Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Pros

I like that this software is for finance and accounting professionals. It has helped me to perform the daily functions of my job with limited interruptions.

Cons

I haven’t been able to understand the allocation module, and so we are still doing our investments manually. The guide that is provided seems to work more for people who have an overall understanding of how it should work.

Pros

Blackbaud being a Non-Profit Financial accounting system works well for us in the non-profit/ government sector as a library. They truly understand the needs non-profits have and work to create solutions for those problems and needs. Blackbaud is easy to use, and easy to train new employees with. The training Blackbaud provides can not compare to many other products. There are 20+ classes that can be taken with an online instructor or through E-learning . This training has helped us implement this software across multiple locations and make sure our staff was prepared for their duties within Blackbaud.

Cons

As a government/non-profit agency we are required to use Purchase orders. Blackbaud's purchase order system is not as user friendly as the rest of the software. They are working to move the purchase order system to the WebView and we have been told it will make several changes to make the PO portion easier to use. We also need to be able to multi level approvals on an invoice and the solution Blackbaud was able to provide until they get everything in WebView didn't work for our organization, as we are required to have a pre-audit statement on all purchase orders and invoices that are paid

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Pros

We really like the drill down features in general ledger account details. We also like the Excel Add in functions for importing from spreadsheets and other software systems.

Cons

The lack of consistent queries available in NXT has been a challenge.

Pros

None...

Cons

Product just does not work.

Pros

The cost of this software verses the others in the market is very affordable. The implementation went very smooth and it has been working very well. Support is usually really quick and helpful to get problems solved.

Cons

The reporting functions are time consuming to set up but most reports can be built to suit your needs and work great after the initial build.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Pros

Interfaces with our Fund Raising software (Raiser's Edge, I am equally thrilled with that too, and mostly for the same reasons cited herein).

Blackbaud offers a good training program (which considering the product license fees all of which should be free).

Cons

The reporting is cumbersome.

Lack of a self-service audit trail.

The interface is not intuitive.

Pros

I've been using black baud for almost 10 years, I love the ease of using the AP side. It's very easy to get from viewing a vendor, to adding a new invoice and checking for purchase orders, all in one window (with tabs).

Cons

The only thing I don't like, it seems there are updates (which is great, but sometimes complicates things). It loses the alignment on my checks pretty drastically and doesn't save the alignment for a new run. I'm not sure if there's a glitch. It does time out kind of quickly if you aren't constantly using the system.

Pros

Easy to Use and access. I would recommend Raiser's Edge to anyone. Once you have aligned your system with Finance reports are really easy to produce.

Cons

Raiser's Edge has so many fields that can be used or created, if you don't have an established process things can get messy like any database.

Pros

Help and support tools / resources are great. Chat support is responsive and gets a solution to the problem.

Cons

Payroll leave time management configuration is challenging for our organization that has a complex leave time structure.

Pros

This tool is great for our non profit, it allows us to pay invoices, set up vendors, store any files for the business that we received (W9's, contracts, etc.) Helps extremely well with sending out 1099's, setting up new projects, vendors and having the ability to cut in house checks and sending out checks (physical or electronic draft)

Cons

Sometimes the general ledgers can be off accounting wise, not by much though.

Pros

Great functionality, and able to handle everything our local non-profit organization needs it to do, including integration with the donor management side, Blackbaud Raisers Edge. An example of the good integration is that gifts recorded in Raisers Edge then can be posted over to Financial Edge, to avoid duplicate entry. Good audit trail for all transactions, with inability to change posted items.

Cons

The desktop version is being phased out with customer support and account reps strongly encouraging a move to the web based version, which is in fact more user friendly (per the demos I've seen) but is also more expensive, and it already was not cheap.

Pros

The software is great for allocating to multiple funding sources. We are a grant funded non-profit and need to separate shared costs, which Financial Edge does very well.

Cons

The payroll module is, by far, the worst part of Financial Edge. Short of entering each employees' time manually each day, there was no way to keep daily time records. Time was entered by the pay period manually which was very labor intensive, and we had difficulty importing time records as FE didn't offer a time keeping solution.

Pros

It's web-based format is simple to use and navigate. The product is quick and responsive and their GUI does a good job at delivering content in an easy to see/read format. The chat and email support is very helpful and their response time to initial inquiries is one of the best in the business.

