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    NetSuite Segment Overhaul for Budget vs. Actual Reporting

    Sustain and Grow
    NAFY Opportunity Center
    NAFY Opportunity Center

    Client: New Avenues for Youth (NAFY)

    Nonprofits rely on accurate, timely reporting to guide decision-making and maintain accountability. When system design limits reporting capabilities, finance teams are often forced into manual workarounds that drain time and introduce risk.

    New Avenues for Youth (NAFY), a Portland-based nonprofit supporting youth experiencing homelessness, faced exactly this challenge. Within a constrained budget and timeline, Opal Creek delivered a targeted solution that transformed reporting without disrupting daily operations.

    The Situation

    NAFY had been using NetSuite with light support from Opal Creek since 2022. Following internal turnover, a newly stabilized finance team re-engaged Opal Creek in 2025 to improve system usability, reporting, and efficiency.

    Initial improvements included:

    • Automated bank statement import
    • Approval workflows for bills and expense reports
    • Intercompany process automation
    • General system cleanup and optimization

    While these changes improved day-to-day operations, a core reporting limitation remained unresolved.

    The Challenge

    NAFY’s financial structure relied heavily on custom segments, particularly Grant, which was critical for internal and board reporting.

    Crucially, NetSuite’s native Budget vs. Actual reporting only supports native segments: Department, Class, and Location. Since Grant existed as a custom segment rather than a native one, NAFY couldn’t generate Budget vs. Actual reports by Grant directly in NetSuite.

    Their process:

    • Monthly manual exports from NetSuite
    • Offline report building in Excel
    • Delayed reporting to leadership and the board
    • Significant time burden on the accounting team

    NAFY needed a fast solution that avoided heavy reimplementation or disruption to established workflows.

    The Approach

    With many team changes over the years, institutional knowledge of the original NetSuite implementation decisions had been lost. The current team could not speak to the factors that informed the initial design.

    Opal Creek analyzed how NAFY was using NetSuite and identified several key factors:

    • The organization leveraged the NetSuite Nonprofit (NFP) bundle
    • Segment combinations were managed using the Segment Code feature
    • All segments were actively used, except for Class (a native segment)

    The Segment Code structure provided real operational value:

    • Simplified transaction entry
    • Reduced user error
    • Predefined segment combinations

    Any solution needed to preserve this efficiency while unlocking native reporting capabilities.

    The Solution

    Opal Creek designed a lightweight, high-impact architectural adjustment:

    Use Class as a parallel representation of Grant.

    Instead of replacing the Grant segment, Class was introduced as a system-managed mirror of Grant.

    This enabled:

    • Native Budget vs. Actual reporting by Department and Class
    • Functional equivalence to reporting by Department and Grant
    • No change to how users interact with Grant in daily workflows

    To ensure consistency and eliminate manual intervention, the solution was fully automated.

    1. Automated Grant-Class Synchronization

    • A Class record is automatically created when a new Grant is created.
    • Class values are updated or inactivated in synch with Grant changes
    • Class is hidden from user input to prevent discrepancies

    2. Segment Code Automation

    • When a Grant is selected within a Segment Code, the corresponding Class is automatically assigned
    • If a Grant is removed from a Segment Code, the Class is also removed
    • Ensures 100% alignment between Grant and Class across all Segment Codes

    3. Data Alignment and Backfill

    • Existing transactions were updated to align Grant and Class values
    • Current-year budgets were revised to include both segments
    • Future budgeting processes were standardized to maintain alignment

    The Outcome

    With the solution in place, NAFY immediately unlocked reporting capabilities:

    • Budget vs. Actual reporting by Department and Grant (via Class)
    • Elimination of manual Excel-based reporting
    • Reduction of 10+ hours of monthly accounting effort
    • Faster and more reliable reporting to leadership and the board

    Just as importantly, the solution:

    • Preserved existing user workflows
    • Maintained the efficiency of Segment Codes
    • Avoided costly reimplementation
    • Established a scalable foundation for future reporting improvements

    NAFY’s finance team can now focus less on assembling reports and more on analyzing them, improving both operational efficiency and organizational insight.

    For more information about the great work New Avenues for Youth does, check them out here.