Roles and Data Access for Multi-Book Accounting

Note:

Please contact your sales or account representative to find out how to get the Full Multi-Book Accounting feature. The assistance of NetSuite Professional Services or a Multi-Book authorized partner is required to implement this feature. You should consider contacting NetSuite Professional Services or a Multi-Book authorized partner for assistance in setting up the Adjustment-Only Books feature, even though it is not required.

Important:

Multi-Book Accounting, including the Adjustment-Only Books feature, is available only in NetSuite OneWorld.

Full Multi-Book Accounting introduces another layer of role-based data control to the existing NetSuite data access rules. All users have access to the primary book in accordance with their regular NetSuite permissions. Access to secondary accounting books must be specifically configured.

Accounting Book Creation

When Full Multi-Book Accounting is enabled, only users with Administrator access or the CFO role can add accounting books.

To grant permission to set up accounting books:

Go to Setup > Users/Roles > User Management > Manage Roles to open the Manage Roles page.
Click Edit or Customize for the role to which you want to add permissions.
On the Permissions subtab, click the Setup subtab.
Add the Accounting Book permission and set the access level to Full.
Click Save.

Note:

Full permission is required to activate an accounting book. Users with the Accounting Book permission and Create or Edit access can create secondary books, but they cannot view them until secondary book permissions are granted.

The permissions to configure chart of accounts mapping are separate from the Accounting Book permission, but they are also on the Setup subtab. They are Global Account Mapping and Item Account Mapping.

Secondary Book Records

The Administrator role and all roles with the Accounting Center type have access to the primary book records. Accounting Center roles do not automatically have access to view, create, or edit secondary accounting book records. Book-specific transactions and the book-specific attributes on a book-generic transaction are controlled by the book permissions. If book permissions do not include access to a specific secondary book, nothing associated with that book is visible. Book record permissions are separate from subsidiary permissions.

For book-generic transactions, posting to the general ledger always occurs across all accounting books. It is determined by predefined accounting rules such as the accounts on item records, revenue recognition templates, and so on. If a user without access to a specific secondary book submits a book-generic transaction, posting occurs as follows:

For new transactions, default values from the system populate the hidden secondary book.
If the transaction is being edited, previous values for the hidden book are preserved.

Searches, reports, and the contents of the general ledger impact are also subject to book permissions.

The permissions for accounting books and subsidiaries work in combination. Users must have permission for both the subsidiary and the accounting book to view, edit, and create records for any subsidiary and accounting book combination.

To grant secondary book permissions:

Go to Setup > Users/Roles > User Management > Manage Roles to open the Manage Roles page.
Click Edit or Customize for the role to which you want to add secondary book access.
In the Secondary Accounting Book list, select the appropriate accounting book.

Press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple books.

Consider the subsidiary permissions in combination with the accounting book permissions.
Change the value in the Name field to identify the accounting book access.
Click Save.

You can select which accounting books are accessible to users by role. Users with a role that has access to an accounting book can post transactions to that book or see reports from that book. You can use this feature to grant a role access to all accounting books, and users with this role will automatically have access to new accounting books as they are created.

To set accounting book access by role:

Go to Setup > Users/Roles > User Management > Manage Roles and select or create a role.
In the role record, go to the Accounting Books section and select one of the following in the Selected Accounting Books field:
- All - This role can see all accounting books
- Primary - This role can see only the primary accounting book
- Primary and Selected - This role can see the primary accounting book and any secondary books you select. When you select this option, an Accounting Book field appears where you can select which secondary books the role has access to.
Click Save.