Online Customer Forms in NetSuite: A Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Step 1: Create a New Online Customer Form

• Go to Setup > Marketing > Online Forms > New.
• Choose Customer (Lead) as the record type and give the form a clear name (e.g., “Website Contact – North America”).

Step 2: Select Fields (what the visitor sees & what NetSuite stores)

• Open the Select Fields tab.
• Add the fields you want on the form (e.g., First Name, Last Name, Company, Email, Phone, Lead Source, any custom fields).
• In the Mandatory column, check required fields (Email is a common must-have).
• In the Update columns, decide whether each field should update the Customer and/or Contact record when the submission matches an existing record.
  • Tip: Set Email to update Contact, and Company to update Customer when appropriate.
• Arrange field order and add help text where useful.

Step 3: Configure Workflow/Behavior

Open the Set Workflow (or Setup/Preferences) tab to define what NetSuite does with each submission:

• Create as Companies: Choose whether submissions create companies (B2B) or individuals (B2C).
• Lead Status: Set the default Lead Status (e.g., “Unqualified” or “Marketing Qualified”).
• Default Subsidiary: If you use OneWorld, pick the default subsidiary for created records.
• Redirect to URL: After submit, send users to a Thank-You page (paste your URL).
• Handle Duplicate Entries: Choose how to detect/resolve duplicates (commonly match on Email) and whether to merge/update or create new/reject.
• Notifications:
  • Customer notification (auto-reply/confirmation email).
  • Sales rep notification (alert assigned rep or a distribution address).
• Custom Code: Add optional custom JavaScript/HTML for tracking, extra validation, or styling.

Step 4: Layout & Branding (optional but recommended)

• Use the Layout/Appearance options to add a header, instructions, and basic styling.
• For deeper branding, use custom HTML/CSS (within the form) or style the page where you embed the form.

Step 5: Publish & Embed on Your Website

1. Save the form to generate the Publishable Form URL.
   1. Embed options:
      1. Direct link: For Example ink your “Contact Sales”/“Get a Quote” button on your website to the publishable URL.
      1. Embed (iframe):
      1. <iframe src=”https://forms.netsuite.com/app/site/crm/externalleadpage.nl?formid=XXXX” width=”100%” height=”800″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
      1. HTML snippet (if provided): Paste into your CMS/web page.

Step 6: Test End-to-End

• Submit a test entry.
• Verify a Lead/Customer + Contact was created with correct status, subsidiary, and field updates.
• Confirm duplicate handling, redirect, and notifications work as expected.

Tips & Best Practices

• Keep the form short to reduce drop-off; use dropdowns for clean data.
• Always test duplicates (same email/company) to ensure your update rules behave correctly.

References

Gartner. (2023). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Insights. Retrieved from Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/topics/enterprise-resource-planning