorld can change the game when it is strategically implemented especially when your business is spreading to other countries, or you have more than one entity. You can begin by preparing a sandbox walkthrough of the existing flows, and work out the training strategy, allowing taking into account the intercompany and multi-book processes. Learn more about NetSuite Implementation Services or NetSuite Customization Services to obtain a custom-built assistance by people who know the specified needs of their organizations. In case you are undergoing implementation plans, visit our NetSuite Implementation Services to get professional assistance.

Curious to see how NetSuite OneWorld could streamline your global operations? Book a free demo today to test your intercompany flows and financial close setup—or connect with our global ERP experts to craft a plan custom to your multi-entity model.