Cons

FENXT is a step up from the Education Edge product but it is still in its infancy. Blackbaud's development model is sound, but they need to continue to develop their current products in lieu of adding additional features. The data support team can get bogged down, causing delays of days before data can be corrected.

Pros

I like most of the reporting. I also like the functionality in the database view. I really like the last invoice input view in NXT to help me keep my obligation description consistent.

Cons

NXT does not do everything I need it to and there are a lot of mouse clicks to finish a transaction, although I am seeing improvements as time goes on.

Pros

Software is powerful and fairly easy to use. Support is generally quick and helpful. Can do everything from payroll, to AR to AP.

Cons

Very expensive. Annual cost has gotten to the point where it almost matches what it would cost us to implement another software suite entirely.

Pros

- Love being able to run reports including un-posted transactions
- Love being able to attach documents to journal entries in NXT view

Cons

- Journal entry template is clunky to use & requires a lot of clicking
- Journal entries are listed "backward" in NXT (compared to database view)
- Can't view the entire journal entry on one screen in NXT & only see line numbers once the entry is posted in NXT view

Pros

building reports is easy. its a great accounting package overall. the go to for non-profits of size.

Cons

its a great accounting package overall. my one complaint is the way accounts are made, in three parts, account number, fund, department. these three parts all make up an account number. for example 7000-02-100. 7000 is the traditional account, 02 is the fund, and 100 is the department. so if you make an account for all funds and departments the list of accounts is HUGE!

Pros

I like how easily it can track donors donation and give us a complete data of the earnings for the month

Cons

It would be nice if we can scan a business card and easily enable to automatically populate the person information in the system

Pros

We use both Financial Edge and Raiser's Edge and both are set up the same way. It's very user friendly. It's very easy to search for an invoice. I like how you can quickly access a recently viewed vendor.

Cons

Sometimes when the same vendor sends more than one invoice and the invoice numbers are just slightly different, F.E warns you that it might be a duplicate invoice when it's not, the numbers are just similar to each other. The online support link from inside FE does not open.

Pros

I have used Financial Edge for over 10 years in both "traditional" non-profit settings, as well as a school. In all of these organizations, we also had Raiser's Edge - which was integrated with Financial Edge. Through the canned reports, as well as building custom reports, I have been able to accurately report on my organization's finances. The Student Billing module allows a school to record all payment activity for a student and tie that directly to the GL.

Cons

I have encountered many organizations that purchased Blackbaud Software without being properly trained. As a result, they become frustrated with the product which leads to negative comments. The sales reps should not be allowed to sell the software without a training package included.

Pros

Financial Edge is user friendly, and offers a variety of customizable reporting formats. Built in links from sub-ledger to general ledger allow for drilling to move along quickly.

Cons

We recently upgraded to a hosted database from housing on our own server. There have been some issues with processing delay and getting kicked out.

Pros

Not sure there are any more pro's than with American Fundware. C'mon Blackbaud, let's get on some of these items. Phased out a perfectly good software which takes ten clicks and many more minutes to do what was done in seconds with American Fundware.

Cons

Very slow Does not work well with F9. Allocation module is cripplingly slow. Sorry, just not a big fan.

Pros

This product works great for fund accounting. Also like the features available for tracking or researching GL items.

Cons

The only problem we had was with uploads from other software programs to Financial Edge. We used this product for several years and it served us very well.

Pros

-Ease of Navigation
-Intuitive
-Multi-level Filtering on Displays/Dashboards
-Detailed Filtering in reporting
-Ease of Report Export
-Inclusion and detail of Accounts Payable Subsidiary Ledger (Module)

Cons

-Slower transition from Database version, forcing the switch between the two versions to complete all tasks.

Pros

We upgraded from Financial Edge 7. The NXT interface is clean and very easy to learn and navigate. The reporting features are MUCH better than in the old Financial Edge, and many of the other new features they are adding (like setting up a bank feed to automatically download transactions into FE NXT for ease of transaction matching and reconciliation) are increasing our efficiency.

Cons

The roll-out of new features has been slower than I had originally anticipated when we moved to this platform over a year ago, and that's made it a little harder to get some of our staff to adopt use of the new platform over the old "classic" database view. Would be nice not to need to go back into the old view to perform some functions.

