NetSuite OpenAir Year-End Administrator Checklist: Setting Up for Success

As system administrators approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to prepare OpenAir for the year ahead. While monthly maintenance keeps your system running smoothly throughout the year, a year-end process is a best practice to avoid last minute scrambling with updates needed to ensure smooth processes for the year ahead. 

Having a comprehensive year-end checklist helps prevent these issues and ensures a smooth transition into the new year. At Top Step, we’ve worked with hundreds of organizations to manage their year-end processes as a part of our OnDemand Advantage services and we’ve compiled this short guide based on our extensive experience.

Why Year-End Planning Matters

Just as your finance team has specific procedures for closing out the fiscal year, your OpenAir system needs similar attention. Year-end changes can affect everything from resource planning to financial reporting, and getting these updates right is crucial for maintaining accurate data and efficient operations.

Essential Areas to Review

1. Work Schedules and Holiday Management

Work schedules are fundamental to accurate resource planning and utilization reporting. Without proper holiday configuration, your utilization reports and resource forecasts will be inaccurate.

Key actions:

• Enter all holidays for the upcoming year
• Set holiday hours to zero to remove them from available working hours
• For organizations with multiple locations or countries, ensure each regional work schedule is updated with local holidays
• Verify that holiday configurations properly impact utilization reporting and resource forecasting

2. Accounting Period Configuration

Accounting periods in OpenAir are equivalent to posting periods in your financial system, making them crucial for accurate financial reporting and revenue recognition.

Key actions:

• Create all accounting periods for the upcoming year
• Review current year periods to ensure proper closure
• Align period settings with your financial system requirements
• For organizations using revenue recognition, ensure periods are configured to support proper revenue calculations

3. PTO Balance Management

If your organization uses OpenAir for PTO tracking, year-end often brings policy changes and balance adjustments that need to be reflected in the system.

Key actions:

• Review and update PTO policies
• Configure new accrual rules if policies have changed
• Make any necessary balance adjustments
• Verify anniversary-based accrual rules are functioning correctly
• Update any delay or expiration rules for PTO

Pro tip: When making PTO policy changes, consider using the Integration Manager for bulk updates, but always test with a small group first to ensure accuracy.

4. Cost and Rate Management

Cost and rate updates are among the most common year-end changes, and they require careful attention to maintain accurate financial reporting.

Key actions:

• Update salary-based costs for individuals
• Review and adjust blended costs if used
• Update role-based cost bands
• Configure historical costs for year-over-year reporting accuracy
• Review and update default bill rates
• Validate all cost calculations with your finance team

Important note: Cost updates can be tedious due to the number of clicks required for each user. Consider using Integration Manager for bulk updates, but be sure to understand the proper process for updating the loaded cost table.

5. Target and Budget Updates

Many organizations adjust their targets and budgets for the new year, which needs to be reflected in OpenAir for accurate reporting.

Key actions:

• Review and adjust target utilization rates
• Update revenue and billing targets
• Configure new project category mappings
• Create or update target projects for budget vs. actual reporting

Pro tip: Consider creating an internal project to track monthly revenue targets, allowing for easy comparison of actual versus budgeted revenue throughout the year.

6. Organizational Changes

Year-end often brings organizational changes that need to be reflected in OpenAir to maintain accurate reporting and workflows.

Key actions:

• Update department structures
• Reflect promotions and title changes
• Adjust approval hierarchies
• Update cost center assignments
• Review and update service catalogs

Important caution: Cost center changes require careful timing. Since cost centers are transactional fields, changing them before the new year will affect historical data. Wait until the new year to make these changes to maintain accurate historical reporting.

7. Report Configuration Review

Reports need special attention at year-end to ensure they continue to provide valuable insights in the new year.

Key actions:

• Review Year-to-Date (YTD) reports and consider alternatives for early-year reporting
• Update custom time ranges for fiscal year reporting
• Verify all report calculations reflect new year settings
• Consider implementing rolling 12-month reports for early year reporting

Implementation Best Practices

To ensure a smooth year-end process:

• Create a detailed checklist specific to your organization’s needs
• Test all changes in a sandbox environment first
• Document all updates for future reference
• Communicate changes to affected users
• Schedule updates to avoid disrupting year-end processing
• Consider using Integration Manager for bulk updates, but always test thoroughly first

Planning for the Future

Year-end is also an excellent time to:

• Review system administration policies
• Evaluate current workflows for potential improvements
• Plan for upcoming feature releases.  Hint: New releases are delivered in Spring and Fall.
• Consider additional training needs for your team
• Review your disaster recovery and backup procedures

Need Additional Support?

Top Step’s team of experts is available to help you navigate these year-end changes and ensure your OpenAir system is optimized for the year ahead. Whether you need assistance with bulk updates, report configuration, or general system optimization, our experienced consultants can help streamline your year-end process. 

Top Step also offers an OnDemand Advantage program which is a managed service where Top Step is an extension of your team acting as your OpenAir Admin all year long. Contact us to learn more.