ExtendSync for Outlook NetSuite is a powerful tool that enables your organization to have 360-degree visibility into important communications in the right place at the time.
In order for your Organization to be successful with ExtendSync, we encourage you to follow the best practices below.
This guide outlines best practices to maximize efficiency! ✨
Additional Tips
✅ Create an Internal Process
Create an internal process that is easy for users to follow and ensure they stick with it. Document this process and include it with their onboarding and reinforce it through subsequent trainings. Users should know what records to save emails too, along with what information should be in NetSuite (and how much). This will vary by Organization. It's easy for users to fall out of practice and miss getting important information into NetSuite. It's your responsibility to ensure this does not happen by monitoring and enforcing usage.
✅ Understanding Autopilot vs. One-Time Save
ExtendSync offers two ways to sync emails with NetSuite:
One-Time Save: Manually attaches a single email to a NetSuite record. Best for occasional or one-off emails.
Autopilot (Enterprise): Automatically syncs entire email threads or emails from a specific sender. Ideal for ongoing conversations.
Email Address based Autopilot (To/From/CC) functionality is limited to the primary folder and the sent folder in your Outlook.
Method | Best For | How it Works |
One-Time Save | Saving a single email to a specific record | Manually attach an email to a NetSuite record |
Thread-Based Autopilot | Conversations related to a single transaction | Automatically syncs all replies in the same email thread |
Email Address-Based Autopilot | Ongoing correspondence with a contact, customer or any entity records | Attaches all emails from a specific email address to a designated NetSuite record |
✨ Email address-based Autopilot is by far the easiest and quickest method to get your emails into NetSuite! Dig deeper on the different save methods here.
✅ Attach Emails to the right records
Extendsync users can attach emails to transaction records as well as entity records. If your organization has a long sales cycle and works off NetSuite Opportunities you may want to attach emails (and events) to Opportunity records. If you're working on shorter sales cycles you may want to attach emails at the Contact level.
🚨 HOT TIP:
To maintain data integrity, attach emails to transaction-level records (e.g., Sales Orders, Invoices, Support Cases) instead of the general Customer/Company record.
✅ Do: Attach emails to a Sales Order or Support Case to keep conversations contextual.
🚫 Don’t: Attach all emails to a Customer record, as it can clutter the timeline.
We typically advise against attaching emails at the Customer/Company level. Emails attached to a child record by ExtendSync will automatically roll up to their parent level (learn more about email rollup here).
Best practice - save to the child and it will roll up to the parent for you automatically.
This gives you the best of both worlds. You can see the email activity where it is most relatable yet you can also see it in one holistic view at the parent level.
✅ Measure accountability and drive adoption
Spend a few minutes per week to monitor usage right down to the individual user. Leverage the power of NetSuite to see emails and events by sender/recipient, entity, and more. If it isn't in NetSuite, it didn't happen.
NetSuite saved searches can be used to determine the number of emails attached to NetSuite.
Set Up Usage Metrics & Track Adoption article will help you build your dashboard to track usage over time and even have these metrics emailed to you on a daily or weekly basis.
📈 If usage dips, forward the report to the user(s) and remind them of best practices.
Need help setting this up? Email cloudextend-support@celigo.com and we’ll help you configure it.
✅ Find and view emails in NetSuite with ease
There are multiple ways to access important emails in NetSuite, including:
View History (Record Level)
Dashboard View > Timeline
Customer 360
View History (Record Level)
Go to the Communication → Messages tab. This provides a detailed history of interactions at an individual record level.
Customize your Message View to display message snippets directly in the list (no need to open each one).
Dashboard View > Timeline
Get a unified view of all interactions, including emails, activities, and transactions, for a given Customer, Lead, or Prospect.
To add go to any Customer, Lead, or Prospect then click View Dashboard then add Timeline.
Customer 360
360-degree view of the customer, including their financial information, transaction history, and other related data.
Learn more about Customer 360.
✅ Using OneDrive/Sharepoint (Enterprise users only)
Enterprise users can attach OneDrive or SharePoint files and folders directly to NetSuite records — without consuming NetSuite storage.
Why It Matters:
Keeps all files centralized and linked to NetSuite (your source of truth).
Files added to linked folders automatically roll up to associated records.
📘 Learn How CloudExtend Syncs OneDrive & SharePoint Files
🚨 HOT TIP: You can bulk upload your OneDrive for Business folders to NetSuite!
Additional Tips
✅ Exclude Inactive Records from Search
In NetSuite, Navigate to Set preferences > Analytics > Make sure the Include in-actives in global and quick search is unchecked.
✅ Use the “Search by Prefix” Feature
The Enable Search by Prefix option refines global searches for large accounts.
Using prefixes in your search query can help the system identify the type of record you are searching for and return only relevant results
Example: Searching for “3M” becomes cus:3M to filter only customer records.
✅ Help Your Users Know Where to Get Support
Make sure your team knows where to go when they need help.
Share this Getting Started guide during onboarding.
Provide a quick link to the End-User Customization Guide.
Keep the recording of your first training session for future new hires
Remind users to:
Search the Help Center.
Use in-app chat (bottom right of the app or Help Center)
Reach out to their Customer Success Manager (CSM)
Check status.cloudextend.io for known issues