Pros

It is good to have project tracking capabilities and to have the ability to work from home if needed.

Cons

The sales team will give you a lot of promises that are not reality. The biggest overall problems are how slow the system is, and features we were promised that never happened.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Pros

I guess if not being "too complex" is a pro, that would be it for Financial Edge. It is a simple product and doesn't have too many bells and whistles so its pretty easy to pick up on.

Cons

Hmm where to being....
I will preface this by saying that our implementation of FE was a nightmare. They had people leaving the company left and right and in our 3 month implementation and data conversion, we were passed along to 3 different Project managers. Because of this we were playing a constant game of catch up and I don't think we were ever really given a good training of how to use the product. Also, employee support is HORRIBLE with this product. Blackbaud parcels out their support to 3rd party companies and we were working with Zobrio. They were of no help to us. The prduct doesnt intergrate with our other platforms well, so importing info in to our GL is a process that could be made much easier. We also used them for payroll for a while which was an absolute nightmare. Our W-2's were wrong due to wrong info being imported during our data conversion. We also spent many late nights working on payroll issues in the program and again, had no response when calling Zobrio or Blackbaud. ( Blackbaud did get back to us once and worked well with us, but it was quite an undertaking to even get to a person at Blackbaud. The accounting side of the software is probably the best, but overall, I am sure there are much better accounting programs out there.

Pros

Exporting data is easy, so long as the export you are looking for is available. Importing fund codes is do-able but may require some significant preparation of the upload. BBFE allows for a seemingly unlimited amount of codes to be attached to funds, accounts, and transaction lines. This is very helpful. BBFE has some built in custom reporting facilities that can be helpful. BBFE has a detailed security model that can help with internal controls.

Cons

Reports: many of the builtin reports do not contain running totals and grand totals as well as header information page-to-page as one would like. Exports: the data exports are not true sql type, but are a simplified version, which is sometimes adequate. You might need another sql facility to adequately access the data and control the data joins. BBFE imposes credit memos and disallows negative invoices--depending on what you are doing, that could be a big problem that will need to be addressed. BBFE automatically computes and shows balance forwards and each year does not stand on its own, so for some data analysis you might have to compute balance forwards in order to avoid having to download all historical data. BBFE doesn't enforce cash balancing for JEs (if 2 funds are exchanging cash, the JE can give more cash to the recipient than was removed from the payer). BBFE doesn't seem to understand control funds (a fund that holds detail information that belongs to a pool of other funds)--this will require booking JEs that would be unnecessary in some other fund accounting software. BBFE enforces using an outside service for production of 1099s.

Pros

If you are using Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge (RE) software and need another application to perform accounting functions, Financial Edge (FE) is the application that will take care of Vendor tracking, A/R, A/P, etc. Rather than using another accounting application (ie. Quickbooks), Financial Edge integrates with Raiser's Edge. When you post gifts from Raiser's Edge, it goes over to Financial Edge and updates the information. The information for batch number, Appeal, Funds, Campaign migrate over to FE from RE. The user interface, look and feel between Financial Edge and Raiser's are the same. If you know RE, then FE will be easy to catch on. If you are hosted by Blackbaud, then you will be looking for FE/NXT

Cons

While there is a lot of integration from RE to FE, this comes at a cost. The FE application is expensive compared to other financial applications. If you are hosting FE on-premise, I believe Blackbaud charges by the number of users. You also need to a server with SQL to run FE. This is not like QuickBooks which can install on a local PC. If you are hosted by Blackbaud, then you will be looking at FE/NXT and again price will your main concern.

Pros

New functionalities being rolled out that allow us to use more systems working together instead of isolated.
Community boards to allow users to make suggestions and learn from each other.

Cons

That NXT is not complete yet (but I understand why and agree with their methodology).
Customer support can be clunky at times when the first person is not able to help you.

Pros

I've worked with Blackbaud's Financial Edge for over 2 decades now (even back when it was called Accounting for Nonprofits), and it's the best for nonprofit accounting. Its chart of accounts can be changed at any point to accommodate as many segments as you need (I have worked with as many as 4 segments), and reporting of any kind is easily accomplished with the variety of accessible reports and queries. A lot of journal entries that you'd need to create in other software packages are easily handled through invoice entry in accounts payable, at the time of invoice entry, through miscellaneous distributions. Customer service is excellent as well.

