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Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Score8.4 out of 10

295 Reviews and Ratings

What is Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT?

Financial Edge NXT is a cloud accounting solution tailored for nonprofits that provides a general ledger, projects, grants, endowments, accounts payable and receivable, fixed assets, banking, and more. It offers real-time reporting, with one-click drill-down functionality and export capability.

Media

1 / 5

Good and suitable for Classic Accounting. Not sufficient for Grants.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use this software to manage and process accounts receivables and grants.

Pros

  • multiples formats offered for report export, including excel data easy to use
  • provide multiple platforms--including desktop application and web based
  • offer multiple, easy to use filters to run reports
  • multiple webinars offered consistently to help explain and present software features

Cons

  • There doesn't seem to be any A/R or accounts receivable functions on web based interface for some reason, which is greatly needed especially as the desktop interface appears very outdated, hard to view and adjust view settings, needs additional access and steps--thereby making it harder to do this work from anywhere, and so forth.
  • It would be helpful to have more grants management functionality as part of web based functions.
  • It would be helpful to have more options offered for grants or A/R reports.
  • There is a definite need to include and track FTEs more on projects and clients, to properly track grants financially not just for internal purposes but also for a variety of audits and to comply properly with federal guidelines. This is crucial but yet still missing.
  • It would be helpful if user/companies didn't always have to buy additional software programs and modules to add a variety of functionality often offered already as components included in competing software.

Return on Investment

  • I've only had 1 year with this software and not a manager, not sure I can answer this properly.

Other Software Used

ADP Workforce Now

Financial Edge- Review

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am the Staff Accountant and use Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT for Journal Entries, Creating Invoices, Deposits and Month End reporting.

Pros

  • Distribution Sets
  • Project Activity Reports
  • Invoicing

Cons

  • Reporting can be limited or hard to create your own
  • Functions that allow you to have certain accounts Require a Project Code

Return on Investment

  • The Project Feature allows us to bill our grantors accurately and to run specific GL reports

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online and Oracle Access Management

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams

The jury is still out....

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT for all accounting and most HR/personnel applications. We are exploring the integrated purchase order module currently for potential application use across our agency with five remote offices. We are also interested in the budgeting application which we do not currently utilize.

Pros

  • N/A

Cons

  • Printing / exporting reports for the printing process is inoperable - cannot print directly from NXT
  • Projects and Accounts are not able to be sub-classified - should be able to have sub-accounts

Most Important Features

  • Accounts payable/receivable features
  • project reporting features

Return on Investment

  • N/A

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Premier and ADP Enterprise HR

Other Software Used

isolved, Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT to house the accounting processes for a non-profit. It integrates with Raiser's Edge, eliminating duplicate entry into two separate systems. This change has reduced the use of redundant spreadsheets and has saved staff a significant amount of time. The opportunity to provide reports directly out of Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT has been very helpful.

Pros

  • User friendly
  • Intuitive
  • Robust training

Cons

  • Report writing is a little complex
  • Disabling functions without having adequate alternatives in place
  • In my experience, Support is inconsistent at times

Return on Investment

  • Improvement in efficiency
  • Integration with donor database (Raiser's Edge)
  • Better basic reporting for year-end

Other Software Used

Microsoft Excel, Ellucian Colleague

Financial Edge NXT as a partner in the Finance Department

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use FE NXT as our accounting product for the GL, budgets, AP processing and through journal entries, adding payroll, bank activity and accounts receivable. We manage multiple organizations withing FE through GL numbers so reporting can be manageable.

Pros

  • Flexibility in setting up account numbers
  • Creating custom reporting

Cons

  • With the transition from database to web based, the JE upload is an ongoing issue.
  • Upgrades are not always vetted through clients who use the functionality, therefore, not working properly in the field.

Return on Investment

  • Reporting is very helpful for efficiency at month and quarter end.

Other Software Used

ADP Workforce Now