Blackbaud Financial Edge (BBFE)

BBFE has both strengths and weaknesses, as might be expected. It is a true fund accounting software with the ability to handle thousands of funds. Being able to push data in and exporting data out are 2 features that are usually very important, and BBFE mostly does that well. BBFE allows for attaching various homegrown codes to the data at the fund, account, and transaction level. This is not a panacea but can be helpful. The software can be used in a fairly high volume a/p environment and the g/l functionality is also pretty good.

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.

Financial Edge - Hands Down the Best Nonprofit Accounting Package

Listen, price is always a concern, but so is the time you'll spend manipulating reports in Excel when you work with lesser software packages. I guarantee you, pit me on Financial Edge against an accountant on any other software, and I can get the job done at least twice as fast, and if it's QuickBooks, five times as fast, and without ever having to go into Excel to do anything.

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.

The best nonprofit accounting software, period.

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.

Maximizing Time and Effort - Minimizing Paper

If you are having issues, contact support staff. Work with them. If you need to refine your initial setup do so earlier than later, you will appreciate it the long run.

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.

Great product for Non Profits

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.

Full featured software but not cheap

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.

Financial Edge NXT Not Ready for Primetime

After seeing the NXT demo, it was clear that moving to the new platform would provide our business with all the functionality we were missing in our on premise thick client version. THIS WAS A BIG MISTAKE! Although during the demo it was clearly stated that some of the modules would not be moved from the old version to the new, it was not stated that features in the NXT migrated modules would not be available... so if you are working in say AP and rolling along with your work, you might hit a feature set that does not exist in NXT and requires you to switch to the Citrix version think client. It turns out that only a small percentage of the system has been migrated to NXT. This plan to migrate the modules and functions within the modules in realtime is a massive failure. The performance hit moving to the cloud was intollerable. GL uploads take twice as long even after assessing bandwidth and attempting to do the uploads on the local Blackbaud servers in the cloud. Its as if they did not build the environment robust enough to support the client base. There were features that simply did not work. Printing is problematic and the WebPortal for purchases and requisitions simply does not work. It fails with a web browser error. They said they fixed it as they had identified a node that was not turned up (you would have though they would have a monitoring tool to know this was the case) but this did not solve the problem in the end. Screen lockups, and crashes began to occur and yet there was no one who could effectively analyze the issues and solve the problems. We now have to roll our database back to our on premise version and search for a new solution. We will not be using Blackbaud. Their support is horrendous; forget telephone support your could be on hold for an hour or more; we were able to get on chats but that took some time as well. It was not until we started yelling and escalating that we finally got some response because the number of open incidents was ridiculous. I'm sure their bread and butter CRM and Grand management apps are probably fine but hosted Financial Edge/NXT definitely not worth the money.

Pros

None...

Cons

Product just does not work.

A top accounting software for non-profit

Blackbaud really values users' opinions. It connects all non-profit users together. It also emails me helpful tips every week.

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.

FENXT is Getting There

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.

Blackbaud's FinancialEdge is fantastic. We here at Evangel University has been using FE since 1997 and have no problems to speak of. It is very easy to use; very easy to customize your account number structure; very stable. You can create any report you want, from very detailed to summary information. All this is capable through the Chart Organizer. It has the capabilities to create PivotTables, charts, and update with just a click of a button. It has a dashboard which allows you to put reports, queries, or charts on one page and all the user has to do is hit a button to update - which saves me a lot of time when individuals call me to send them updated information. We purchased the option to have View-Only Access. I have setup our department heads and admin assistants with the option where they can view their GL accounts and create reports and queries on what they want, when they want. The best feature is that they can view the activity in their GL account anytime with current information. If you have to send out reports, which I still have to do for some, it's all done with the Accounting Que module. This feature is the best thing about the Financial Edge. I start the que and it runs by itself in the background, and I can go about my day. No more spending hours generating and distributing reports. It will run just about any report or process, including posting to Accounts Payable. You can set up your que to run anytime you want. Support is excellent. With the few problems I have had, they always were on top of it and never went more than a day or two with out hearing from them or receiving a solution. They have the capability to log into your machine and fix, or show, where the problem is. Top notch people that are easy to understand; they speak in common terms not that techy stuff. I recommend Blackbauds Financial Edge to anyone looking for an excellent and stable accounting software.

Financial Edge, Student Billing and Raiser's Edge - Powerful Tools!

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.

FE- no thanks!

We were pushed into FE after our original program, Fundware, was "sunsetting". In hindsight, we should've researched other programs before settling with this one.

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.

Great Work in Progress

Pros

Easy to use. Very straight forward. Customization, you can access it wherever and whenever you need. Very user friendly, if you have questions or not sure where to look for something support is always there to help but there is also classes available and a lot of 'how to' documents. With the ability to duplicate an invoice it makes it easy to enter in multiple invoices for the same vendor if very minimal changes are needed. As a company with a lot of credit card activity the credit card feed that is currently in testing is great! It used to take 3 days to enter in all of our credit card receipts now it only takes half of a day since all I have to do is code the receipt that get's pulled in directly from the credit card company.

Cons

There is no module for accounts receivable or payroll so both of those individuals do not use it. And there is no FAST way of entering a bulk amount of invoices at one time so the database view is more beneficial for accounts payable.

An holistic way to view your financials.

Pros

Financial Edge offers a holistic way to view your organizations financials from payroll to charitable contributions and accounts payable to fixed assets. Because the product can integrate with Raiser's Edge it's a great way to improve efficiency and communication between your finance and development departments while eliminating duplicate work in terms of data entry. It's a robust system that can replace less flexible systems such as Quick Books.

Cons

Initial set-up and integration with Raiser's Edge can take a very long time. Before you're up and running smoothly, it's estimated that you'll need to invest 6 months to a years worth of work. While comprehensive, Financial Edge is inflexible in terms of account coding. You have to know your financial structure before beginning to set up. This isn't a learn as you go type of software.

FENXT - Changing with the times

Keep listening to your customer base. This is a great product and it's getting better all the time.

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.

Cloud based software with your needs as their top priority

Blackbaud is very customer focused. It is important to Blackbaud that the client voices are heard. Every year they hold a conference that not only addresses the software but also gives us tools that we need as non-profits.

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.

Education Edge - Blackbaud

Pros

The ability to create new customers, make deposits, and create statements is extremely easy with this software. Of course, the success of any program is dependent on the proper training

Cons

It is sometimes a little difficult to look up a payment when searching by certain criteria. Running a query on a specific set of customers can be difficult if you don't use certain filters. Despite some of the cons, I am satisfied with this product.

The Cadillac of Nonprofit Software

Pros

Financial Edge is both user friendly and robust. It has significant available features to tailor your needs for reporting, querying, lookups, and of course importing and changing journal entries. The additional modules such as AR and AP are a must and integrate seamlessly for GL posting. Raiser's Edge, Blackbaud's sister product, posts directly into FE and contains significant available data for our development team. The two systems are fully linked, so that if there is a RE batch posted in FE, I can click on it in FE and bring up the record in RE.

Cons

The only big drawback with Financial Edge has been cost. The initial install and annual maintenance are a hefty price for a nonprofit struggling to serve its constituents.

Good Software but Pricey

Financial Edge does everything we need in office except for a few minor things. However, because the annual cost has gotten so high, it does not feel like we get much value for what we are paying anymore.

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.

Powerful

I would like to see NXT have all the functionalities that the database view has. I cannot do everything I need to do in just NXT, so we have to use the database view daily.

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.