Cons

The annual support for customer service is a bit pricey, and designed to keep you on the hook forever (if you don't pay for a year, because you don't think you will need support - and after the first year or two you may not - as soon as you need support, you've got to pay a large percentage of all the years you missed). Not a con, but Blackbaud's products get a bad rep from bookkeepers who are more used to the silliness of QuickBooks than the accountant's dream that Financial Edge really is.

Pros

The integration between Altru (our sub-ledger), BB Merchant Services and FE/NXT is superb in my opinion. You have the ability to track a transaction backwards and forwards. We use the visual chart feature to create our budget in five different views - relating to the grants we are using, thereby eliminating errors in data collection by excel spreadsheet creations not getting updated.
Someone mentioned that thinking about the creation of your organization and GL was a big con for them. I disagree. We came on board with expert advice from BB and created a cohesive database that allows us to close the month within two-three days. I think the effort that is put into creating a tool should be as important as the information that you hope to receive from its use.

Cons

A few spotty delays when I an running an exceptionally detailed report as you watch the Jeopardy button go around in circles.

Pros

The report writer allows financial statement to be developed using column and row specifications that are user defined. The row specs are based on organizing the chart of accounts. The columns are user defined and are adequate.

Cons

Blackbaud is not intuitive or user friendly. Trying to control the software is very cumbersome. Also the report writer in Financial Edge is less flexible than other software products I have used. Columns are defined as to time periods. But if one wants to run the same financial statement from past time periods, these specs must be re-written. The reporting periods should be a relative definition and should refer to a fiscal period selection at run time.

Pros

I love the fact that you can create journal entries and invoices and include that information in reports before posting them. This helps to avoid mistakes. The web view is user friendly and fairly intuitive.

Cons

The database view is archaic and not user friendly. Many functions have not yet been converted to the web view and must be done in the database view.

Pros

Migration from previous version was seamless along with BB team to assist where needed. Ability to "copy previous" is very helpful. Helpful training opportunities via on-demand or BB U taught courses. BB support is usually always quick to reply & direct when needed.

Cons

Understanding parameters that need to be set (i.e. post, etc.) can be confusing. BB support does not seem to have access to your org file when issues arise...that was a bit shocking. I would think behind the scenes that would be able to access & walk through critical problems that need to be addressed. I realize it may be a data security issue but having to add a BB staff as user seems akward.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Pros

Ease of use in Query and Report Parameters

Cons

Some of the more intricate invoices can be cumbersome, but that is only for a few items that we have. I wish the Vendor integration with Raiser's Edge was more robust, but it works for us ok.

Pros

RaisersEdge is easy to use and store data. RaisersEdge has vast capabilities and reliability. FE makes the process of accounting and check printing very easy. Both products integrate well with other software

Cons

Even though RaisersEdge has many different tools - you may not be likely to use many of them regularly. Instead I find I reuse the same tools and end up bypassing a lot of what I could do, instead sticking to the essentials. Those extra functionalities just are not that useful to me

Pros

The versatility of the product was great. You are able to track data on several levels using account numbers, and several transaction codes that you are able to define yourself. Despite all of that information that was housed individually, the software also would allow you to consolidate information across multiple entities. Report writing was fairly simple as were day to day processes of entering journal entries, AP invoices and AR invoices. A nice feature of the reporting was that you were able to create one report and filter it by the transaction codes before running the report. This meant you did not have to have 100s of reports for different scenarios. Instead you could create one report and filter it each time by the transaction codes or entities you were interested in viewing. We also integrated the software with PaperSave which allowed us to go paperless.

Cons

The support was not always the best. If you had an issue, sometimes the support had a difficult time understanding your issue and resolving it in a timely manner.

Pros

The look of the web-based interface is really good and flows well. The reporting is highly customizable and sharable through email or dashboards.

Cons

The receivable module is still not available in the browser view nor are the EFT payments in Canada. So you have to do this in database view which is old, cumbersome, and confusing.

Pros

Very good customer service. Comprehensive training program. I took all courses and mastered the software within 3 months. Those courses gave me an in-depth view of the software and simplify my work process. Financial Edge has easy-to-use features that meet our organization needs. I like the query function, VCO and various reports. VCO allows me to build reports in certain format, and query allows me to extract data quickly. The query function helps me survived this year's auditing. When an account was off, I used query and easily found the problems to fix it.

