System Notes Overview
System Notes and System Notes v2 are separate systems. Throughout the help center, topic content specific to System Notes v2 is identified with “v2”. Any content that does not have the “v2” identification refers to System Notes only. For more information about the differences between the two systems, see System Notes and System Notes v2.
NetSuite uses System Notes to track any changes made to a record. A system note for a change on a record captures the date and time when the change was made, who made the change, the interface from which the change was initiated, the type of change, the field that was changed, and the old and new value in the record. System Notes cannot be edited by any user, script or app. System notes are logged on custom records as well as standard records.
System notes are also logged on changes to general configuration settings that have a financial impact, such as:
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Company information
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General preferences
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Enable features
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Accounting lists
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Tax setup
Perform a review of system notes and audit trails regularly. As part of an Activity Logging Review, users with appropriate permission should review items like system notes in addition to reviewing specific field changes, script changes, and expired access, and any other ongoing auditing that is required by your organization.
Watch the following help video for information about system notes:
This is the first video in a 4–part series of videos about System Notes. To watch the other parts of the series, see:
Accessing System Notes
Depending on the method you use to access system notes, consider the following:
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To view the system notes on a record, you must have access to this record and the Notes Tab permission. The Notes Tab permission allows you to see system notes only for changes you made yourself.
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To query all system notes through the analytics data source, you must have the Administrator role or the System Notes permission. Users with the Administrator role should assign this permission to users without the Administrator role so they can query system notes data. Without the Administrator role or the System Notes permission, users can see only system notes query results for changes they made themselves.
For more information about permissions, see Setting Permissions.
If you have access to system notes, you can view them using different methods. For more information, see Viewing System Notes.
Searching System Notes
When searching system notes, you can search for certain records, use advanced search filters, create a saved search, or export the information for additional analysis. For more information, see Searching System Notes.
You can search for system notes using SuiteScript. For details, see System Note.
Transaction Audit Trail
An audit trail is a search for system note records related to a certain record type. The Transaction Audit Trail enables you to produce a report that provides a detailed history of all transactions entered into NetSuite, or you can view system notes for multiple transactions. The audit trail provides information about the transaction, who entered the transaction, and when the transaction was created or modified. By default, the Transaction Audit Trail report is available to the CEO, CEO (Hands Off), CFO, and Support Administrator roles. Other users with a custom role can access the Transaction Audit Trail report if they have the audit trail permission assigned to their role.
For information about transaction audit trail, see Using the Transaction Audit Trail.