The AP Clerk Who Could See Chicago
Halcyon Industrial runs NetSuite OneWorld with a USD parent in Chicago, a CAD subsidiary in Toronto and a GBP subsidiary in Manchester. Each subsidiary keeps its own base currency, and consolidated rates are entered monthly for each parent-child pair. Last month the UK accounts payable clerk - whose role is assigned to the Manchester subsidiary - was able to open, edit and approve vendor bills belonging to the US parent, including a $240,000 bill. Separately, the group controller noticed that the consolidated income statement for the UK subsidiary never equals the UK subsidiary's own income statement converted at any single rate, and that the consolidated balance sheet moved by roughly 4% month over month with almost no trading activity. A UK bill entered three days after the invoice date also picked up a GBP/USD rate that the clerk says was never keyed.
1. Why can the Manchester AP clerk edit US parent vendor bills, and what configuration checks would you make before changing anything?
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The clerk's ability to touch US bills is almost always a role-scoping problem, not a permission-level one. Check, in order: (1) the role record's Subsidiary Restrictions - an empty list means 'all subsidiaries', which is exactly what a copied or template role looks like; restrict it to Manchester. (2) The role's cross-subsidiary record viewing and editing settings, plus the Vendor Bill permission level (Full vs. Edit vs. View). Edit on Vendor Bill with unrestricted subsidiaries is enough to do the damage. (3) The employee record: which subsidiary it belongs to, which roles are assigned, and any department, class or location restrictions that were meant to narrow access. Also confirm whether the clerk is an approver - approval authority comes from the employee approval limit and the vendor bill approval workflow, so an approver routing rule may be sending US bills to a UK approver. Fix the role first, then pull the system notes on the $240,000 bill, because tightening restrictions is not retroactive.
2. Why does consolidated UK revenue not match the UK subsidiary's own revenue, and which rate types should apply to which accounts?
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Two different mechanics are being confused. The UK subsidiary keeps its books in GBP; its own income statement is GBP and is correct as booked. Consolidation translates those GBP balances into USD using consolidated exchange rates stored per period for the subsidiary pair: the current rate applies to balance sheet accounts, the average rate to income statement accounts, and the historical rate to equity-type accounts and certain intercompany balances. A consolidated income statement that never reconciles to a single converted rate is therefore expected - it is a blend, and if someone has keyed a current rate into the average column for the period, revenue will be overstated or understated. The 4% balance sheet swing with flat trading is the signature of rate movement plus translation of monetary balances, not of new activity. Before touching entries, verify that all three rate types exist for the period and subsidiary pair, then check elimination entries and any account whose rate type was deliberately overridden.
3. The bill picked up an unexpected exchange rate. How does NetSuite determine that rate, and how should the clerk correct it?
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NetSuite does not 'look up' a single rate; it derives the transaction exchange rate from the currency exchange rate record whose effective date covers the transaction date, in the direction the transaction requires (GBP to USD for a UK bill, or the inverse depending on how the rate was keyed). The rate lands in the Exchange Rate field on the bill and is editable unless a preference restricts override - check that first, because a clerk who can edit the field can silently book any rate. Then check the effective dates on the rate record: a rate keyed three days late, or an automated rate feed that ran mid-period, produces exactly this symptom. Correct it by fixing the rate record and the bill while the period is open. If the period is already closed, do not edit the posted bill; post an FX adjustment in the open period with a memo referencing the original bill.