Make it Feel Like Home: The FE Home Page

Jennifer Maroney — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:56:00 GMT

Do you run the same saved reports and queries daily, weekly, or monthly? Save yourself time by adding links to them on your Home page. This simple process will help streamline your regular tasks by accessing common FE reports and queries, websites, or non-Blackbaud products, such as Word or Excel, from one location. Remember, these settings follow your user name, so you don't have to worry about resetting them, or doing more work , if you switch workstations.

The first thing you want to do is set FE to start on the Home page. To configure this, select Tools, Options from the menu bar, select the General tab, and then select Home from the Start on this page drop-down list.

If you have several items for a given task, such as the reports, spreadsheets, and queries needed for reconciliation, create a folder to keep organized. To add a new folder to the Home page, follow these steps:

Select Favorites, Organize favorites from the menu bar.
Highlight the appropriate home page and click New Folder.
Enter the name of the new folder and click OK.

Ok, now that you have set FE to open on the Home page of your choice and created any necessary folders, it's time to create the links.

For links to FE reports or queries:

Open the report or query and select Favorites, Add to Favorites from the menu bar.
Enter a name and description.
In the Create in field, select the modules name, such as Accounts Receivable, for the link to display on the Home page or the folder listed below the module name to add the link to the folder on the Home page.
Click OK.

For links to non-Blackbaud products or website:

Drag the saved file into the FE shell. You will see the document open and display within the shell.
Note: To create a shortcut to a Web page, right-click the desktop, and select New, Shortcut. Paste the entire URL in the location box and click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut and click Finish. Drag the shortcut on the desktop into the FE Shell.
Select Favorites, Add Page to Favorites from the menu bar.
Enter a name and description.
In the Create in field, select the modules name, such as Accounts Receivable, for the link to display on the Home page or the folder listed below the module name to add the link to the folder on the Home page.
Click OK.

Make sure you also add links to our online resources for quick reference.

Knowledgebase: http://kb.blackbaud.com
FAQs: http://www.blackbaud.com/support/faqs/fe7.aspx
User Guides: http://www.blackbaud.com/support/guides/fe.aspx
Newsletter back issues: http://www.blackbaud.com/support/newsletters/supnewsletters.aspx
The Financial Edge Forums: http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/4.aspx
The Ledger blog: http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/financialedge/default.aspx

Stay tuned for more helpful hints to make The Financial Edge feel more like... home.

Talk to you soon!

Make it Feel Like Home: Easy Access to Reports

Mallory Gilbert — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:47:00 GMT

Do you find yourself frequently running the same saved reports, such as Financial Statements or the Open Invoice Report? Did you know you can save time by adding a shortcut to saved reports on your Navigation Bar for quick access? Well, you can, and it’s easy to do!

First, set up a shortcut folder on the Navigation Bar. To do this, simply click Favorites, Organize Favorites from the FE menu bar. Highlight the Navigation Bar folder and click "New Folder." Once you've entered a folder name, click OK.

Now your folder is created, so let's add those reports. From any saved report parameter, click Favorites, Add to Favorites from the menu bar. Once you've given the report a name, choose the folder you just created in the "Create in" drop down menu and click OK.

You can now easily access the report by clicking the shortcut folder. It’s that easy! Here’s an added bonus; these reports cross modules. Create a shortcut to the Open Invoice Report, for example, and you can access it from the General Ledger!

The Ledger : favorites

Make it Feel Like Home: The FE Home Page

Make it Feel Like Home: Easy Access to Reports