Blackbaud News : The Financial Edge

The CPA Technology Advisor Reviews The Financial Edge

Melanie Mathos — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:46:00 GMT

Blackbaud — The Financial Edge

From CPA Technology Magazine's Nov. 2009 Review of Not-for-Profit Accounting Programs.

The Financial Edge from Blackbaud is primarily designed for mid-sized to large nonprofit organizations that require transparency and accountability in their actions. However, the vendor has just recently released a small business version (see below). The Financial Edge is a powerful system hidden behind a deceptively simple user interface.

EASE OF USE/FLEXIBILITY-
Often, navigational ease is tied to program strength, with the rule being that the more powerful a product, the higher the level of difficulty encountered during use. Not so with The Financial Edge from Blackbaud. The main user interface is easily navigated, with little to no screen clutter. A drop-down menu at the top of the screen provides system function access, while product module access is found in the vertical menu to the left. The homepage can be easily customized, such as by adding features and functions used on a daily basis. Navigational arrows will take you back and forth between screens, with the name of the organization and the current module displayed immediately to the right.

The Financial Edge Dashboard allows users to monitor all activities and tasks. New panes can also be created to display on the dashboard, providing additional information such as graphs and charts or other critical data. Links to frequently used web pages can be easily created, and the Automatic Account Creation function simplifies the entering of account information.

MODULES/SCALABILITY-
Modules available in The Financial Edge include GL, Accounting Form, AP, Accounting Queue, AR, Advanced Budget Management, Advanced Security, Allocation Management, Budget Management, Cash Management, Cash Receipts, Consolidation Management, Electronic Funds Transfer, F9 reporting, Fixed Assets, PaperSave, Payroll, Point of Sale, Project, Grant and endowment Management, Visual Basic for Applications, Application Programming Interface, Student Billing, School Store Manager, WebPortal featuring WebPurchasing and WebInvoicing, along with integration to The Raiser’s Edge.

Smaller nonprofits will be interested to know that the vendor just introduced The Financial Edge for Small Offices. Designed for one to three users through a license or subscription/hosted model, The Financial Edge for Small Offices bundles six common modules together (GL; AP; Miscellaneous Cash Receipts; Project, Grant and Endowment Management; Budget Management; and Cash Management). The availability of this product makes The Financial Edge a truly scalable product from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Read the full review.

Press Release: The Financial Edge WebPortal Takes Accounting Processes Online

Melissa Dodge — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:57:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (May 5, 2009) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced the availability of WebPortal™ for The Financial Edge™, which provides nonprofits an online window into spending and removes time and resource-consuming, manual, paper-based processes by automatically ensuring their organizations’ spending policies are applied and enforced.

Read the full press release.

Vote for Blackbaud as the #1 Financial Solution for Nonprofits

Melissa Dodge — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:37:00 GMT

Have Blackbaud’s financial solutions helped your nonprofit address accounting, analytical or financial reporting needs?

CPA Technology Advisor’s third annual Readers’ Choice Awards features more than 25 categories of professional applications, hardware, services and other technologies, and provides those in related professions a way to express appreciation for the systems that help them in their practice. This year, Blackbaud is featured in the Not-For-Profit Accounting category.

Take the survey and cast your vote for Blackbaud. The deadline is Tuesday, November 17, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. ET. While only one vote can be cast per computer, anyone can vote.

Results will be released in the January/March 2009 issue.

Press Release: The Field Museum Selects Blackbaud's Arts and Cultural Solution

Melanie Mathos — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:17:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (August 11, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced today that The Field Museum will use The Patron Edge® for ticketing and The Financial Edge™ for financial management.

The Field Museum, located in Chicago, is regarded as one the finest natural history museums in the world and attracts more than 1.3 million visitors annually. When the Museum was faced with a costly and resource-consuming conversion with its legacy system, staff decided to research other solutions. “What we found in Blackbaud was a responsive, dedicated team and are confident that they will be a sustainable partner,” said J.W. Croft, The Field Museum’s executive vice president.

Press Release: Nation's Largest Community Foundation Partners with Blackbaud

Melanie Mathos — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:36:00 GMT

Tulsa Community Foundation will use Blackbaud solutions to manage 650 funds and more than $3 billion in assets

Charleston, S.C. (June 9, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) announced today that Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) has entered into the first phase of a long-term partnership with the company. The Foundation selected a combination of software and services from Blackbaud including The Raiser’s Edge^® Enterprise (for constituent management) and The Financial Edge^™ (for financial management) with a longer term vision of incorporating Blackbaud NetCommunity.

Read the full press release here.