Acumatica vs. Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT

I'm so new to it. I mean it has a lot of capabilities. So I'm used to working with Infor products, so I'm used to large ERP systems and I haven't seen anything that makes me question Acumatica. It seems like I can customize anything and have the system to do what I need. So I mean that's one advantage point why we selected Acumatica is because it can be tailored to our business and to what we need and the way we want to do it

Incentivized

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is great for an independent/private school. It integrates well with enrollment and student information systems sold by Blackbaud. For example, you could send data from the student information system straight into the Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT. The caveat of course is that you would need to be using other Blackbaud products to leverage this integration. However, all Blackbaud products utilize open APIs so with a little programming, one can share data across many systems.

Incentivized

• Streamlines our processes and simplifies our systems. Previously, we had to manage two software systems to handle an order and get it out the door with proper shipping documentation. Now, we were able to deploy the shipping document creation inline with the sales order process and streamline our process. This allows us to save about $3K a year just on time savings alone (in creating shipping documentation). This was a nice win for us for this project.
• Financial Reporting is simplified and flexible for our needs. We are estimating a time savings of around $14.5K per year in time spent creating reports through manual manipulation. The reporting capabilities are much more flexible and allow for greater visibility than our previous ERP.

Incentivized

• Uploading and inputting information is easy due to a clear format and outline.
• Researching and finding past information is quick and easy to navigate due to searching and filtering options as well as the ability to name the files for quick searches.
• Pulling project titles and accounts - you can have a large amount of projects and accounts and are able to know them through the system without having to memorize each individual title.
• Being able to export a general ledger for an account to excel while still being formatted correctly.
• Having the ability to filter in what transactions are pulled in the general ledger. You are able to easily look at all the activity or only activity in a certain time frame or other specific filters.
• There is always access to help from Blackbaud services for any sort of difficulty.
• Learning and the ability to attend Blackbaud classes are readily and easily available so you can increase your knowledge and ability to serve well in your organizations' role.

Incentivized

• Manufacturing suite. You have all the time. So for the Manufacturing edition, you're able to have negative issues that are unlimited and are not balanced into a job that needs to be improved. The mobile app itself for warehouse picking and management sets the default item to one. This is not how most warehouses that I've ever worked at operate. Bomb hierarchy and respectful of child elements. These are nitty gritty elements, but these are kind of down-and-dirty items that need to improve. But overall it's pretty good.

Incentivized

• Takes some time to set-up for an organization and there is a learning curve
• Features & updates are constant due to the online cloud nature. An option to update certain features on demand would be nice or an option to delay.
• Certain credit card bank feeds are not currently compatible

Incentivized

We aren’t going to switch at this point! It’s a great system and we are looking forward to realizing the full potential of the system once we can find a VAR who has a bench that can support us.

Incentivized

BB seems to forcing changes on customers at a faster rate. This company needs stability because it is understaffed in accounting. There isn't time to drop everything and work up workarounds or even try to judge effects. There also isn't the time to find a replacement suite unless things get really bad.

Incentivized

Most "things" are intuitive which makes the software nice. A few other "things" make no sense and come from a programmers mind, not a users experience.

Incentivized

I don't have much to compare it to but if I speak of just the reporting options; sometimes there are so many options I spend more time finding the "perfect" report when a basic report with minimal columns is needed. But I know I can always add to the report if asked.

Incentivized

there have been some performance issues

Incentivized

We used Acumatica Support directly for the first year or so. Overall it's pretty good, but sometimes the support staff wasn't educated on the customizations we had, nor was I as the Customer as I couldn't remember which things were customized and which things were out of the box, so when there was an error, there were some misunderstandings.

Incentivized

No one is perfect, but this support team is as close as it gets. They respond promptly and if the person I'm talking to doesn't have the answer they find someone that does. They also provide documentation and/or resources to support their responses to my questions. The online chat is awesome and usually all I need

Incentivized

I'd say the partner selection is critically important. I think the software is very easy to implement. It's very customizable to your business. Finding a partner that will work with you to understand your business and your needs is the critical piece to make sure that the system goes along with it.

Incentivized

The implementation can be easy depending on how familiar you are with Blackbaud products. It is cloud based so there is not a need for IT involvement but you do need to know your business requirement.

Incentivized

Well, we decided to go with Acumatica and I believe it was a really good decision. The VAR was a big part of that as well because of their insights and knowledge, but I just felt Acumatica was the right fit for us in size and it had the capabilities we needed, but it also wasn't overkill.

Incentivized

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is far superior to CYMA. We used CYMA for over 20 years. It was tough to transition because Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT follows GAAP, while CYMA did not the way we had it set up. Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT has more robust fund tracking and allows us to create custom reports.

Incentivized

• Definitely positive because we're able to give data to the end users much quicker. Were they able to make more accurate and timely financial decisions and kind of know where they're at, and how much money do I have left to spend for the month? Things like that. And our CFO is able to utilize the data more quickly.

Incentivized

• The reporting features that include unposted entries and can be run on-demand to see a year to date budget comparison, have certainly made it easier to stay on task and within budget.
• We have been able to integrate some of the fundraising features into Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT; consolidating to one system for tracking all key financial parameters, has been invaluable.
• The budget partner (Zai?) is absolutely terrible and a huge waste of time and money; it does not integrate as advertised and is constantly "broken/down" on our end. It is not as advertised and honestly shouldn't be promoted by Blackbaud - it's that terrible.

Incentivized