Duplicates: Better To Prevent Than To Clean Up

In my last blog, over in the Financial Edge Tips and Tricks area, I talked about keeping data clean. I typically include a tip or a trick but I forgot to do so in that posting (my apologies!). So, in this blog, for those of you using Financial Edge NXT I thought I’d toss out a few ideas related to keeping data clean.

If you’ve taken any Blackbaud University classes, you’ve probably heard the facilitator frequently mention searching before adding new records. Why do we so often mention search first? Let me give you an idea why.

A little-known fact about me is that my career with Blackbaud started in Customer Support. One of the most common issues we would encounter was some form of inaccuracy due to record duplication. While you can set duplicate criteria in Configuration in database view, the system is only as strong as that duplicate criteria you set. So, to add a layer of data health proactively, we recommend searching prior to new-record entry. I wish I had a dollar for every time I helped a customer identify a duplicate project, vendor, client, or invoice—all of which could have been avoided by a simple search prior to entry.

Financial Edge NXT has a great search feature in each list. The search is smart, which means you only need to enter partial search criteria, and Financial Edge NXT will match your search with any records in the database that are close to what you enter. 



Also, in most lists, you can configure which columns appear. While you might wonder why this is important, let’s use the above screenshot to explain.

Let’s imagine that, based on a note my boss left me before going on vacation, I think I need to add a new vendor. I don’t have any details about the vendor except that my boss called them to set up a teambuilding training. The piece of paper I am looking at looks like this:



When I search Financial Edge NXT, I can enter Career and click the search magnifying glass. Since I only have a phone number as good information on this vendor, seeing the phone number in my search results is super-helpful. If I did not have a phone number, but knew the street address, or even something such as whether the vendor is a 1099 vendor, I could make sure that the columns I see in my list give me the information I need to make an educated decision on whether this vendor already exists in my database. 

How can you configure which columns you see in a list? Click the Columns icon  and select which columns are helpful for you. 

All these tools are important for ensuring you are not creating multiple records for the same vendor, invoice, or any record in Financial Edge NXT. It’s so much easier to prevent a duplicate than to have to clean up duplicates.

If you’re interested in learning more about adding new data to Payables in Financial Edge NXT, the Blackbaud University eLearning course Financial Edge NXT: Basics of Payables Data Entry is freshly updated with the most current information available and lots of valuable tips. All Financial Edge NXT subscribers have access to Blackbaud University eLearning, which is available 24 hours a day for your convenience.

How does your organization prevent duplicate record entry? Comment below, or start a conversation in Discussions.