Manage Records: CloudExtend Excel Data Management for NetSuite Burst Mode Upload

XLNS | Learn how the Burst Mode Upload works in CloudExtend Excel for NetSuite

Updated over a week ago

This article takes a deep dive into why we built Burst Mode as well as when to consider it.

If you just want to learn how to use it skip directly to this section.


Why build a Burst Mode Upload?

The Burst Mode Upload was built for users who want to upload a large number of records or those who want to queue up multiple uploads without having to wait for each one to complete.

Without Burst Mode, the data CloudExtend sends to NetSuite must be processed and sent back to Excel within 2 minutes (1 minute on a Mac) or communications between Excel and NetSuite will timeout. Because of this, data is sent in small batches that will take less than 1-2 minutes to process. Depending on the record type this could be anywhere from 10-100 records.  

There are three disadvantages to the standard approach

  • There is a processing overhead (transmission of data) of 10-30 seconds for each batch sent/received. If you had 100 records being updated in 4 batches this adds 40-120 seconds of added overhead

  • You cannot work in CloudExtend Excel while the data is being transmitted/processed

  • You cannot submit multiple upload jobs simultaneously

📌 The Burst Model Upload solves these disadvantages.


What is Burst Mode Upload?

With Burst Mode Upload all of your data is submitted at once (typically in a few seconds) in very large chunks and sent to CloudExtend servers where it is queued for asynchronous processing in NetSuite. Once the Burst Mode Upload is submitted you can continue working in Excel, even submitting other CloudExtend jobs, and will be notified when the job is completed. 

If you save your file you can even close Excel and the next time you open it and load CloudExtend you will be notified of the job status and will update your workbook with the upload results and indicate whether each record was upserted successfully or failed.

Summary of benefits to Burst Mode Upload

  • Accommodates large uploads

  • Users can immediately begin working with other CloudExtend Excel workbooks and worksheets

  • Users can submit other CloudExtend batches

  • Once the job is submitted users do not need to monitor it. Users can even close Excel and turn off their computer letting a large update process over lunch (or overnight)

When would I use it?

  • If you are submitting large complex batches that NetSuite cannot process in the one to two minutes allocated 

  • If you have other Excel work to do while batches are processing

  • If you have large data sets (note the definition of 'large' is subjective depending on your own needs. For example, one user may be willing to wait for 500 Sales Orders to process in batches of 25 while another may prefer to submit it as one batch, do other work, and then come back to it when complete).

  • If your NetSuite account typically has concurrency issues 

A note on transaction line limits

NetSuite has restrictions on the number of lines allowed for standard (synchronous) uploads and burst mode (asynchronous) uploads.

  • Journal entries have a limit of 1,000 lines for standard uploads and 10,000 lines for burst mode uploads.

  • All other transactions have a limit of 5,000 lines

  • See this article from NetSuite for up-to-date info


How to use Burst Mode

Initiate Upsert

Check the box on the upsert screen where it says to use the new Burst Upload and then choose your Upsert option (all records or selected records). If picklists have already been resolved it should only take a few seconds for the job to be submitted.

Once your job has been submitted you will be notified of the progress. At this point, you can safely submit other jobs (load them on other tabs in the workbook). You can even close Excel if desired (save your workbook first). After NetSuite completes the job the results are sent to the CloudExtend server and available for you to download.

Download Results

When you have been notified that your job is completed go ahead and click the download icon and your results will fetch from the CloudExtend server. If there are any errors or warnings they will be displayed in the Reserved Column (Column A).

Checking on your job in NetSuite

Once your job has been submitted we periodically ping NetSuite for updates. If you or your Admin wants to check the status in NetSuite this can be done by going to Setup->Integration->SOAP Web Services Process Status.

Once there you will see a list of all the jobs in your queue.

Removing a stuck burst mode job that appears incomplete

If a job has been fully completed but you're still receiving an indication that the job is in progress you can turn off this notification by navigating to the job status window and clicking the trash icon to stop being notified.


Who can use Burst Mode Upload?

Users that subscribe to the CloudExtend Excel for NetSuite Enterprise Edition can take advantage of Burst Mode Upload.

Personal Edition users have access to it for the first 90 days of their subscription. To upgrade contact cloudextend-sales@celigo.com.


Known Limitations

Burst Mode upload is not supported if your template/fields contain any of the following:

  • Custom transaction records

  • Custom Segments

  • Multi-select fields

  • Custom field of type Phone

Are there any drawbacks to using the Burst Mode Upload?

While Burst Mode gets your data to NetSuite very quickly, NetSuite may not process your requests immediately. If your NetSuite account is reasonably busy with other work such as requests coming in from other apps or users, NetSuite may not pick up upload job immediately. Therefore the entire job may, in some cases, seem to take longer than regular uploads for smaller sets of records.

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