Blackbaud, Inc. — The Financial Edge

The
Financial Edge, from Blackbaud, Inc. is a sophisticated, easy-to-use financial
product designed primarily for mid-sized to large nonprofit organizations. More
than a nonprofit accounting product, The Financial Edge provides organizations
with financial insight while streamlining daily activities.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS:
The Financial Edge is available as an installed product or as a hosted version
for complete system access from any location. The Financial Edge maintains an
easily navigated user interface with a drop-down menu at the top of the screen,
along with module choices. Clicking on a module will update the core interface
screen along with the system function menu to the left of the screen. Each module
provides a workflow area that houses the major functions found within that module.
Users also have the option to create and customize a homepage that is available
for all system modules. Data-entry screens are well laid out with drop-down
menus and lookup options available throughout. Various tabs enable users to
enter extensive data from a single screen.

The Financial Edge offers a wide range of modules, including GL, AP, AR, Allocation
Management, Payroll, Point of Sale, Fixed Assets, Cash Receipts, Cash Management,
Student Billing, Purchase Orders, Project, Grant and Endowment Management, Budget
Management, Advanced Budget Management, Advanced Security, and eRequisitions.
The Financial Edge also integrates with The Raiser’s Edge, a fundraising
module that is widely utilized in the nonprofit world.

With the introduction of The Financial Edge for Small Offices, Blackbaud now
has a product that can easily be found in nonprofit organizations and government
entities of any size. Modular in structure, even larger organizations can scale
up to the product level that suits their needs.

CORE NFP/FUND ACCOUNTING CAPABILITIES:
The Financial Edge offers a flexible account structure that is user-defined
from beginning to end, with the ability to create or edit segment lengths or
add additional segments as needed. While handling all accounting functions,
The Financial Edge also manages requisitions, processes vendor invoices, records
incoming cash receipts, and handles any internal check requests either manually
or via a web portal, which ensures timely processing.

The Financial Edge provides excellent budget management capability, including
at the project-level. The optional Advanced Budget Management module provides
more in-depth budgeting solutions for areas such as payroll and employee expense
management. Budgets can be created using standard data or user-defined information
to ensure accuracy. The Raiser’s Edge provides an excellent donor management
system, where users can easily track donations, monitor donor prospects, and
track donor performance for past giving as well as projected future giving.
The optional Project, Grant & Endowment Management module provides users
with an additional level of tracking for each activity, project, endowment or
grant. All fund accounts maintained in The Financial Edge are self-balancing.
Users can choose to balance funds by class, project or segment/transaction code.

The Financial Edge also allows for multiple fiscal years with each project
or grant, allowing easy cross-year reporting for each entity maintained in the
system. An excellent audit trail exists throughout, providing easy access to
vital information such as system transactions, including date and time and user
data. The product offers a wide selection of e-features, including the ability
to email invoices directly to vendors. Add-on modules such as WebInvoicing and
WebPurchasing enable users to create invoices and purchase orders from remote
locations.

MANAGEMENT FEATURES:
The Financial Edge users can create an unlimited number of dashboards based
on information derived from any available panel of information. All dashboards
contain drill-down capability for easy information access. The Financial Edge
offers what-if analysis, so users can view various scenarios and choose the
one most viable for their organization. Security is multi-level, with the ability
to set security levels for projects, accounts and queries, along with standard
security options such as module and function level settings. The Budget Control
feature can be set to warn or never allow, which will check existing budget
levels for overages and will warn users accordingly. The Financial Edge also
provides users with excellent collection tools, and the add-on Paper Save module
allows for the management of source documents electronically. Fundraising is
easy with The Raiser’s Edge, which integrates with The Financial Edge
for complete donor and financial management.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS & REPORTING:
All system reports can be easily customized to suit user needs. Optional products
such as F9 provide additional spreadsheet report customization capability. The
Financial Edge also produces required financial reports such as FASB 117 and
GASB 34. Grant and endowment reporting is available through the Project, Grant
and Endowment Management module. All reports can be exported to a variety of
formats including Excel, HTML, Crystal Reports, ODBC, RTF, Word or XML.

INTEGRATION/IMPORT/EXPORT:
The Application Programming Interface (API) makes it easy to integrate with
third-party products. Common file formats used for data import and export include
HTML, Excel, Word and XML. Blackbaud also offers a variety of products that
are all designed to integrate with its core product to provide a complete nonprofit
solution. Users can provide their accountants with a password to access system
functions.

HELP/SUPPORT:
The Financial Edge offers an excellent Help function for each system module.
System updates are available on the vendor’s website and can be downloaded
when desired. Blackbaud’s website contains an outstanding selection of
information, including user guides, FAQs, a product Knowledgebase, and a selection
of training options. The Blackbaud Advantage support plans offer varying levels
of support based on organizational needs.

SUMMARY & PRICING
The Financial Edge for Small Offices starts at an affordable $2,995, and is
suitable for up to three users. Standard modules begin at $2,000 each. The Financial
Edge is just a small portion of the financial, fundraising and donation management
products offered by Blackbaud. This very comprehensive system is an ideal fit
for larger nonprofits that require a high level of accountability and analysis.

2010 Overall Rating: