WE are preparing to install the update from Financial Edge 7.1 to Financial Edge 7.2, and are interested in knowing what pot holes to anticipate in the process from any who have already gone down this road. What was your experience like? Did you have to send your data base file to Blackbaud for them to convert? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I am also very interested in getting everyone's input on this process. Specifically, I would also like to know what operating system you are using for the server and workstations, how large is your database, and how many users do you have. We have only 4 users, with Windows 2000 Pro on the workstations. I have NT Server with a database of less than 300mb. (We have only been on BlackBaud since 07/01/03) As support for NT is ending, we are being forced to upgrade the server before going to 7.2.

Regarding database conversion issues, if you print out and follow closely the conversion guide produced by Blackbaud you should have any problems. I can't remember if this is in the conversion guide or not, but especially if you are using the AR module, be sure you have reconciled your Open AR report to your GL before you convert. And make sure you have printed out a detail of the open AR. During the conversion pay attention to your log files. ONe problem we experienced is that some of our older invoices from version 6 had very long invoice numbers - I want to say more than 15 or so - we were using our state's internal numbers - version 7.2 didn't like these, ...I can't remember exactly what happened, but it was resolved pretty quickly. Regarding what type of server to use, you would certainly be very safe for a while on a windows 2000 server. Personally W2003 has not been out long enough for me to feel comfortable endorsing it (not that I"m an expert, but we all have some experience). Good luck!

sorry, a typo...if you print out and follow the BB conversion guide you should NOT have any problems. I left out the 'NOT.' It's friday!!

We just finished going production with the Upgrade from 7.1 to 7.2. I was moving to a different server so that allowed me to actually to set it up and test it before going production with it. We have about 15 users and our database runs just over 1GB. Server is Windows 2003 with SQL 2000 This was a very simple and straight forward upgrade for the most part. The only two things I ran in to were: 1. Had to install ASA on my new server in order to do the conversion. This required calling BB for the password to install it. Once I found out that I had to do this it only took a few minutes and is a very simple process. 2. We ran in to issues with installing the client on Citrix (v1.8 running on NT4 terminal server) which is not supported by BB. But after a very long night we got it working In short it was simple, well documented and for as small a set up as you have I would think it would go without a hitch for you.