NetSuite ERP Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) – a Primer

In the current business environment, maintaining healthy governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) processes is important for sustainable growth and integrity. NetSuite ERP Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solution offers businesses the tools they need to manage these aspects efficiently and effectively.

In this article, we provide an overview of the importance of GRC, its features, benefits, and challenges.

Introduction to NetSuite Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)  

NetSuite’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is specially crafted to handle the dynamic landscape of regulatory, operational, and compliance hurdles.

Paired with the ERP platform, NetSuite delivers seamless customization, automation, and reporting capabilities, uniquely designed to match your company’s needs and alleviate the burdens of continuous auditing.

Why is GRC Important?  

Implementing robust GRC practices is critical for various reasons:

• Risk Identification and Management: Proactively identifying and managing potential risks helps avoid unexpected disruptions.
• Transparency and Accountability: Maintaining clear, transparent processes fosters trust and ensures accountability.
• Regulatory Compliance: Adhering to regulations helps prevent legal and financial repercussions.
• Corporate Citizenship: Demonstrating ethical practices enhances reputation and stakeholder trust.
• Sustainable Growth: Effective GRC practices support long-term business sustainability.

NetSuites for Governance, Risk, and Compliance  

NetSuite offers a comprehensive GRC solution designed to meet the evolving needs of businesses. Its features are built to handle increasingly complex regulatory, operational, and compliance challenges, providing end-to-end management capabilities, real-time assessments, and automation.

Benefits of NetSuite GRC  

NetSuite’s GRC capabilities empower customers to establish controls to meet risk objectives, monitor their effectiveness, and report on their outcomes. Let’s explore the key features and benefits of NetSuite’s GRC.

Trust and Accuracy: Stakeholders need to trust that financial statements, transaction documentation, and reporting are accurate and complete. NetSuite ensures this through:

• Real-time data accuracy: Automation ensures that all data is up-to-date and accurate.
• Reliable reporting: Comprehensive reports provide a clear view of financial health and compliance status.

Protected Assets: Protecting data is paramount in today’s digital landscape. NetSuite    safeguards assets through:

• Role-based access: Ensuring only authorized personnel can access sensitive information.
• Strong encryption: Data encryption protects information from unauthorized access.
• Robust password policies: Strong password policies add an extra layer of security.

Fraud Risk Reduction: Continuous monitoring and robust reporting help detect and prevent fraudulent activities:

• Saved searches and alerts: Automated alerts notify stakeholders of unusual activities.
• Role-based dashboards: Provide tailored views that highlight potential risks and irregularities.

Facilitating Audits: Simplifying the audit process is a significant benefit of NetSuite GRC:

• Monitor and validate controls: Easily monitor and verify that controls are working as intended.
• Audit trails: Comprehensive audit trails allow quick investigation of any discrepancies.

Features of NetSuite GRC  

Automate Controls: NetSuite offers a wide range of extensible, automated controls complemented by robust search and reporting functionalities. With the ability to automate and customize the Suite through workflows, SuiteScripts, saved search alerts, and custom fields, you can implement tailored preventative and detective controls. This automation significantly reduces or even eliminates the need for labor-intensive and error-prone back-end reviews.

Audit Trails: NetSuite provides always-on audit trails that capture configuration, customization, administrative, and master data changes. These trails are crucial for:

• Investigating activities: Finance leaders and auditors can quickly investigate activities that might impact security, controls, or financial statements.
• Ensuring compliance: Continuous tracking helps ensure ongoing compliance with regulations.

Third-Party Audit Reports: NetSuite enhances its compliance foundation with various independent reports and certificates, including:

• SOC 1, SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27018: Ensuring adherence to international standards.
• PCI-DSS, PA-DSS: Supporting payment card industry standards.
• TX-RAMP, EU Cloud CoC: Meeting regional regulatory requirements.

These certifications help businesses meet their risk and control requirements, ensuring the accuracy of financial statements and readiness for any compliance changes.

Security Monitoring: NetSuite employs overlapping technologies and processes to ensure secure access to its networks and applications:

• Blocked unauthorized access: Unauthorized data center access attempts are blocked.
• Logged connection attempts: Unauthorized connection attempts are logged and investigated.
• Antivirus protection: Enterprise-grade antivirus software blocks malware before it can cause damage.

Audit and Compliance Reporting: NetSuite supports electronic audits, which are becoming common practice in many countries. Key features include:

• Audit file formats: Supports formats like SAF-T, GDPdU, and IAF.
• Always-on audit trails: Continuous tracking ensures transparency and compliance.
• Built-in analytics and access logs: Provide detailed insights into data usage and access.

These features enable companies to demonstrate ongoing compliance with local statutory and regulatory requirements.

Securing Master Data: NetSuite offers various features for securing master data, such as:

• Roles, permissions, and restrictions
• Groups and audiences
• Scripts and workflows
• Multi-Factor authentication
• IP-address restrictions
• Field-level security

Challenges NetSuite GRC Solves  

• User Access Management: With NetSuite, you can assign specific roles to individual users, giving them access only to relevant pages and tasks, ensuring a secure and tailored experience.
• Inconsistent Transaction Approval: Enhance transparency and compliance by creating customized workflows within NetSuite to streamline and enforce approval processes consistently across transactions.
• Identification of Security Vulnerabilities: NetSuite takes the hassle out of security monitoring with regular automated scans for vulnerabilities, providing peace of mind without the need for manual scans.

Conclusion 

NetSuite ERP Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) offers businesses a powerful suite of tools to manage their regulatory, operational, and compliance challenges efficiently. By providing robust features like audit trails, security monitoring, and comprehensive reporting, NetSuite GRC ensures that companies can maintain transparency, protect their assets, and comply with regulations. Integrating NetSuite Financial Management with GRC further enhances these capabilities, providing a cohesive and streamlined approach to governance risk and compliance management. For businesses aiming for sustainable growth, maintaining trust, and preventing costly legal or financial repercussions, NetSuite GRC is an invaluable solution.

Ready to strengthen your governance, risk, and compliance management?

Explore NetSuite GRC today and safeguard your business against potential risks and challenges. Contact our experts to learn more about how NetSuite GRC can support your organization’s growth and success.