Using Assignment Groups in NetSuite OpenAir to Support Organizational Scalability

NetSuite OpenAir is a powerful tool and can accommodate growth and change.  Often, small changes can make a tremendous impact. Using assignment groups is a quick and easy way to simplify, streamline and save administrative time in the NetSuite OpenAir system.

Assignment groups are simple to set up and can be a significant time saver when there is a need to select several users over and over. Assignment groups are specific to both project task assignments and when sharing reports.

Assignment groups are set up in the administration module under application settings and then project settings. Here, you can set up the shell of an assignment group such as all employees or specific groups based on your organizational structure and needs. For example, a group to include all members of your Technical Leads or all of your Project Managers.

Users can be added to assignment groups one of three ways:

• Create an assignment groups and add users to the group directly
• Add users to the assignment group as part of the user account setup (from the demographic form)
• Designate one assignment as ‘All Users’ and enabling the option to have all new user accounts added automatically to the assignment group (switch)

When using the assignment groups for specific teams or departments, as a best practice, we recommend to define a process where a named individual(s) own and are responsible for the maintenance of the groups – updating the groups with new members and removing those who are no longer a part of a particular team or group.

The use of the automated add switch for an assignment group such as ‘all users’ can be very beneficial when setting up a project where all users should be assigned to either the project or the task; you’ve got that assignment group already defined with all the people a part of the group.

A couple of tips when using assignment groups to keep in mind:

• When using assignment groups for project task assignments, all the users will have the same percentage or planned hours at that task level.
• Assignment groups appear in user display lists at the bottom of the selection dropdown and will indicate assignment group in brackets. i.e. All Employees [Assignment Group]

To learn more about other tips about administrative maintenance for a growing and changing organization in NetSuite OpenAir check out our webinar Scalable Maintenance Practices With NetSuite OpenAir or check out our resource library at http://staging.topstepconsulting.com/resource-library/ for more tips and best practices.