Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Blackbaud
1981
Charleston, SC
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Unknown
Cloud
No
Financial Edge NXT At A Glance
Product Overview
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is a cloud-based fund accounting software aimed at nonprofits and public service organizations. Accountants can manage their cash flow, run budget and forecasting scenarios, and track the organization’s financial health with reporting tools. The solution helps streamline financial operations so organizations can focus more on their missions.
To help organizations provide ethical and financial transparency, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT includes internal controls to prevent fraud and wasteful spending. Administrators can establish a set of security controls with unique business rules that’s enforced by automated workflows. They can also grant or deny access to specific features and data to specific users. The software includes a built-in budgeting feature to reduce overspending and an extensive audit trail that records all financial activity.
For non-profits that want a central system to handle all of their tasks, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT can work as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT integrates with other Blackbaud systems, such as Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT (for fundraising). It also integrates with third-party solutions via SKY API, Blackbaud’s modern, open application programming interface.
Organizations can also optionally purchase Blackbaud Forms (for printed materials, such as checks, fundraising letters or tax/gift receipts) or Blackbaud Merchant Services (for credit card processing).
Features
Core accounting: Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT includes core accounting features, such as cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable and a general ledger. Organizations can pay their bills efficiently with a credit card, debit card, checks or electronic funds transfer. With the solution, organizations can manage client payments, for example, billing a third party for a portion of a client’s services. The software also allows the organization to set up automatic payment application from multiple funding sources to invoices.
Purchasing and expense management: Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT automates the purchasing and expense management processes with approval workflows. Organizations can create their own unique business rules and set specific spending limits.
Budget management: The software includes a built-in budget checking feature for comparing the performance of actual revenue and expenses against the budget. Accountants can track budgets and compare an unlimited number of budget scenarios by department, grant, program or project. The software also supports budget forecasting and customizable fiscal periods, so organizations can forecast their spending needs several years in advance.
Grant management: Organizations can track both simple and complex grant requirements. The software includes extra tracking levels so users can track separate activities for each grant. The solution includes detailed records about a grant, such as history and notes, using customizable fields for each record type. Organizations can also track and forecast budgets at a grant level across multiple grant periods. Finally, the software helps users manage complex grant reimbursements with built-in grant spending rules that automatically calculate any reimbursement.
Reporting and analytics: Users can create configurable dashboards and custom reports that drill down into the relevant data. They can set up an editable chart of accounts with the built-in visual chart organizer, as well as create advanced reports that track funding sources against multiple fiscal periods. The software also supports an unlimited number of tracking metrics so users can run reports on any grant or project activity.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT integrates with the SKY Reporting business intelligence tool for further analytics. Users can perform advanced filtering on any metric, create at-a-glance dashboards for drilling down to source data and schedule reports to be sent by email.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT includes other modules, such as consolidation management (tracking financial data of multiple chapters or offices) and fixed asset (tracking buildings and equipment).
Target Market
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT targets nonprofits in a variety of sectors, such as foundations, healthcare, education and animal welfare. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below:
- Alpha Chi Omega
- American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation
- Cornell Cooperative Extension
- Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas
- Historical Society of Central Florida
- Lawndale Christian Health Center
- Save the Manatee Club
- Senior Resource Association
- Target ALS Foundation
- The Heritage School
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Implementation/Integration
Blackbaud’s general implementation process is broken down into four main phases: prepare, review, configure and wrap-up. The prepare phase consists of a kick-off call, where the agenda and timeline of the implementation are discussed and users are scheduled for product training. Clients receive a preconsultation survey to fill out.
In the review phase, Blackbaud and the client discuss any requirements and business processes, and how the system can be best configured to those processes. Specific functional areas are customized based on the client’s requirements, such as application hosting, system configuration, and the core and supporting functional modules.
The wrap-up phase officially wraps up the project with a conference call.
Customer Service & Support
Blackbaud provides several training options, not just on its solution but also for continuing education in the nonprofit sector. Those training options include on-site or remote personalized training, regional classroom training or instructor-led online courses. Users can also view on-demand videos.
Blackbaud offers subscription-based training services through Blackbaud Learn. Blackbaud Learn has three tiers: Basics, More and Everything. With the Basics tier, users learn the foundational elements of the solution via on-demand videos. The More tier includes online instructor-led training, a library of eLearning courses and product certification courses.
The Everything tier includes live regional classroom training and solution workshops, in addition to the features of the other two tiers.
Blackbaud provides users with several support options, such as a knowledge base of articles and videos, how-to documents and a community forum. Users can contact Blackbaud by phone, chat support or submitting a ticket.
Pricing
Blackbaud offers subscription pricing plans. However, it doesn’t publicly release pricing information. Please contact the vendor directly for a quote.
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Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is mainly intended for nonprofits, so for-profit companies can check out our other accounting software reviews.
Users at smaller non-profits have found the software to be expensive, since the cost increases annually. Also, users have reported that running queries can be difficult, especially if they don’t use the software often.
Screenshots
About
Blackbaud provides cloud software, services, expertise and data intelligence that empower organizations to drive impact for social good. They serve the entire social good community, which includes nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions, healthcare institutions and the individual change agents who support them. In addition to fund accounting solutions, Blackbaud markets various solutions for marketing, CRM, fundraising, merchant services and grantmaking, to name a few.
Blackbaud has received numerous accolades over the years, such as Forbes’ 2022 America’s Best Midsize Employers, Newsweek’s 2022 America’s Most Responsible Companies and Built In’s 2022 Best Places to Work.
Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, SC, and has offices in several regions of the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.
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