Preparing for NetSuite 2025.2: What You Need to Know
NetSuite continues to evolve rapidly, helping businesses manage finance, operations, and reporting in a unified platform. Each semi-annual release introduces enhancements that impact workflows, automation, and compliance. NetSuite 2025.2 is no exception.
While new features bring opportunities, they also require careful preparation. Without testing, planning, and proper training, organizations risk disruptions, process errors, and delayed adoption. Preparing for NetSuite 2025.2 is not just a technical task; it is a business-critical exercise.
In this blog, we explore what organizations need to know about the upcoming release, how to prepare their teams and systems, and the best practices to ensure a smooth transition while maximizing the value of new functionality.
Skipping preparation is a common source of ERP frustration. Updates affect business-critical processes such as revenue recognition, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and financial close. Organizations that start early gain visibility into potential issues, reduce downtime, and empower their teams to adopt enhancements efficiently.
1- Maintain business continuity: Early preparation ensures critical operations are uninterrupted during go-live.
2- Reduce operational risk: Testing scripts, workflows, and integrations in advance prevents process failures.
3- Maximize feature adoption: Reviewing new capabilities beforehand lets organizations prioritize which features to enable.
4- Support compliance: Many updates include regulatory or security enhancements. Early evaluation ensures the business remains audit-ready.
While detailed release notes provide exact changes, certain themes consistently appear in NetSuite updates. Companies should prepare for these areas to take full advantage of 2025.2.
1- User experience improvements: Navigation updates, improved dashboards, and simplified forms enhance efficiency for end-users.
2- Automation and AI enhancements: Smarter approval workflows, predictive analytics, and AI-driven insights reduce manual effort and improve decision-making.
3- Industry-specific functionality: Updates in retail, manufacturing, professional services, and wholesale distribution modules streamline sector-specific processes.
4- Compliance and security upgrades: Enhanced controls, audit logs, and system safeguards ensure regulatory adherence and data protection.
Step 1: Review Release Notes Thoroughly
Release notes are your roadmap for 2025.2. Organizations that skip this step often miss opportunities or encounter unexpected errors.
1- Assign functional owners: Have finance, operations, and IT teams review sections relevant to their processes.
2- Highlight changes impacting critical workflows: Focus on areas such as order management, billing, approvals, and reporting.
3- Identify dependencies: Note features or scripts that could be affected by updates.
4- Document potential actions: Decide which new features to adopt, delay, or customize.
Step 2: Sandbox Testing and Validation
A sandbox environment allows testing without affecting live operations. This phase is essential to catch issues early.
1- Activate the 2025.2 release in sandbox: Test standard modules and critical customizations.
2- Run end-to-end processes: Validate order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, payroll, and financial close to ensure updates don’t break workflows.
3- Check integrations: Confirm third-party tools, connectors, and APIs function as expected.
4- Log and resolve errors: Track issues systematically and implement fixes before the production rollout.
Step 3: Review Customizations and Scripts
Custom scripts, workflows, and saved searches can break if a release changes underlying logic.
1- Identify critical scripts: Focus on automation that affects compliance or high-volume processes.
2- Test in sandbox: Run scripts to ensure triggers, validations, and calculations behave correctly.
3- Update deprecated functions: Replace outdated APIs or unsupported logic before go-live.
4- Document changes: Keep a record of adjustments for future reference and audit purposes.
Step 4: Train Your Team
User readiness is as important as system readiness. Training ensures the team leverages new functionality and avoids errors.
1- Create role-specific materials: Customize guides and cheat sheets for finance, operations, and sales teams.
2- Conduct live sessions: Host workshops to demonstrate new features and workflow changes.
3- Leverage sandbox exercises: Allow employees to practice in the sandbox environment to build confidence.
4- Collect feedback: Address questions and clarify uncertainties before production rollout.
Step 5: Plan for Go-Live and Post-Release Support
Even after thorough preparation, issues can arise. A structured go-live plan reduces disruption.
1- Schedule during low-impact periods: Avoid peak month-end or high transaction days.
2- Communicate timelines clearly: Inform teams about maintenance windows, cut-off times, and expected downtime.
3- Set up a support desk: Ensure helpdesk resources are ready to handle user queries immediately.
4- Monitor and optimize: Track performance, user adoption, and post-release issues for continuous improvement.
Maximizing Value from NetSuite 2025.2
Release preparation does not end at go-live. Continuous monitoring ensures stability and long-term benefits.
1- Track key metrics: Monitor error rates, system performance, and user adoption post-release.
2- Gather user feedback: Identify pain points, questions, or bottlenecks that arise after rollout.
3- Iterate workflows: Refine processes based on lessons learned to improve efficiency and user experience.
4- Document and share: Maintain a release playbook for future updates, ensuring a faster, smoother preparation cycle.
Beyond risk management, releases are opportunities to improve efficiency and strategic insights.
1- Activate automation where possible: Use AI workflows, approval routing, and predictive analytics to save time.
2- Enhance reporting dashboards: Add new KPIs, drill-downs, and analytics tools to enable better decision-making.
3- Adopt industry-specific features: Implement modules that optimize your sector-specific processes.
4- Leverage training for efficiency gains: Encourage teams to embrace shortcuts, tips, and new workflows introduced in 2025.2.
Conclusion
NetSuite 2025.2 brings new features, automation, and compliance enhancements that can significantly improve business operations. Success, however, depends on preparation. By reviewing release notes, testing in the sandbox, validating scripts, training teams, and planning for post-release support, organizations can ensure a smooth transition and maximize the value of the new release.
Preparing for NetSuite 2025.2 is an opportunity not just to mitigate risk, but to enhance processes, leverage automation, and unlock new insights. Companies that adopt these best practices will experience faster adoption, fewer disruptions, and a stronger return on their ERP investment.
