How Sourcegraph uses Deel’s NetSuite integration to scale payroll without scaling finance

Large software engineering teams need to understand, search, and navigate massive codebases. Sourcegraph is a code intelligence platform built to help them do it. The company relies on a number of connections and integrations, and connecting payroll to its ERP, NetSuite, was a must.

“We have to have our payroll provider and our ERP talk to each other,” says Sourcegraph Controller Desene Sterling. “We wouldn’t implement any systems that don’t integrate with our ERP.”

Sourcegraph’s previous provider couldn’t deliver an integration that worked, and for the finance team, that was a deal breaker. Without it, the team had to export data into Excel, manipulate it into a journal entry, reconcile it, and then upload a CSV into NetSuite. Accounting was the only function with visibility into payroll data, and only at month end.

One system that did integrate with Sourcegraph’s ERP was Deel.

Sourcegraph chose Deel for the NetSuite integration, which lets the finance team bring payroll data directly into its ERP without rebuilding it manually.

With each invoice divided into individual components like contractor costs, taxes, and peripheral benefits, Sourcegraph can map costs to the correct GL accounts and cost centers. Deel settles payroll in Australian dollars, British pounds, Canadian dollars, and euros, all of which convert to USD within Deel before syncing into Sourcegraph’s US NetSuite instance.

If a sync issue comes up, a Deel-specific area in NetSuite explains what happened and how to fix it. For anything else, support is easy to reach.

“I’ve never worked with a team like Deel in terms of how responsive their support is. It feels really nice to have them feel like a partner instead of a vendor.”

— Desene Sterling, Controller, Sourcegraph

Since the integration, Sourcegraph no longer builds payroll journal entries manually. Automating journal-entry creation saves 3+ hours per close, and the integration also reduces the time Sourcegraph spends reconciling payroll and researching discrepancies.

Today, payroll, people ops, the controller, and the accounting manager all work in Deel and rely on the integration. With less manual manipulation between Deel and NetSuite, finance has fewer opportunities for errors to enter the process in the first place.

“The Deel NetSuite integration saves so much time and has removed so much room for error. The ease of administration is huge. I don’t have to rely on IT. It’s something we can handle internally.”

— Desene Sterling, Controller, Sourcegraph

The bigger payoff is scalability. Sourcegraph intentionally runs a lean finance team and looks for software that lets transaction volume grow without forcing the team to grow with it.

“As it is now, we could 10x the teammates we have in Deel, and we wouldn’t have to adjust our team size or process,” Sterling says.

With Deel handling the payroll data and NetSuite the ledger, Sourcegraph can keep evaluating entity options in new countries and scale internationally, while its core payroll infrastructure stays with a partner it trusts.