Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT vs. Clearbooks

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

Larger companies, multi-currency. Clearbooks is in a competitive environment with Xero, SageOne, FreeAgent, Intuit etc., etc.

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

• SaaS, so accessible by anyone, anywhere in the world via a browser
• Clear and straight forward navigation
• Good choice of management reports

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

• Like any SaaS product, Clearbooks is continuously evolving and being improved
• Some of the reports still need some work

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

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

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

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

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

Clearbooks was chosen 5 years ago as our accountant recommended it. There is an element of inertia in moving accounts packages.

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

• I am not sure that ROI is an appropriate measure for an accounts package. The cost is around £250/year, which is a tiny fraction of the cost of a bookkeeper/finance controller/finance director/CFO.

Incentivized