Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Erfahrungen

My review of Financial Edge NXT

Kommentare: I like Financial Edge NXT and I couldn’t imagine doing my job without it!

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

Review of Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Kommentare: Our overall experience has been great. Tech support and our implementation team were fantastic to help us get everything in place and have been a great resource as we have continued to learn the program. Having a solution that is not installed on the network , but on the cloud has given us more flexibility. And information is shown in a more user friendly display to easily see data all in one place.

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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

Financial Edge NXT Not Ready for Primetime

Kommentare: 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.

Vorteile:

None...

Nachteile:

Product just does not work.

Great Fund Accounting Software

Kommentare: We moved from QuickBooks to BlackBaud because we needed a fund accounting program and it has performed well for our organization. Our department heads now have access to the site and can see their financials more than just once a month which is game changing for financial decisions.

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

Good product - backward implementation

Kommentare: The worst part is implementation. We had to make decisions about setup that cannot be changed before we fully understood how we wanted to use the software. They should have allowed us to use our own data in a "sandbox" model to learn how things work.

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

This product really can only get better

Kommentare: Our finance and marketing departments use Blackbaud FE and RE daily and they get the job done. Migrating to something else at this point would be a monumental task, but it still may well be worth the effort.

Vorteile:

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).

Nachteile:

The reporting is cumbersome. Lack of a self-service audit trail. The interface is not intuitive.

Great cloud based accounting system for non profits!

Vorteile:

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).

Nachteile:

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.

Excellent!

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

We use the full suite of modules and like the integration and support. Payroll is more challenging.

Vorteile:

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

Nachteile:

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

NXT Blackbaud

Vorteile:

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)

Nachteile:

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

Great product for Non Profits

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

A top accounting software for non-profit

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

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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

Financial Edge

Vorteile:

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

Nachteile:

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.

FENXT - Changing with the times

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

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

Good Software but Pricey

Kommentare: 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.

Vorteile:

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

Nachteile:

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

We didn't need a Ferrari to do the job of a Ford.

Kommentare: Be certain of what you need and what is a reasonable price to pay for your organization... so that you don't get locked into a long contract that becomes a drain on your fundraising efforts instead of supporting your efforts.

Vorteile:

It probably has every feature and more than you'll ever need or want. It's especially good for very large organizations that have large budgets and lots of donors to track.

Nachteile:

My organization is small... we don't need all of the bells and whistles that come with this software and it is way to expensive for the portions that we do use. This really was a ferrari... when a ford would have been more than capable... we opted for a better suited software for our size organization and much more budget friendly for our needs.

Database Administrator

Vorteile:

The FE NXT webview is a great improvement over the database view and I am looking forward to the continued delivery of new features as they role them out.

Nachteile:

Cost. The software does allow for more complex reporting than some others I have used but the cost continues to rise and due to the development and we continue to review the ROI year over year.

Kommentare: I work for The ALS Association Greater Philadelphia Chapter. We provide support and services to persons with ALS and their families. We also support research to joining in the fight to defeat ALS. We've been using Financial Edge for over 10 years. We also use The Raiser's Edge and other Blackbaud products. We moved from an old DOS based accounting system so we could use a real chart of accounts and produce great financial statements. We researched many options, but decided that FE would meet our needs best. I think we are somewhat unusual in that we moved to FE before we chose RE. We keep up the patches to stay on the latest version of FE and RE. The two systems are integrated and provide a great way to assure that we get our revenue from RE into FE. We have a wonderful audit trail and good processes. The implementation went very well. In fact, we were so impressed with FE it helped make our decision on using other Blackbaud products. Blackbaud's excellent support and customer service convinced was one of the convincing factors. Other benefits come from ease of use and the link between applications. In the last few years, we moved to accrual accounting and really started to use FE fully. We even purchased F9 to allow our new Controller the ability to write custom reports for our Board that update every time FE is changed. We're very happy with FE and all of our Blackbaud products - we now use BBNC, Sphere FAF, ResearchPoint and many of the data enrichment offerings. We also benefit from using partner applications such as Papersave and Import-O-Matic. It's a total solution for us.

We Love Blackbaud's Products

Vorteile:

Blackbaud has created a real community. You can talk with people in your industry, from others, and anyone who works for Blackbaud. Support is great and their followup is refreshing.

Nachteile:

I wish they were based here in Atlanta. BB HQ is awesome and I wish they were closer, but it gives me a destination when I am looking to go to SC.

The Cadillac of Nonprofit Software

Vorteile:

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.

Nachteile:

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.

Need for consolidation in one software.

Kommentare: Would really like to see Blackbaud come up with one software for Fundraising, Finances and Budgeting

Vorteile:

On Line Resources: We seem to be able to get some good on line resources but extra service fee for a call.

Nachteile:

Too many clicks to get what is needed. Too many modules which are interrelated causing a larger expense which at first was less.

Does What I Need, But Not the Easiest to Use

Vorteile:

The reports are fairly easy to generate, and have many customization options. Setting up templates and favorite reports is very helpful.

Nachteile:

It's not the most user-friendly or intuitive of software. I can't stand the bank reconciliation (which could just be my own problem, to be sure). I don't often work with invoices and printing checks, but when I need to I have difficulty determining how to do so (again, could be my own limitations, I just wish it were more intuitive).

Way too difficult to use.

Kommentare: I could not recommend it for any organization under $500MM in revenue. This is for Big companies with Big staffs. No need to reach for this unless you have the size and infrastructure to support this solution.

Vorteile:

The software clearly has a lot of capabilities. If you are a large organization with lots of time and money to burn, you can get some value out of this.

Nachteile:

The program is very difficult to use. I was leading a team that took over the accounting function from another organization. This was their software. The company had not seen a balance sheet they had confidence in for many years. Getting information out in a form and format that they could use was difficult to impossible. I was told they spent $250k getting the program up and running in implementation costs. This was a terrible option for a company with just 2 people in the accounting department. I'm sure it may be good for a MUCH larger organization, but a bad choice here.

FE and all

Vorteile:

Easy to use and similar style across all Blackbaud products. Many different features and functionality of the product line.

Nachteile:

Reporting can use some upgrades. We are needing to build crystal reports for some of the items we need to report on

Started with Fundware, now Financial Edge ready for FE NXT

Kommentare: It gives us the information required to invoice for our grants.

Vorteile:

Ability to run many reports, view different scenarios. Tracks our expenses by funds, projects, sub projects for various account codes.