Saved searches are more than just reporting tools. When combined with scheduled email delivery, they become automated communication engines that push critical information directly into your team’s inboxes. Instead of relying on employees to pull reports, NetSuite can push the right data to the right people at the right time.
Example: Sending Expiring Quotes to Sales Reps
Imagine you want sales reps to follow up on quotes that are about to expire. Instead of expecting reps to log in and check for expiring quotes, you can set up a saved search with scheduled email automation.
Step 1: Build the Saved Search
- Record type: Transaction
- Criteria: Type = Quote, Status = Open, Main Line = True, Due Date within next one week (7 rolling days)
- Results: Document Number, Name (Customer), Due Date (Expiration Date), Amount, Sales Rep
- Sort: Sales Rep, Due Date
Step 2: Schedule the Email
Once your saved search is built, the real power comes from automating the delivery. Here’s how to configure it:
Navigate to Email Settings
- From the saved search, click the Email tab.
- This opens the scheduling options that control when and how NetSuite sends the email.
Set Email Behavior Settings
- Send Emails According Schedule: True – Check this box to indicate that search results emails should be sent according to a regular schedule.
- Summarize Scheduled Emails: True – Scheduled email recipients receive one email each with a summary of results for their matching records.
Specific Recipients
- It is required to assign at least one specified recipient of the email. This could be a user of the system or a generic account created for the sole purpose of sending scheduled emails.
Recipients from Results
- Sales Rep: This will look at the search results for the sales rep field associated to the quote records and send only the records for that sales rep to them.
Select the Recipient Field
- Choose the field from your results that represents the person who should receive the email. Common fields:
- Sales Rep (for sales-related alerts)
- Customer: Email (for customer-facing communications)
- Owner (for cases or tasks)
- NetSuite automatically maps that field’s email address to the outgoing email.
Customize the Email Body & Subject
- Subject: Use tokens (like {today}) to make it dynamic (e.g., “Quotes Expiring This Week – {today}”).
- Introduction: Provide context (e.g., “The following quotes are expiring soon. Please follow up with your customers.”).
- Attach Results: Choose whether to include the saved search results as an inline table (Send within Message) in the email or as a CSV/Excel/PDF attachment.
- Include View Record Link: Clear this box to indicate that alerts and scheduled emails should not include links to results records. These links are included by default.
Choose a Schedule Frequency
- Daily – Send once per day at a specified time.
- Weekly – Send on specific days of the week (e.g., every Monday at 8:00 AM).
- Monthly – Send on specific days of the month (e.g., 1st and 15th).
- Custom – Define an interval (e.g., every 2 days, every 3 hours).
- Example: For expiring quotes, a weekly schedule, sent on Mondays at 7:00 AM ensures reps start the week with their updated list to take action on.