Overview

To optimize your subscription business and get the most out of your customer data and other metrics, you need strong financial reporting that adheres to compliance guidelines. Financial reporting for subscription based-businesses presents unique requirements as these metrics have an emphasis on customer-centric data such as customer renewal rates, churn and lifetime value.

The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite implementation captures your customer-centric data and retains it in your Recurly plan until it is successfully transferred into your Oracle NetSuite environment where you can effectively manage the revenue.

Using this integration, Recurly can seamlessly integrate your Recurly billing and subscription data to your accounting and financial data within Oracle NetSuite, a leading cloud-based business software for accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Through this integration, you can effectively and accurately manage recurring revenue data using Oracle NetSuite’s automatic, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)-compliant revenue recognition and standard financial reporting.

Prerequisites

Before beginning the integration process, review the following lists of prerequisites for all parties involved in the process:

• To be eligible for this integration, you must enable or allow for the following set up in Recurly:
  • Eligible Recurly Enterprise plan or Elite plan
  • Each plan, add-on or item codes must be unique to ensure that the item will be viable in your Oracle NetSuite environment. Each plan, add-on, or item will become a Non-Inventory Item for Sale in the Oracle NetSuite Product Catalog.
  • Six to eight weeks for the Onboarding process, or longer, as needed
  • One unused API key to set up the integration. This means one API key per subdomain.
• To be eligible for this integration process, you must set up or enable the following in your Oracle NetSuite environment:
  • Revenue Recognition
  • Token-Based Authentication

Oracle NetSuite integration plan

The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite integration is divided into five stages. Both you and Recurly will be closely involved in all stages of the integration onboarding process.

Integration plan details

The following section provides details on how the process will be handled including, a high-level diagram, rules, mapping details and timeframes.
The following diagram details the integration onboarding flow:

Rules

• The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite integration is a one-way synchronization process. It creates a path to move your transaction details from your Recurly account into your Oracle NetSuite environment where you can manage your financial details.
• The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite integration is compliant with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite integration also transfers your add-ons, setup fees, and plan codes to ensure your Oracle NetSuite environment is set up in a corresponding fashion and the syncs do not fail due to improper mapping.

Data Mapping: Sync Details

The first few weeks of the integration process will focus on the data mapping requirements. The mapping sessions ensure that the data in Recurly can be smoothly transferred into your Oracle NetSuite environment during the synchronization process and that any hierarchical structure (if your account includes sub account structures) is retained.

Items in your Recurly accounts will map to corresponding records in Oracle NetSuite. These sessions will be conducted by Recurly’s Enablement Manager and a Solution Engineer and involve your Oracle NetSuite Administrator.

The Recurly for Oracle NetSuite Mappings are as follows:

• Recurly Plans map to Oracle NetSuite as Non-Inventory Items for Sale in the Oracle NetSuite product catalog.

  Recurly does not support any other non-inventory item types. From there, you can assign deferred revenue accounts and set up revenue recognition rules against each product so that when invoices are integrated, revenue will be recognized appropriately.

• Recurly Customer Accounts map to Oracle NetSuite customer and sub-customer record types

  You can use Oracle NetSuite reporting to aggregate their financial records by customer once this information has been integrated. This includes any sub-customer records, as applicable.

• Recurly Invoices map to Oracle NetSuite Invoice Records

  The header information will be defined based on your Oracle NetSuite configuration. The line level information will define revenue recognition rules. The periods that are defined on invoices within Recurly will populate Oracle NetSuite revenue recognition schedules that will drive revenue recognition.

• Recurly Transactions map to Oracle NetSuite Customer Payments Records and Customer Refund Records

  When a payment is integrated into Oracle NetSuite, it will close the accounts receivable on the associated invoice.

• Recurly credits map to Oracle NetSuite Credit Memos

  As with invoices, this integration will use the built-in revenue recognition functionality within Oracle NetSuite to properly recognize revenue and handle accounts receivable.

• Recurly Custom fields map to Recurly and Oracle NetSuite agreed on fields (as applicable)

  Recurly can integrate with any custom fields that you have in Oracle NetSuite. This customization can be defined during the mapping process.

Timeframes

Before you begin this process, review the following details on how long the onboarding process will take and once in production, how often synchronizations will happen:

• The onboarding process is detailed and thorough; and is divided into five stages. Consequently, it will take approximately six to eight weeks to complete. However, depending on the complexity of the project it could take longer.
• Once the onboarding process is complete and you have enabled the process in your production (PROD) Oracle NetSuite environment, Recurly will deploy the integration to PROD. This will trigger the sync process that automatically transfers the data from Recurly to your Oracle NetSuite environment.
• The API synchronization process will occur on an hourly basis. You will see the resulting synchronized data in your records.

Oracle NetSuite Integration onboarding process

The following section describes the five-stage onboarding process and identifies what to expect once the integration is ready for production

• Stage 1: Preparation

  • Recurly kicks off Oracle NetSuite integration project with merchant
  • Merchant prepares their Oracle NetSuite Sandbox for the integration
  • Merchant provides Recurly with access to the Oracle NetSuite Sandbox
  • Recurly creates a data mapping plan with merchant, considering any custom fields and unique item codes
  • Recurly completes data mapping process with merchant

• Stage 2: Implementation

  • Recurly requests that merchant create and provide them with an API key
  • Recurly assists you in setting up the integration in your Oracle NetSuite environment
  • Recurly builds the YAML file using the values specified during the data mapping session. This file is used to create the configuration file
  • Recurly conducts an External ID exercise with merchant to help reduce the risk of duplicating records in Oracle NetSuite
  • Recurly turns on the integration sync process in the merchant’s Oracle NetSuite sandbox
  • Recurly performs the initial QA audit of data transferred to the merchant’s Oracle NetSuite sandbox
  • Merchant prepares for UAT

• Stage 3: User Acceptance

  • Merchant performs end-to-end UAT in their Oracle NetSuite sandbox
  • Recurly works with merchant to resolve any identified issues
  • Merchant approvals and signs off on UAT results
  • Recurly freezes code after acceptance

• Stage 4: Production

  • Recurly checks sandbox YAML File version against PROD version with Merchant
  • Merchant approves YAML file
  • Recurly locks the YAML file
  • Recurly tests code in merchant’s Production (PROD) environment
  • Recurly tests and fixes any issues found during tests
  • Merchant signs off in PROD implementation

• Stage 5: Project Completion

  • Recurly deploys the integration to the merchant’s Oracle NetSuite PROD environment
  • Recurly backfills merchant’s current data to the integration start date
    (Backfill transfers data captured during a specified timeframe from Recurly to your Oracle NetSuite environment.)
  • Merchant checks PROD version with Recurly Support help
  • Merchant transitions to Recurly CSM

Troubleshooting

The following section will help you if you encounter any issues after your implementation goes live:

• When to contact Recurly Support
  • If a sync failure occurs
  • If information is missing from certain fields after a sync
  • If you need to request a backfill
  • If amounts in NetSuite don’t match up with what is in Recurly
• When to contact Oracle NetSuite
  • If problems with your Oracle NetSuite sandbox

Need Some Assistance?

If you're stuck and need additional assistance, check out some of our support resources:

• Recurly Support is available from 5:00AM - 5:00PM Pacific Time, Monday-Friday. We have on-call staff available for urgent weekend issues.
• StackOverflow offers community support
• Webinars can help you get up to speed and learn about our features
• Our Resource Center has all kinds great case studies and white papers