EDGEBIC + NetSuite Integration FAQ: 12 Questions Manufacturers Ask First

These are the questions NetSuite manufacturers ask in the first conversation, answered without hedging: there is no API integration, the interface is your existing CSV exports, nothing is installed in the account, and nothing you import can disturb a work order already running. Each answer stands on its own, so skip to whichever one you came for.

EDGEBIC by User Solutions is a finite capacity scheduling platform that sits beside your ERP. The full walkthrough is the complete NetSuite integration guide, and the field-level detail is in the NetSuite to EDGEBIC mapping reference.

Does EDGEBIC connect through the NetSuite API?

No, and that is deliberate. EDGEBIC integrates through reusable import masks that read Excel, CSV, delimited text, or a database source. You map your export's columns onto EDGEBIC's fields once and save the mask; every later run is two clicks. Because there is no API integration, there is no script in the account, no integration credential, no governance limit to design around, and nothing to version-match when the platform updates on its own schedule. A connector is a dependency. A file is not.

Does EDGEBIC replace NetSuite?

No. NetSuite stays the cloud system of record for orders, inventory, purchasing, and financials. EDGEBIC reads exports, builds a finite capacity schedule against real shift hours and real machine counts, and hands back dates and dispatch lists as Excel files. Nothing about how your team uses NetSuite changes. The general case for the split is in why ERP needs a scheduling add-on.

Does an on-premise scheduler defeat the point of a cloud ERP?

No, because the two systems answer different questions. NetSuite is a transaction system that has to be reachable from everywhere. Scheduling is a computation the planner runs on demand, and running it locally has one useful property: a connectivity problem stops the export rather than stopping the shop's dispatch list. Nothing about the ERP moves on-premise.

What exactly has to come out of NetSuite?

Four exports carry a complete scheduling model, and a fifth is optional. Items (an identifier is the only mandatory column). Work centers (an identifier, plus capacity detail). Routings (end product, step name, an operation flag, and hours per unit). Open work orders (item, quantity, and a date). Optionally, labor (job number, work center, date, and hours or pieces). Any list or report that saves to CSV is a valid source.

Our exports quote values and use a local date format. Is that a problem?

No, both are mask settings. Text-enclosed-in-quotes handles RFC-4180 style quoting so a description containing a comma parses as one value rather than splitting into phantom columns. Dates are parsed against the invariant format first and your machine's regional format second. If a specific cell still fails, that row alone is marked Failed with the reason in the per-run log while the rest of the file continues, so one malformed date never blocks 500 good rows.

How long until the first real schedule?

Most shops see a first finite capacity schedule from their own data in the first working session, and a tuned one within the week. The documented benchmark in the User Solutions lineage is the Plastilite integration on Fourth Shift: 5 days, Monday to Friday, from first export to a complete optimized schedule with dates synchronized back to the ERP. That figure belongs to that case rather than being a promise, but the method is what repeats: export, map, import, schedule, tune.

Do we have to clean our routings first?

No, and the attempt usually costs a month. Import what NetSuite holds today, schedule it, and compare the dates with what your planner believes. The disagreements are your defect list and they arrive specific: a wrong hours-per-unit shows up as a job finishing implausibly early, a missing setup time shows up as a machine that changes over for free. Because a routing re-import wipes and recreates that item's steps, each corrected file replaces the last cleanly.

Our setup times are in minutes. Do we convert them by hand?

No. Set a conversion factor of 0.016667 on the setup column in the routing mask and a 30-minute cell lands as 0.5 hours. Seconds use 0.000278, and a time quoted per 100 pieces uses 0.01. The factor is stored on the mask, so every future import converts identically without anyone remembering to do it, and the per-run log records every row if you want to audit the math.

Do imported work orders schedule themselves?

No, and the separation is deliberate. An import changes data; the scheduler changes the plan. Imported work orders appear as unscheduled demand until you run the scheduler, and before the run starts a confirmation states the scope in plain numbers: how many jobs are new and how many existing jobs are being rescheduled. You always know the blast radius before anything moves. The options are covered in EDGEBIC scheduling modes explained.

Can an import disturb work orders already running?

No, for two independent reasons. Every scheduled job carries a frozen snapshot of the routing it was planned with, so a routing re-import affects future jobs and leaves work in progress alone. And recorded work is never moved by any run: an operation with an actual start and an actual end is historical fact, and no reschedule, mode, or setting will shift it.

What if the same file is imported twice?

Nothing bad happens, on any entity type. Master data comes back Reused (matched and deliberately left untouched) unless you enabled updates for that run. Routing imports wipe and recreate an item's steps rather than appending, so steps never accumulate. Actuals always overwrite the days a file carries, so a double import never double-counts and a corrected file simply fixes the earlier numbers.

How much data can one import handle?

More than a mid-size manufacturer produces in a week. Files are streamed row by row rather than loaded whole into memory, so a routing export of several thousand rows runs without special handling, and the practical limit is disk and patience rather than a row cap. What actually slows a first load is data quality rather than volume: a file with 200 rows failing on a blank identifier takes the same time to run and much longer to reconcile. Dry-run a new mask on ten rows first, confirm the counts look right, then run the full file.

Can we automate the export and the import?

Partly, and it is worth being precise about which half. The export side automates well: a scheduled extract that lands a file in a known folder with a stable name removes the only manual step that ever gets forgotten. The import side stays a deliberate act, because the result dialog exists to be read. A run that reports 40 unexpected Failed rows is information a person needs to see before the schedule is built on top of it. Most shops settle on automated exports plus a two-minute human import, which is the right split of effort and judgment.

What can import never bring across?

The settings that most change what a schedule looks like, because no ERP export has a column for them. Work center groups (machine pools re-shopped on every reschedule, with per-member efficiency factors). The sequence-dependent setup matrix that lets the optimizer sequence work to cut changeover. Operator skills and rosters. Bottleneck anchoring. Lot streaming with transfer batches. Each is configured once inside EDGEBIC and then applies to every imported work order afterwards. The EDGEBIC product overview maps them and the ERP integration architecture explains where the import boundary sits.

Who runs this day to day?

The planner, in about twenty minutes each morning, without IT. Involve IT or your partner exactly once, to make the four exports saved reports with stable columns landing in a known folder. After that the routine is export, run the saved masks, run the scheduler, publish the dispatch lists. For the argument that usually precedes the decision, see NetSuite scheduling gaps and how EDGEBIC fills them; the same questions for other platforms are answered in the SAP and Sage FAQs.

Still deciding?

The fastest way to settle any of this is your own export. Pull this week's open work orders and a routing file, then bring them to a demo: mapping them live takes minutes, and you leave having watched your own shop scheduled against its own capacity.