The Financial Post

Estimated read time: 4 minutes 30 seconds

Hello and welcome to the very first issue of The Financial Post!

On the first Thursday of every month, we'll be bringing you the latest Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® news on everything from current projects and initiatives to release information and much more!

In This Issue

This month's post features these topics:

• Spotlight: SKY UX® Update
• Simplified Login Process
• End of Support for Payroll 7
• Accounts Receivable Customer Tech Preview
• Other resources to help you stay in the know
• Ways you can share your feedback with us

Spotlight: SKY UX Update

This year, one of our top priorities is to continue updating and modernizing Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT. To do this, we've been working behind the scenes to update to the latest version of SKY UX—the underlying framework that allows us to deliver a more cohesive user experience across many of our products.

This critical effort keeps us current with the latest security and software development standards and allows us to deliver usability improvements to customers like you.

We've completed updates to Reporting as well as Fields and Tables. And last month, we released updates to General Ledger settings, Chart Organizer, and post subledgers. Although these updates should not disrupt your current processes, you will likely notice slight changes in navigation or how information appears on a record.

For example, we updated all the toolbar actions with new labels to make them easier to locate. Here is the new toolbar in Chart organizer.

We're releasing these updates to customers in waves, so look for them in an upcoming wave if you haven't seen them yet. You can learn more about these recent enhancements by checking out What's Recent.

Why Waved Rollouts?

These waved rollouts enable us to:

• Use feedback and analytics to gauge the impact of these updates on our user base
• Adjust features in real-time as any issues arise without affecting all organizations
• Continue to release to organizations in additional waves as confidence builds

We will continue to roll out these enhancements throughout the year and keep you updated on what those changes are and when they are coming. The next capabilities we plan to release as part of this effort are:

• GL Budgets
• Treasury Credit Cards
• Accounts Payable

Tech Talk: Login Process Made Easier

We have great news for those of you who are hosted in a data center (not Azure) or managing login credentials in the database view. To simplify your login process, you will no longer enter Citrix credentials when you access database view.

Once released, you'll be able to use your Blackbaud ID (BBID) to open the database view. We've already released the first wave of this new feature to 200 customers, and the next wave will happen later this month!

This new process will streamline your experience, eliminating the need for a separate Citrix password. For more information and details, check out this blog.

End of Support for Payroll 7

As a reminder, Blackbaud is ending support for Payroll 7 on July 31, 2021. After this date, there will be no additional maintenance or support for Payroll, and your payroll data will no longer be available.

Many customers have already successfully transitioned their Payroll to Paycor and PrimePay, two Blackbaud partners known for delivering modern and intuitive recruiting, Payroll, and HR solutions. If you have not already done so, we recommend you immediately engage with Paycor, PrimePay, or another third-party provider to ensure the most successful migration and onboarding experience. 

We've developed resources to help with your transition. To ensure you have your data before July 31, review these best practices with Payroll 7 data as you convert to another solution.

Check out this article to learn more: What are the plans for Payroll in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT and Financial Edge 7?

Accounts Receivable Customer Tech Preview

We're excited to introduce Customer Tech Previews (CTPs)—a new way that we'll be tapping into invaluable customer feedback to enrich the development of Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT capabilities.

During each CTP, our product management team will engage a select group of customers to test a feature and share their insights. This feedback will allow us to learn and iterate to ensure that the capabilities we're building will meet the needs of our customers.

We'll be kicking things off with Accounts Receivable in July, so stay tuned to find out what we learn!

Stay In the Know

Thirsty for more Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT knowledge? Here are some of the best ways to learn more about what's coming:

• Community Announcements. The Community is a great way to stay informed. Subscribe to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT Community Announcements by clicking on the "Subscribe" link at the top of this blog. You can then select how often you want update notifications.
• Release Updates. Check out What's Recent, What's New, and What's Next to get all the details on prior, current, and future releases. To help keep you up to date on the most recent developments, What's New automatically opens when you log in to the web view.
• In-Product Help. Help documentation throughout Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is context-sensitive. So, no matter where you are in the solution, you can click the bright green question mark at the top right of your screen to get help for that feature.

Tell Us What You Think!

Thanks so much for checking out this month's Financial Post. You've heard from us on the latest Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT updates, and now we want to hear from you!

• Want to share your excitement about this month's update or a suggestion for next month's post? Let us know in the comment section below.
• Have a great idea on how to make Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT even better? Stop by the Idea Bank to submit a suggestion.

We hope you'll stop by to check out next month's issue!