The Ledger : make it feel like home

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!

Make it Feel Like Home: Require or Hide Fields

Jennifer Maroney — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:49:00 GMT

In my last Make it Feel Like Home post, I talked about changing the display name of fields to match the language of your organization. Well, I thought the ability to require or hide fields would be a good follow up. Making a field required ensures the field contains the appropriate information before the record can be saved. On the other hand, if there are fields which you don't want to be used, you can remove the field from the record. Requiring or hiding a field increases the accuracy and consistency of data entry.

Here are some examples of fields you can hide or require (not all fields can be hidden or made required):

General Ledger: Project start date or grant type
Accounts Payable: Invoice number or purchase order Department
Accounts Receivable: Invoice date or recurring invoice service provider
Fixed Assets: Asset ID or asset location
Payroll: Department ID or nickname

As with changing field names, you cannot hide or require all fields in FE. The easiest way to determine if the options are available is to follow the steps below. If the checkbox is available, you're good to go. Here are the steps:

Log in as Supervisor or as a user with supervisor rights.
In Configuration, click Fields.
Highlight the appropriate record type.
To make a field required, mark the checkbox in the Required column.
To hide a field, mark the checkbox in the Hidden column.

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

Talk to you soon!

Make it Feel Like Home: Change Field Names

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:11:00 GMT

What's in a field name? That which we call department by any other name would still report the same. OK, so I am not Shakespeare. If you are tired of continually translating field names on reports and records for coworkers because the names do not match your org's terminology, I have the thing for you...simply change the field name. So it is not that simple since you can't rename all fields, but there are several you can, which can make your life easier. The simplest way to know if the name can be changed is to follow the steps below; if the Display as field is yellowed out, you can't change the name.

Follow these steps to change the field name or check if the name can be changed:

In Configuration, click Fields.
Highlight the record type.
Locate the field name to change.
In the Display As column, enter the new name for the field.
Note: The new name can't be more characters than the original name. If it is, the new field name will be cut off on records and reports.

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

Talk to you soon!

Make it Feel Like Home: Options and Preferences

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:24:00 GMT

Would you like The Financial Edge to work more for you as a user? You can define options and preferences to customize the look of screens and establish a wide variety of default values. These settings not only make your workday easier but more efficient. But wait, there's more...your options follow your user name, so you don't have to worry about resetting them, or doing more work , if you switch workstations.

Do you only work in Accounts Payable, Payroll, or one of the other modules? Regardless of what you do, you can save yourself time by opening FE in your module of choice. Here's how:

Select Tools, Options from the menu bar.
Select the General tab.
Select the module from the Start The Financial Edge drop-down menu.
Select the page from the Start on this page drop-down menu.

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

Talk to you soon!