Document management is just as crucial a part of managing your business as data management is. What documents you store—or don’t store—can affect everything from productivity to compliance. In fact, document challenges account for as much as a 21% loss in productivity. Which means a lot of organizations are on the hunt for the right document management processes and tools. 

For those using a NetSuite ERP, there is a powerful document management feature that can be used to maintain NetSuite as the single source of truth. But there’s one thing to watch, and that’s the volume of storage you’re using. We’ll dig into why in a moment. First, let’s take a look at NetSuite’s document storage capabilities and how you can leverage them for success.

NetSuite Document Management

The fluidity of digital documents carries advantages over the old paper-in-a-file-cabinet methods, but it can also add a layer of complexity to managing collaboration and access, especially if you’re working to maintain NetSuite as your single source of truth. 

NetSuite is typically used to improve visibility of critical information in a business while also driving efficiency in the organization. So it makes sense that documents related to the information your business is tracking in NetSuite should also be stored in NetSuite, providing a one-stop-shop for insight and understanding. 

NetSuite’s native storage capacity for document management provides organizations with a standard 10GB of storage, available to all NetSuite users. But while document management is an important piece, it’s not the main focus for NetSuite, which remains a financial solution first and foremost. 

Still, NetSuite can be used to ensure finance and sales teams have access to the documents they need within the core system to save time and effort. Creating invoices? Sales orders? It’s all saved here, which helps to promote the ERP as the central source of truth and information. 

• Documents are automatically connected to the record where you need them
• The system creates hyperlinks with security managed by NetSuite’s authentication system
• Content is centrally managed to keep teams working together
• Unstructured file types such as image files, Office files, and PDFs are also supported

“But how much data is 10GB?” you might be wondering, and that’s a good question to ask. To put it in context, 10GB of data is the equivalent of 120 hours of internet browsing, 2,000 song streams, or 20 hours of standard definition video streaming. Most individuals could go through that amount of data in no time flat. In fact, when it comes to general cloud storage, some experts recommend allocating 10GB per user, and that’s for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. 

Which means your entire business, no matter the size, could go through 10GB of storage very quickly. 

That’s not to say all is lost: NetSuite certainly allows for purchase of additional storage, which you’ll need if your business continues to grow. But it will run your organization $199/month for every additional 10GB of storage, which could add up more quickly than you think. Or you could purchase the File Cabinet add-on, which comes with 100GB of storage. Either way, it’s a significant additional cost.

What About Documents Outside of NetSuite?

If you’ve already leveraged NetSuite for document storage, the thought of either paying more or transferring documents out to another service is daunting, especially if you’re at or above that 10GB limit. So what if we told you that you could keep your SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive documents in NetSuite without using any NetSuite storage space? 

First, let’s consider the storage allowed by SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive:

• SharePoint: 1TB organization total storage, plus 10GB per license (user)
• OneDrive: 1TB per user standard, can be increased to 5TB per user; storage up to 25TB per user can be provisioned
• Google Workspace Business: starts at 30GB times the number of users (including archived users) and increases by tier
• G Suite Business: Unlimited storage

Each of those options includes considerably more standard storage than NetSuite does. Which makes sense, since SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive are all designed to facilitate document management and storage as a primary use case. So how do we leverage those incredible storage spaces with NetSuite, all without adding manual processes and extra work? 

We’re glad you asked. 

Integrated Document Management

Integration is the name of the solution you’re seeking when it comes to document management, and NetSuite integration is exactly what CloudExtend specializes in. 

With CloudExtend solutions, users have the option to bypass uploading files to NetSuite native storage and instead link files from SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive right in NetSuite without consuming any valuable storage space. CloudExtend respects the permissions of what’s already set up in your drives—if a user can’t view the file in SharePoint, they can’t access the link loaded to NetSuite, either. Connect an entire folder from one of your online drives to NetSuite, and anything you save to that folder in the future automatically rolls back to the record the folder is linked to. 

If your organization is already running document management in SharePoint, OneDrive, or Google Drive, CloudExtend facilitates easy bulk uploading the associations to NetSuite without even having to use a CSV import. Simply run the upsert via CloudExtend, and everything is automatically associated in NetSuite. No more manual one-by-one updates. Running a project within NetSuite? You’re likely dealing with large files, such as photos. Saving all that in NetSuite will eat up storage faster than you can blink. Store your details in a folder in SharePoint instead, then link it in NetSuite and boom—NetSuite stays your single source of truth for everything going on in the project, and Finance remains your friend because you’re not costing them extra for more NetSuite storage. 

With the option to reduce NetSuite storage space while still running accurate document management in NetSuite, what is there to lose? Get your free trial now and close out the year with your document management in order.