NetSuite Inbound Shipment records are a valuable tool for companies that import goods from overseas. With features like tracking shipments, accounting for inventory in transit, applying landed cost, and streamlining ownership transfers, users gain greater visibility into their supply chain.
BUT… NetSuite Inbound Shipment records is missing one key feature… Users can’t search for Inbound Shipment records in the global search. So what should ostensibly be a fairly simple search request ends up leading to a frustrating “No results found” message, like this:
See below discussion thread from the Oracle NetSuite Support Community
Not being able to pull up Inbound Shipments using Global Search has already been reported, with the following defect filed:
Defect 455867: Inbound Shipment Does Not Show on Global Search Results. However, the current Urgency Level for it is U7 which is not planned to be fixed in the near future.
It seems the OP has not yet been able to solve the problem… it was suggested to create a custom field to hold the IS id that is globally searchable. However, since IB records are considered “Other Records” from a customization standpoint, this solution is not possible, because Other Record fields don’t have the “Global Search” checkbox.
NetSuite does offer a workaround – creating a saved search and adding that search to the dashboard – but this method is cumbersome and does not offer the convenience of just searching for what you want in the Global Search box.
Solving the Problem
We’re more into solving problems rather than creating more workarounds at Limebox. So as part of our handy and freely-available Limebox Tools Suitebundle, one of our senior consultants developed a way to make global search for NetSuite Inbound shipments work seamlessly.
This custom workflow action works similarly to NetSuite’s native “Go to Record” action. However, unlike the native NetSuite action, which has a limited selection of Record types and executes on Entry, Exit, or After Record Submit, the Limebox Custom Redirect action can be executed in any context, including Before Record Load. It also allows you to specify any record type.
Here’s how you can implement this in your own NetSuite for faster, more streamlined visibility, too.
O1.
Create a simple custom record that holds the ID of the Inbound Shipment record and is global search enabled.
02.
Create a custom field on the Inbound Shipment record to store the value of the corresponding custom record (which creates the linkage).
03.
Now we need to have a workflow that creates the custom records and populates the custom field. We have set this as a scheduled WF running every 30 minutes.
04.
Finally we have a workflow that runs on the custom record:
The workflow has 2 actions:
– one for View mode
– one for Edit mode
Global Search for NetSuite Inbound Shipments in Action
01.
We put an Inbound Shipment document number in the global search, and we see the custom record results:
02.
Now if I click on the Edit link, the record opens in edit mode:
03.
And if I click on the name, it opens in view mode:
Simple Solutions with Out-of-the-(Lime)box Thinking
Do you have a frustrating NetSuite limitation? Send it our way, and we’ll see what we can do!
Our NetSuite-Certified experts have solved dozens of frustrating limitations and conundrums over the years. With some outside-the-box, problem solving genius.
At Limebox, we help organizations implement and optimize enterprise-ready NetSuite, and custom software solutions, for their entire ecosystem. We deliver bonafide results the first time. With an eye for simplification and a genius for problem solving.