Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is cloud-based fund accounting software with enterprise resource planning (ERP) features specifically for nonprofits. It helps you track and report on your grant transactions, manage cash flow and expenses, and monitor your organization’s financial health. Our Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT review discusses its advanced multi-scenario budgeting, grant and project accounting, and real-time reporting.
For Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT pricing information, contact the provider. User reviews are positive, with emphasis on its fund accounting features, but some mention that the software has a steep learning curve.
We are driven by the Fit Small Business mission to provide you with the best answers to your small business questions—allowing you to choose the right accounting solution for your needs. Our meticulous evaluation process makes us a trustworthy source for accounting software insights. We don’t just scratch the surface; we immerse ourselves in every platform we review by exploring the features down to the finest nuances.
For our roundup of church accounting software, we created a special rubric that evaluates the features of our chosen providers, which gives our audience—churches and faith-based groups—an unbiased opinion about the software’s capabilities and fit for your organization.
Pros
- Integrates with all Blackbaud financial and fundraising programs
- Can track grant requirements
- Offers powerful budgeting with multiple scenarios
- Has unlimited tracking characteristics for more detailed reporting
Cons
- Has no upfront pricing
- Lacks donor management features
- Requires an additional fee for most modules
- Is too complicated for nonaccountants
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Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Alternatives & Comparisons
Monthly Pricing | Fund Accounting | Encumbrance Accounting | Member Management | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom priced | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
 | Starts at $79 | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
 | Starts at $90 for Plus plan | Mimic via class and location tracking | ✕ | ✕ |
 | Custom priced | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Best For | Learn More | |
|---|---|---|
| Simple nonprofit accounting: Aplos offers a more user-friendly approach to nonprofit accounting than Blackbaud. Aplos has a simple and intuitive interface that is easy to learn and not intimidating to first-time users. | |
| General accounting and bookkeeping: You can set up QuickBooks Online for nonprofits after modifying the chart of accounts, form titles, and entity type. Its general accounting functions can help nonprofits track accounts receivable (A/R), accounts payable (A/P), cash, revenues, and expenses. | |
| Procurement and purchases: NonProfit+ has a procurement module for inventory tracking and purchasing that Blackbaud lacks. These features are suitable if you’re a nonprofit that deals with inventory as part of your services. |
| Users Like | Users Dislike |
|---|---|
| Easy and flexible to use | Time-consuming report setup and generation |
| Beautiful web interface | Expensive rates |
| Excellent fund accounting | Steep learning curve |
Those who left a positive Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT review mentioned that they like Blackbaud’s fund and encumbrance accounting features. They said that it helped them monitor fund restrictions and create budgets for fund usage. However, some complained that the software has a steep learning curve.
We believe that there will be a steep learning curve with this software because it’s a sophisticated nonprofit ERP. However, the best way to reduce the learning curve is for nonprofits to get the training subscription for an additional cost (contact Blackbaud to get pricing information).
These are the platform’s ratings on third-party review websites:
- GetApp[1]: 4.2 out of 5 stars based on about 160 reviews
- G2.com[2]: 4.0 out of 5 stars based on around 70 reviews
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT vs Competitors
We compared Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT with top nonprofit accounting software Aplos and NonProfit+.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT vs Competitors FSB Case Study
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Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Custom Priced
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Aplos Starts at $79 per month
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NonProfit+ Custom Priced
In our Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT review, Aplos leads in pricing because it’s transparent with its fees. As much as possible, we’d like providers to publish rates to provide readers with immediate information for decision-making. However, we also understand if some would prefer to keep their prices customized depending on the user’s needs.
In terms of accounting features, it’s almost a tie among all three providers. Financial Edge NXT fell only a few points behind Aplos and NonProfit+ because some of its accounting features need third-party integration, which comes at an additional cost. In nonprofit features, Financial Edge NXT got a high score, though NonProfit+ took the lead because it has member management features that Financial Edge NXT lacks. However, we don’t see this as a major miss because Blackbaud promotes its product as a nonprofit ERP.
Overall, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is a competent software for nonprofits. It’s the perfect pick for users looking for a nonprofit ERP. However, smaller nonprofits may not fully utilize all of its features and are better off with Aplos.
The Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT pricing guide isn’t published on its website, but you can contact Blackbaud to request information or get a customized quote. Blackbaud’s score could’ve been higher if pricing were transparent, but we respect the provider’s preference for a custom pricing model. The cost of nonprofit accounting software typically depends on several factors, such as the size of your organization and the modules and features you need.
Financial Edge NXT’s accounting features are comprehensive and useful for complex nonprofit accounting. We gave it a high score because this software matches the needs of larger nonprofits and religious organizations.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Dashboard (Source: Blackbaud)
It has a flexible account and subaccount structure that lets you create and slice your reports based on various metrics. While the default account segment is the fund account code, you can create and drill into your reports based on other dimensions, such as program, event, or department. This means that you have total control over your financial reports as you can arrange your data based on how you need them.
Also, the GL is connected to all the other modules so that you can generate reports from different aspects of your organization.
Adding Journal Entries by Batch (Source: Blackbaud)
Through the General Ledger menu, you can access the journal. Here, you’ll find journal entries arranged by batch. Recording a journal entry is done by batch with an assigned batch ID. This system of recording journal entries allows better efficiency since you can add related or similar journal entries into one batch. Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT’s batch system borrows the concept of special journals to reduce the recording of repetitive journal entries.
