Drill-through
Click a figure in a summary to open the detail rows behind it, narrowed to the row you clicked.
A drill-through links one report to another. In a summary such as Spend by Vendor by Month, the amount can be a link. Click ACME's figure for August, and the purchase order lines behind it open in the detail report, narrowed to ACME and August.
Follow a link
- In a summary report, click a figure that shows as a link.
- The detail report opens with a bar at the top. It reads Opened from a summary and lists what it is showing, for example Vendor: ACME, Month: 2026-08.
- To see the detail report as it normally opens, choose Show everything at the right of the bar.
- To return to the summary, use your browser's Back button.
Two rules decide what you see:
- The carried values replace the detail report's own starting filters. Without this, a detail report that normally opens on "this year" would hide a row from last year that you just clicked through to.
- A figure is a link only when you are allowed to open the report behind it. For anyone outside the detail report's audience, the figure is plain text.
How values land in the detail
The app fits each value to the type of the detail column it fills:
| Carried value | Detail column | Becomes |
|---|---|---|
| A month, 2026-08 | Month column | That month |
| A month, 2026-08 | Date column | Every date in August 2026 |
| A quarter or a year | Month or date column | Every month or date in that quarter or year |
| A week | Date column | The seven days of that week, Monday to Sunday |
| A name | Dropdown column | That value ticked |
| A name | Text column | An exact match |
| An empty cell | Any column | Rows where that column is empty |
- The app drops a value that has no matching column in the detail report.
- A drill-through works with the grain switch too. If the summary is grouped by Quarter, clicking 2026-Q3 narrows the detail to the three months of that quarter.
Record links
Some columns link to a NetSuite record, not to another report. A click opens the record, such as the sales order, vendor or customer, in a new tab. The author chooses which record type a column links to, and an administrator maintains the list of linkable record types.
From a dashboard
A dashboard leads to a report in three ways:
| You click | What opens |
|---|---|
| The report name in a widget's title bar | That report, with the dashboard's filters that apply to the widget |
| A link in a table widget | The drill-through or the record, as on the report. A drill-through carries the dashboard's filters too. |
| A bar, a slice, a point, a table line or a stat tile's number | The rows behind what you clicked. See Clicking a dashboard widget. |
Each dashboard filter becomes a column filter on the report, on the matching column and in that column's own shape. For example, a month filter on a date column becomes that month's dates. Where a column receives both the clicked row's value and a dashboard filter, the row's value wins.
For authors: set up a drill-through
You set up a drill-through in the report wizard, on the Columns step.
- On the summary column that should be a link, open the list under Link record type and pick Another report (drill-through).
- Under Clicking the column opens, pick the report that a click should open.
- Add one line for each value to carry, with + Carry a value across. The detail report's column goes on the left and this report's column on the right. The wizard fills in the lines for columns that have the same name in both reports.
- Where a figure covers a subset that the row has no column for, set the right side of a line to A fixed value… and type the value exactly as the detail report shows it, for example Status is Open. Examples are open opportunities only, the billed side of freight, or the income lines of a profit and loss.
- Choose Save.
The link names its target by the target's export key, not its internal id.
- A report built in the account gets an export key the first time an author chooses it as a target.
- A drill-through therefore survives Import / Export between accounts without changes.
- If the detail report is not in the receiving account yet, the figure stays plain text until someone imports it.
If something looks wrong
| What you see | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| The figure is plain text, not a link | You are not in the detail report's audience, or the detail report is not in this account, or it is archived. Ask the author. |
| The detail opens on fewer rows than you expected | The bar at the top lists the carried values. Choose Show everything to remove them. |
| The total of the rows that open is not the figure you clicked | The summary counts something the carried values do not narrow. The author adds a line with A fixed value…, such as Status is Open. |
| A carried value is missing from the bar | The detail report has no column for it, so the app dropped it. |
A well-built drill-through reconciles: the total of the rows that open equals the figure you clicked.
Related: Clicking a dashboard widget · Filters and the grain switch · The report wizard step by step · Dashboard filters · Import and export