As a NetSuite consultant, I often get asked about allocating expenditures across departments based on employee headcounts. The easiest way to do this is to use the statistical account feature and then create a schedule to automate the statistical journal entry.

To use this feature, you need to enable it. Go to Setup>Company>Enable Features and navigate to the accounting subtab. Under the Advanced Feature be sure that the Expense Allocation, Dynamic Allocation and Statistical Accounts are checked.Net

NetSuite Setup Advanced Features

The next step is to create a unit of measure. Go to Lists>Accounting>Units of Measure>New. I have created one for Headcount.

You also need to create a GL account and have the type as statistical. To create a new account, go to Lists>Accounts>New.

Fill in the name, number, type and then select the unit of measure to associate the statistical account with. On the screen shot below you can see that I chose Headcount as my unit of measure.

NetSuite Unit of Measure

Next, create the statistical saved search. Because of wanting to allocate expenses across departments based on headcount, I am creating the search for employees. Go to Reports>New Search and select “Employee”.  On the results tab add Internal ID, Name, Department and Subsidiary. For the summary type select Count for Internal ID, and Group for Department and Subsidiary.

NetSuite Statistical Saved Search

Name your search and click save.

To create the statistical Schedule, go to Lists>Financial>Create Statistical Schedule. Enter a name for the schedule and select the statistical account for headcount. Enter the saved search from above and then select Validate to be sure the search gives the expected results. Fill out the other mandatory fields and hit save.

NetSuite Statistical Schedule

After the schedule is created you will have the option to create a Journal Entry which allows you to view the automated statistical journal entries.

NetSuite Statistical Journal

One JE for each subsidiary will be created and it shows you the headcount for each department.

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