Expense Management Screen (Source: Blackbaud)
The A/P module provides an easy way to manage liabilities, such as bills, loans, and mortgages. You can customize your A/P process for a wide variety of functions. For instance, you can control whether the program checks for duplicates automatically or should alert you of due invoices. For your bills, you can pay your vendors or providers directly with a credit or debit card, check, or electronic fund transfer (EFT).
You can use Financial Edge NXT’s interactive charts to view transaction information with a particular vendor. There are filters that you can turn on and off to see specific data points over time. Below the interactive chart is a list of records for a particular vendor. You can go over individual records instead of reviewing the charts.
Viewing Vendor Information and Payments (Source: Blackbaud)
You can set up default payment terms for your clients, allowing you to bill them for your goods or services. It lets you track individual organizations, clients, and funding sources.
You can also import clients, invoices, recurring invoices, product and billing items, payments, and refunds. You can even apply payments manually to invoices, void or reverse a posted payment, and exclude a specific invoice or invoices from your aged A/R report.
Creating an Invoice (Source: Blackbaud)
Financial Edge NXT brands itself as a nonprofit ERP, meaning that it didn’t disappoint in terms of nonprofit features. We included member management as a subcriteria in our evaluation, and even if Financial Edge NXT lacks that, it still got a high score in overall nonprofit features.
You can track and report on both simple and complex grant requirements. The program includes additional tracking levels so that you can separately monitor activities for each grant.
You can also generate detailed reports about a grant and track and forecast budgets across multiple grant periods. If your organization has complicated grant reimbursements, Financial Edge NXT has built-in grant spending rules that enable you to make reimbursement calculations automatically.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT includes approval workflows to automate your entire purchasing and expense management cycle, from setting up unique business rules to entering purchase orders (POs) and creating invoices. You can also change an invoice status or approve an invoice and perform direct and indirect allocations so that you can attribute revenue and expenses properly to your projects, accounts, or funds.
This built-in budget-checking feature allows you to compare the performance of your actual revenue and expenditures against your budget. If you want to track your future expenses, the budget-checking feature also supports forecasting and customizable fiscal periods.
What’s more, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT allows unlimited budget scenarios. You can create annual, grant, department, program, project, or hypothetical budgets. You can also roll over certain budgets into a parent budget, such as department budgets to operating budgets.
Users with approver roles can view approval requests in the expense management module. As fund management software, Financial Edge NXT helps companies manage funds efficiently by providing features that complement standard internal controls. Approvers can review and reject charges and rejected invoices or bills can be resubmitted for approval.
This optional consolidation management module is ideal for users who manage multiple organizations or those that deal with different currencies and account structures. The solution allows you to consolidate your data while maintaining separate books for operational and tax purposes. You can consolidate reports without having to export and merge data manually using spreadsheet software.
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT has configurable dashboards and custom reports that let you view critical information about your organization. They also enable you to drill down to see the most important information and which of your transactions are generating the most results.
You can even populate your dashboards with the records and reports that you frequently access. Some reports available include account reports, allocation reports, budget reports, and financial statements, such as balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and statement of activities.
Setting Filters in Reporting (Source: Blackbaud)
Grant reports, such as grant reimbursements and budget vs actual reports, are also available. For further analytics, Blackbaud integrates with SKY Reporting, Blackbaud’s modern open interface. When you open the Reporting tab, the first thing you’ll notice is the list of reports, with tabs displaying all the reports, the recently run reports, frequently run reports, and reports that are marked as favorites.
While Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT has a user-friendly interface, it can be overwhelming for new users or non-bookkeepers. It also doesn’t offer assisted bookkeeping services for nonprofits that prefer outsourcing bookkeeping to third-party bookkeepers. These are two reasons why Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT didn’t receive a high ease of use score.
Users can contact Blackbaud via phone, chat support, or a ticket through its online case portal (Case Central). You can also check out its online knowledge base of articles and videos, how-to documents, and community forum. If you need continuing education in the nonprofit industry, you can enroll in any of the training courses offered by Blackbaud.
How We Evaluated Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT
As part of our roundup of the best nonprofit accounting software, we evaluated Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT based on the following criteria:
10% of Overall Score
Accounting software programs for nonprofits come at different price points. That’s why we considered giving price a significant weight to give more credit to account software programs that deliver great nonprofit accounting features at an affordable price.
20% of Overall Score
- Online payments
- Payroll
- Double-entry accounting
- A/P and A/R management
- Mobile app functionality
20% of Overall Score
- Fund accounting
- Grant management
- Donation tracking and management
- Budget management
- Volunteer management
20% of Overall Score
20% of Overall Score
10% of Overall Score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, but not in the Financial Edge NXT program, which specializes in accounting. Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT is a constituent relationship management (CRM) system catered to nonprofits, and it includes member tracking.
No, there’s a steep learning curve in using this software. In our evaluation of Financial Edge NXT, we concluded that it requires a lot of learning time before fully understanding how the features work.
Bottom Line
If you need a nonprofit accounting solution that can generate transaction reports at a very detailed level, consider Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT. It’s great at helping nonprofits manage their cash flow, plan and run their budgets, and track their organization’s position with robust reporting tools. On top of its standard features, it offers an extensive selection of integrated modules, such as budget management and consolidation management, making it worth your investment.
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