Cons

It logged me out and ran very slow sometimes. I'd like it to be able to communicate with excel easily.

Pros

The 'in testing' credit card feeds function. Our company has a lot of credit card activity and with the credit cards feed we are able to link directly to the bank accounts and pull in every transaction as they occur. This has taken our 3 days process of entering all of the receipts and shortened it down to just half a day, with the receipts already in the system all I have to do is tie it to a vendor and code it then it's done. I also like the customization when filtering through vendors and invoices each person wants and needs to see different fields and NXT really lets each user have their own experience. When entering multiple invoices for one vendor you also have the ability to duplicate the last invoice speeding things along especially if there are minimal differences between the invoices.

Cons

There is no use for our Payroll Specialist or Accounts Receivable, and with each day having at least 40 invoices to enter at one time, there is no way to enter a bulk amount of invoices like the database view allows so Accounts Payable is limited to using it only once or twice a week.

Pros

The NXT online service is very easy to use and very flexible to our needs for reporting. The support is good, most reps are very responsive and I love Blackbaud University.

Cons

It's really expensive. And requests for customization are hard to get through. But it's overall so easy to use that we can live with the small tweaks for now.

Pros

The system is geared towards non profits. it is very easy to use. Being able to log into the system from anywhere is a huge plus.

Cons

Third party integration is still lacking compared to most other major accounting platforms. Unless you have a tech department willing to invest time into the api it is hard to do your own in depth analytics out of the box or connect the software to other systems. If the desktop version wasn't available for those in the cloud, I am not sure how any organization could do in depth analysis without the ability to query the database. The product is still a work in process as they work on moving features from the desktop version to the cloud based system. They also do not support multiple currencies which is a big con as an international non profit.

Pros

FE is great for a fund accounting software. It does all the basics. A/P is simple and easy to accomplish. The fixed asset module works great. the ledger is fine. It can get more complicated than necessary due to the ledger structure

Cons

FE is too hard to get help. There is a lot online, but sometimes you just need to have someone talk you through an issue. I have had an issue once where I needed to have their IT dept. fix a corruption in their software when I was closing a fiscal year.
This software simply costs too much for maintenance and support.

Pros

Blackbaud is quite comprehensive, flexible and useful, unfortunately the poor customer service and outrageous cost does not qualify it to be a good choice for any institute.

Cons

Once blackbaud lures you in you are trapped, then they raise the prices , sometimes by three times the original amount, and your company suffers. Absolutely not a good option for non profits!!!

Pros

FE is quite flexible, especially its chart of accounts and the number of segments you can report on. Setup is easy, and unlike other packages, you're not glued to what you set up originally. If down the road you find you need to add a segment to your chart of accounts for reporting purposes, you can do that on the fly. And you don't need to be concerned at set-up with adding future account segments. But make no mistake: you've got to have a basic understanding of accounting in order to appreciate this product for all it can do. Customer support, through annual maintenance contracts, is excellent.

Cons

I too would like to be able to export financial reports into Excel without having to re-format when I get to Excel. That's a mild inconvenience, but there are times when you want to put stuff, data onto financial reports that can't get there any other way than through manipulation in Excel.

Pros

Financial Edge, coupled with Raiser's Edge fundraising software provides seamless financial reporting opportunities for non-profits. I would suggest that you partner RE and FE together to maximize the horse power of both products.

Cons

Financial Edge and Raiser's Edge have a learning curve if you have never used the software before. When converting from another software, work closely with your Blackbaud team to ensure a successful transition.

Pros

FENXT is a very robust product. This web-based product is being enhanced constantly. The folks at Blackbaud have been very responsive to customer feedback and if there is a functionality that isn't there, they do their best to make sure that if it's possible, it is implemented. Very happy with how the product has evolved.

Cons

My suggestion at this time would be to wait until features are closer to being released before announcing them. Very frustrating when you know that something you need is going to be added but then it take six months for it to be ready.

Pros

I love the fact that I can easily extract data. I also like that I can setup account restrictions and distributions to make sure data is correct and accurate, not to mention it saves time!

Cons

Currently, accounts receivable and payroll are not in the cloud. I look forward to when all the modules are in NXT.