10 Saved Searches You Should Implement in NetSuite Today
If you haven't already
Saved Searches are one of the most powerful (and underused) tools in NetSuite.
They let teams get visibility without exporting everything into Excel, building complex integrations, or waiting on a BI team. They’re fast to set up, flexible to use, and form the backbone of how we help clients manage everything from overpayments to warehouse backlogs.
This article is part how-to, part cheat sheet. We’ll walk through:
What a Saved Search actually is
How teams use them across ops, finance, and ecom
10 real-world searches we implement for clients all the time
Whether you’re brand new to NetSuite or have been wrestling with it for years, this is a practical guide to getting more from it, starting today.
What Is a Saved Search?
Think of it like a live, filterable report inside NetSuite. You define:
The type of record (e.g. Sales Orders, SKUs, Invoices)
The filter criteria (e.g. orders over £1,000 in the last 24h)
The fields you want to see (e.g. postcode, amount paid, item quantity)
And NetSuite shows you a table of matching results. You can:
Schedule the results to email out daily
Pull them into a dashboard
Use them in scripts or even as API endpoints via RESTlet
They're dead simple once you know how to use them. And if you're a system admin with basic Excel skills, you can solve more problems than you'd think.
Unfulfilled Orders Older Than 6 Days
For: Ops managers, CS leads, systems teams
Why it matters: Orders sitting unfulfilled for too long usually mean something’s gone wrong, either operationally (lost stock, warehouse delay) or systematically (missing deposits, failed integrations). Left unchecked, these become expensive support tickets.
How it works: Sales Orders where status = Open, date created is within the last 60 days, and fulfilment status is still pending. Group results by order age (e.g. 0–1, 2–3, 4–5, 6+ days).
Take it further: Add to a dashboard with visual KPI tiles. Schedule daily email digests. Pair with a script to flag orders with internal error codes.
Watch out for: Performance issues if you leave the date range open-ended.High-Value Orders in the Last 24 Hours
For: Finance and systems teams
Why it matters: Great for tracking large orders for fraud checks, personalised support follow-ups, or just monitoring daily sales health.
How it works: Sales Orders over a set threshold (e.g. £1,000) created in the last 24 hours. Add customer location, payment method, and fulfilment status to results.
Take it further: Trigger alerts when an unusually large order hits the system.
Watch out for: Make sure your currency filters match multi-currency setups.Sales Orders Missing a Deposit Record
For: Finance/systems teams
Why it matters: In setups with pre-orders or partial payments, missing deposits create revenue recognition and fulfilment problems.
How it works: Filter Sales Orders where deposit field is null or where a linked deposit record doesn't exist.
Take it further: Combine with a custom field to tag known failed deposit attempts. Use the list for finance follow-up or script-based reprocessing.
Watch out for: Be clear on your custom field names to avoid false positives.SKUs With Stock But Not Published
For: Ecom teams
Why it matters: Returned or restocked items often sit in inventory without being visible to customers. This is lost revenue waiting to happen.
How it works: Items where stock on hand > 0 and the published flag is false. Add category, brand, or product type fields to prioritise high-value items.
Take it further: Push this to Shopify or your CMS to automatically republish.
Watch out for: Returns that are held back for QA or damaged stock.Top 10 Sellers This Week
For: Buying/merchandising teams
Why it matters: Gives a live view of what’s driving revenue. Great for replenishment planning or promotional campaigns.
How it works: Aggregate sales order line data by SKU for the last 7 days. Sort descending by quantity or revenue.
Take it further: Build into a workbook for bar chart visualisation or a dashboard tile.
Watch out for: Time zone settings can skew your date filters if not consistent.Low Velocity Stock (Last 30 Days)
For: Merch/ecom teams
Why it matters: Helps you spot slow-moving stock before it becomes dead stock.
How it works: Items with stock on hand > 0 and fewer than X units sold in the last 30 days. Include average weekly sales to calculate weeks of cover.
Take it further: Cross-reference with planned purchase orders to reduce over-ordering.
Watch out for: Exclude made-to-order or seasonal SKUs if irrelevant.Overpaid Orders
For: Support/systems teams
Why it matters: Payment mismatches create poor customer experiences and financial reconciliation issues.
How it works: Sales Orders where total payment received > order total.
Take it further: Build a workflow to auto-tag and trigger refund requests.
Watch out for: Don’t flag valid scenarios like tips or deliberate overpayments.Orders by SKU With Known Warehouse Issues
For: Ops/support teams
Why it matters: If a batch of product is missing or damaged, you need to know which customers are affected fast.
How it works: Sales Orders containing the affected SKUs and not yet fulfilled.
Take it further: Export for customer service outreach or delay notifications.
Watch out for: Orders that have multiple SKUs, not all may be impacted.Outstanding Invoices Count
For: Finance/system health
Why it matters: Acts as a live KPI for fulfilment and invoicing sync. Spikes in this number can signal delays or system issues.
How it works: Count of all open invoices not yet paid, grouped by ageing bracket.
Take it further: Add to a dashboard as a live tile.
Watch out for: Include filters to exclude disputed or partially paid invoices.Orders With Fulfilment Errors
For: Systems teams
Why it matters: Keeps your error handling clean and actionable.
How it works: Sales Orders tagged with an internal error flag, or with fulfilment status = failed.
Take it further: Build a RESTlet integration that auto-retries failed fulfilments.
Watch out for: Don’t rely on system status alone, tag errors explicitly.
Beyond the Basics: RESTlets, Dashboards, and Workbooks
Saved Searches can be more than reports. We often:
Expose them via RESTlets to let other systems pull hundreds of records efficiently
Build dashboards for daily ops monitoring (like open orders by age bucket)
Schedule alerts when high-value or error-prone records appear
And for more advanced reporting, you can push Saved Searches into Analytics Workbooks, where you can build pivots, charts, and drilldowns, all inside NetSuite.
The Takeaway
Saved Searches are simple, powerful, and wildly underused.
They’re not going to replace a data warehouse or BI tool, but for day-to-day visibility, debugging, and automation, they’re often the fastest path to action.
If you’re not using them yet, start with one or two of the searches above. And if you’re already using them? There’s probably more they can do.
We help clients get more out of NetSuite every day, and most of the time, it starts with something as simple as a Saved Search.