How routings, work centers and work in process accounting work in NetSuite manufacturing.
A routing describes how a product is made: the sequence of operations, the work center each runs at, and the setup and run times involved. Turning on work in process means the value of a job sits in a WIP account while it is being built, instead of moving straight from raw materials to finished goods. Together they answer two questions that assembly builds alone cannot: how long will this take, and what is tied up on the floor right now.
With WIP enabled, issuing components debits work in process rather than relieving inventory to finished goods. Labor and overhead are applied to the job as operations complete, and the finished item is received at the accumulated cost. What is left in the WIP account at period end is what is genuinely unfinished.
That accuracy has a price: more transactions, more discipline on the floor, and a close that has to account for jobs in flight. Manufacturers with short cycle times and simple products often do better without it.
If jobs start and finish within a day and the value in flight is small, WIP adds work and little insight. If jobs run for weeks, cross period ends, or carry significant labor, WIP is the only way the numbers make sense.
Labor and machine rates drive applied cost. Set them from real payroll and equipment costs, and agree who reviews them and how often.
Operation time can be entered by a supervisor, captured at a terminal, or backflushed from standard times. Backflushed time is easy and only as good as the standards. Captured time is accurate and needs a way for people on the floor to record it without leaving the machine.
A bracket runs through three operations: laser cut, form, weld. The routing carries setup and run time for each, and each operation points at a work center with a labor and an overhead rate.
If the floor reports no time, the planned time is what gets applied, and the variance only tells you the routing is out of date. That is the honest trade in routings: the numbers are worth exactly what the reporting discipline behind them is worth.
Work in process accounting is a real commitment. It changes the general ledger, it changes month end, and it changes what the floor has to record. It earns its place when one of these is true.
It is not worth it when builds start and finish in the same day, labor is a small fraction of cost, and nobody reports time at the machine. In that case run routings for scheduling and leave WIP off: you still get planned times and a schedule, without a WIP balance nobody can explain at close. Costing options either way are covered on manufacturing costing.
NetSuite schedules by dates and times, not by finite capacity across the plant, and native screens are not built for a shop floor terminal. FactorySync adds visual scheduling, capacity by work center and floor-friendly status capture. For the full production picture, see the NetSuite manufacturing guide.
No. Work orders and assembly builds work without routings. Routings are what add operations, work centers, setup and run times, and the ability to apply labor and overhead by operation.
Work in process is the accounting treatment where the value of a job sits in a WIP account while it is being built. Components and applied labor accumulate there, and the finished item is received at that cost.
Yes, but treat it as a project rather than a switch. Costing, close procedures and floor routines all change, so plan it for a period boundary with the finance team involved.
No. Work orders and assembly builds run without a routing, which is how a lot of light assembly operations start. A routing adds operations, work centers and planned times, which is what you need for a schedule, for labor and overhead absorption, and for tracking where a job is on the floor rather than just whether it is open.
A work center is the costing and scheduling unit: it carries the labor and overhead rates and the capacity that planned times are applied against. It can represent a single machine, a cell of machines, or a group of people. Modelling every machine as its own work center gives finer scheduling and a lot more maintenance, so most shops start with work centers at cell level and split only where the schedule actually needs it.
Setting this up, or fixing how it was set up? Get in touch and we will look at it with you. More on the whole production flow in the NetSuite manufacturing guide.
