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Netsuite OpenAir
Oracle's professional services automation product, separate from NetSuite ERP
As of 30 August 2026, Netsuite OpenAir starts at $500/month. A resource management, timesheet and project accounting system for services businesses. Softwr lists it under Professional Services. Netsuite OpenAir is made by Oracle Corporation, launched in 2006, available on Web, iOS, Android.
Overview
What Netsuite OpenAir does
OpenAir is a professional services automation application covering resource scheduling, timesheets and expenses, project management, billing and project accounting, aimed at organisations that sell people's time. It was founded as an independent company, acquired by NetSuite in 2008, and came to Oracle with the NetSuite acquisition in 2016. It has been renamed and repositioned more than once within Oracle's project portfolio, so documentation and community material are split across names, and it is worth confirming with Oracle which product name your contract actually refers to. The critical thing a buyer must understand is that OpenAir is not a module of NetSuite. It is a separate application with its own database, its own user interface and its own administration, connected to NetSuite through an integration that has to be configured and maintained. Customers, projects and employees exist on both sides and are kept in step by that integration. This matters commercially in two ways. First, the strength of the product is genuine: resource utilisation, skills-based staffing and revenue recognition for services work are handled with more depth here than in most ERP project modules. Second, the cost of that strength is a second system to administer, a synchronisation to monitor, and a real possibility of the two sides disagreeing about the same project. The buyer is a professional services organisation, consultancy, agency or systems integrator with enough consultants that utilisation and staffing are managed rather than remembered, and often one that already runs NetSuite for finance. The trade-offs are the interface, which reflects its age, and the overlap with NetSuite's own project capability, which leads buyers into an avoidable choice between two Oracle products doing similar things. Pricing is per user, which suits a firm where most staff are billable and penalises one where many people submit a timesheet occasionally.
What people use it for
- A consultancy that needs to forecast staffing demand against a pipeline before it commits to delivery dates
- A services firm whose revenue recognition on fixed price work is currently maintained in a spreadsheet
- An organisation already running NetSuite finance whose project module cannot handle its resource planning
- An agency or integrator that needs accurate billable utilisation by consultant, practice and client
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Netsuite OpenAir.
- OpenAir is a separate application from NetSuite rather than a module of it, so customers, projects and employees exist in two places and a synchronisation must be configured, monitored and repaired when it drifts.
- It overlaps with NetSuite's own project and services capability, so buyers inside the Oracle estate face a choice between two products from the same vendor and rarely get a straight comparison from the sales conversation.
- The product has been renamed and repositioned more than once, which leaves documentation, training material and community knowledge fragmented across names and makes it harder to establish what applies to your version.
- Licensing is per user, so a firm with many occasional timesheet submitters pays full seats for people who sign in twice a month, and the model suits billable-heavy organisations far better than mixed ones.
- The user interface and administration reflect the product's age rather than current design conventions, which raises training effort and makes consultant adoption of timesheet discipline harder than it needs to be.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Netsuite OpenAir
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Netsuite OpenAirvsFishbowl
Fishbowl: Manufacturing and warehouse management for QuickBooks
- Netsuite OpenAirvsInfor CloudSuite
Infor CloudSuite: Industry-specific cloud ERP solutions
- Netsuite OpenAirvsMRPeasy
MRPeasy: Affordable cloud MRP for small manufacturers
Pricing
What Netsuite OpenAir costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Basic
$500 /mo
- Project tracking
- Time tracking
- Basic reporting
- Standard support
Advanced
$1,200 /mo
- Full PSA
- Resource planning
- Advanced analytics
- Custom workflows
Capabilities
Features
Resource management
matches consultants to demand by skill, availability and utilisation target
Timesheets and expenses
captures billable time and cost against project tasks and clients
Project accounting
tracks project cost, revenue and margin including revenue recognition for services
Billing
generates invoices from time and materials, fixed price and milestone arrangements
Project management
holds task structures, budgets and progress against plan
Utilisation reporting
reports billable utilisation and pipeline demand across the delivery organisation
NetSuite integration
synchronises customers, projects and financial postings with NetSuite through a configured connector
Multi-currency support
handles projects billed and delivered across several currencies
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is OpenAir part of NetSuite?
No. It is a separate Oracle application that integrates with NetSuite. It is sold alongside NetSuite and often bought by NetSuite customers, but it has its own data model, interface and administration.
Should I use this or NetSuite's own project modules?
If your problem is invoicing project work and tracking basic costs, NetSuite's own capability may be enough and avoids a second system. If your problem is resource planning, skills-based staffing and utilisation forecasting across a large delivery organisation, that is what OpenAir was built for.
Can it be used without NetSuite?
Yes, it can run against another finance system, but then you are building and maintaining that integration yourself, which removes the main reason most buyers choose it over an independent professional services automation product.
What is the hardest part of implementing it?
Getting consultants to submit accurate timesheets on time, and agreeing how revenue recognition should work on fixed price engagements. Neither is a software problem, and both determine whether the reports are trusted.
Behind it
Who makes Netsuite OpenAir
- Company
- Oracle Corporation
- Based in
- San Francisco, CA
Keep looking
Where to go from Netsuite OpenAir
- Netsuite OpenAir alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Netsuite OpenAir pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Netsuite OpenAir badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Professional Services softwareThe full category
- Best Professional Services softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Professional Services software for
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- Kantata
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Netsuite OpenAir, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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