We are currently on version 6.4 and considering upgrading Accounts Payable and General Ledger to the Financial Edge. For those of you who have already made the switch, was it an easy transition and what are the pros and cons of FE. In advance, thank you for your responses.

Carol, How easy/difficult your transition will be depends on several factors: Is your hardware up to spec? Are you changing your chart of accounts, or if not, does your existing chart fit the requirements of FE? Do you have a lot of consolidated reports or queries in 6.4? These are some of the big questions you should be prepared for. You may get quite a varied list of responses, from hearing that the conversion was a piece of cake, to hearing that if someone had to do it again they absolutely would not. If you carefully read through the conversion guidelines and are prepared, 'piece of cake' will be more like it. Otherwise, there's no telling! I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have!

From my experience, you might find the following helpful: If you are taking any training classes, you should be ready to immediately put that knowledge into use, preferable on a stand-alone test database. My major problem was our internal Information Systems department. They "dragged their feet" and it was more than a year after my training that I actually had a test database to work in. If you already have a good chart of accounts and AFN is working well for you, your conversion should be relatively seamless. Print out the report parameters on any reports and/or queries that you want to set up in The Financial Edge as they do not convert. I had some problems in the test database that have been fixed in later versions of Financial Edge. The conversion to Financial Edge using live data was very smooth due to working out all the "bugs" in a test environment. Use your test database to perform some of your customary functions, such as posting A/P, posting Raiser's Edge (if you use it,) entering and posting journal entries, etc. until you are comfortable with the way they function in FE. At a chosen month-end, load your AFN data into The Financial Edge installed on the stand-alone computer. After running the Pre-conversion utility on your AFN data, make any necessary changes or additions. Then convert your AFN data to The Financial Edge. Run parallel reports (for the exact same time periods) in your current system and the converted data on the stand-alone computer so you can compare data and see if there are any problems and how the reporting differs. I had a terrible time with the Visual Chart Organizer, which may have been due to the time lag between training and implementation. Turns out I was making the VCO much harder than it really is. Don't ever change the Default VCO - copy it for your own use and make the default VCO "inactive." Keep everything simple, at first. After you verify your actual data and have built basic reports, then you can start using filters to customize your reports. I hope this is helpful to you. You are welcome to e-mail me at [Email Removed] for more information. [i]--- Edited at 11/12/2003 12:44:13 PM by [Email Removed][/i]

From my experience, you might find the following helpful: If you are taking any training classes, you should be ready to immediately put that knowledge into use, preferable on a stand-alone test database. My major problem was our internal Information Systems department. They "dragged their feet" and it was more than a year after my training that I actually had a test database to work in. If you already have a good chart of accounts and AFN is working well for you, your conversion should be relatively seamless. Print out the report parameters on any reports and/or queries that you want to set up in The Financial Edge as they do not convert. I had some problems in the test database that have been fixed in later versions of Financial Edge. The conversion to Financial Edge using live data was very smooth due to working out all the "bugs" in a test environment. Use your test database to perform some of your customary functions, such as posting A/P, posting Raiser's Edge (if you use it,) entering and posting journal entries, etc. until you are comfortable with the way they function in FE. At a chosen month-end, load your AFN data into The Financial Edge installed on the stand-alone computer. After running the Pre-conversion utility on your AFN data, make any necessary changes or additions. Then convert your AFN data to The Financial Edge. Run parallel reports (for the exact same time periods) in your current system and the converted data on the stand-alone computer so you can compare data and see if there are any problems and how the reporting differs. I had a terrible time with the Visual Chart Organizer, which may have been due to the time lag between training and implementation. Turns out I was making the VCO much harder than it really is. Don't ever change the Default VCO - copy it for your own use and make the default VCO "inactive." Keep everything simple, at first. After you verify your actual data and have built basic reports, then you can start using filters to customize your reports. I hope this is helpful to you. You are welcome to e-mail me at [Email Removed] for more information. [i]--- Edited at 11/12/2003 12:43:17 PM by [Email Removed][/i]

Running a test upgrade on a stand alone computer ahead of time is a definite MUST. I agree with everything that Virginia said here. Our upgrade has been more difficult, I believe because of some quasi endowments we have set up in AFN. We are working to run parallel reports that agree by net asset class. The Visual Chart Organizer was intimidating at first, but after you get a handle on it, it's a simple concept. Training was great, but as Virginia said, implementation a year later makes the training pretty useless. Try to move ahead with your upgrade right after training. Test everything ahead of time, and make sure all your reports agree between AFN and FE7. Be sure to follow the instructions for preparing the database prior to the upgrade and call support for any questions you have. They are very helpful with the transition. Our upgrade has been a work-in-process for 7 months now, and we have not been able to implement it yet because the old system does not agree with the new system, but during this process I have learned so much about FE7, and we are anxious to move on! Susan Freel University of Alaska Foundation

I have a question regarding the TEST environment. We will be converting next spring. I am currently planning to attend training in February but am trying to make sure I have done everything I can in advance so that when I come back, I get right to the conversion. I have determined that our db is too large for the MSDE version that ships with FE so we have to buy SQL server. From reading these emails, I take it I need to install SQL server on a stand-alone computer for TEST. Are there any issues with this? Does anyone know what the specs of the PC need to be to support this? OR my other option is that I need to buy a new server to house SQL server. Can I use that to do all my testing while still running AFN on the old server? Does anyone have any experience with that. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

I just converted last week and had put the sequel server on a laptop without any problem. I should have spent more time with FE and the Raisers Edge interface before converting on the file server. I have been running into problems with my account numbers showing duplicates. I took the course and found it very helpful. However, I have come across things in the conversion that the instructor never told us to look out for. Other than that everything is working. I am still getting used to FE. Jeff Young CFO Diabetes Research Institute Foundation 1-800-321-3437