Hello! We are currently running Accounting for Non-Profits (AP, GL, Cash Receipts, and Student Billing) and are considering the move over to Financial Edge. I’d be interested in hearing how the conversion process went and what benefits (or detriments) you received from the upgrade. This would apply to any of the components. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

We are also preparing to convert from AFN 6 to the financial edge. We have the basic accounting package plus projects and grants. Although we converted to Blackbaud on our own, we are considering using Blackbaud consultants to help us this time. We would be interested in hearing how the conversion process went for anyone else and if anyone used Blackbaud and would share that experience. I'm hoping most of the bugs are out of the program and things are pretty smooth now...

Our conversion from AFN to FE was fairly traumatic, although it was three years ago. My recommendations would be to make sure you agree on a maximum dollar amount for the project, regardless of how many hours overbudget your consultant goes. We had a signed contract and then they tried to bill us for tons of extra hours. Also, make sure you get assigned a consultant who is in the same time zone as you. We are in Florida and got assigned a consultant in California. The three hour time difference made the project extremely difficult. If you have a Blackbaud Business Partner/Consulting Firm in your area, it might be best to use them instead of Blackbaud. If I had to do it again, I would definitely go that route.

I am also interested in hearing from anyone who has converted from AFN to FE that is using A/R and requires projects on balance sheet. I used to work for a Blackbaud Certified Service provider and I was the consultant who set up my current employers system. Two years ago I did a standalone test conversion to FE on a laptop and because of the problems we had in not being able to duplicate reports that filtered on projects we still have not converted. I would definitely recommend a standalone test. It forced me to wade through the setup of reports. If it had worked properly it would have saved us considerable time in getting back up and running because I would have a blueprint for my VCO setup. We are also heavy users of A/R and A/R was not even available when I did the test. We have had so many issues in AFN with A/R and use a number of work arounds because we require projects on balance sheets and have A/R in multiple funds. Is anyone else doing this? We would like to convert because of enhanced features in FE but I don't want to do it until the bugs are worked out with A/R. Cindy Winslow The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut

We converted in June 2005. It went very smooth. Of course, I read the planning guide cover-to-cover, developed a list of things to do, did everything it recommended, had great IT support, did two test conversions on a stand-alone, and had a local certified BB service provider here to hold our hands in case of problems. Basically, after one minor confusion at the server (which didn't happen on the tests) all he did was train us afterward. He also help us set up our RE/FE interface which we did right afterward. But Student Billing was not available yet so we've not converted that yet. A staff person went to training this week and I'm very concerned about some of the new functionality. The release is so new, I can't get proper answers to my questions from tech support. That said -- we ALWAYS wait until after the bugs have been worked out of any release before upgrading. My theory is -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. No matter how good the new features are, you always loose functionality you weren't expecting to loose. Good luck to all who are considering the conversion. My best advice is PLAN, PLAN, PLAN.

In case anyone is still interested (since this posting is so old), we finally achieved a successful upgrade to V7.5 in September 2005. We had been working on this for 3 years, and actually did 3 test conversions prior to the final conversion. The first test upgrade was done on a laptop. We subsequently purchased a new server, and the old server became the 'test server'. We ended up making huge changes to our account structure. We do have the projects/grants/endowments module, as well as A/P. I read the manual prior to conversion and made many calls to Blackbaud with various questions. My best advice to you is to have as many test conversions as it takes until you are satisfied that the real conversion will be successful. Otherwise you will be looking at down time and extra stress. Training was helpful, but attending the October conference was really a bonus for me since we had just upgraded. This is a complex upgrade, but the new features are wonderful. We also had great tech support working with us, which was an integral part of the process.