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Total Web Solution Timing

Jeff Trzaska

I received this email from BB today:

"We will start moving database view features completely to webview with an initial focus on features utilized periodically that are less impactful to your day-to-day. We will deliver these updates progressively in parallel with new capabilities.

Legacy capabilities will transition to read-only or be removed for features you’re already accustomed to in the webview, along with new additions as they’re developed. We will keep you informed of larger impact changes via email but for most features, we’ll be notifying you via in-product communications. "

Does anyone know the timing of when they are going to start taking away DB view. The October BBCON video says they'll start with Cash Receipts. Any idea when?

Do they plan on allowing income statement reports to show the criteria when they are run?

Report criteria in DB view can be edited more quickly and easily. Do they plan on fixing that in the webview first?

I'm not against change, but it should be an improvement, not just a change for change's sake.

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Comments

Dana Flanery

@Jeff Trzaska

I agree. I am concerned about the Total Web Solution because even as a new FENXT client, I do so many things in DB view because it just works better. I reconcile my bank accounts in the database because the match and clear web function is junk. I don't know what I will do if I can't reconcile in DB view. Not to mention anytime you contact support, they direct you to DB view to fix things.

Heather Johnson

@Jeff Trzaska

Thanks for your post, Jeff. We plan to start with infrequently used capabilities, such as Administration and Configuration tasks, later this month. The Cash Receipts Early Adopter Program will begin in March. Rest assured, we'll be with you every step of this journey on making improvements rooted in greater efficiency, accountability, and better data driven decisions for your organization. Please contribute or vote in our Idea Bank and sign up to participate in product discovery for direct input into new development.

The Community is a great way to stay informed about all things Financial Edge NXT. Subscribe by clicking on the ‘Subscribe” link at the top right of the Financial Edge NXT Announcements page within the Financial Edge NXT Community. On the first Thursday of every month, you’ll get the latest Financial Edge NXT news on everything from current projects and initiatives to release information and much more with The Financial Post! We will continue to hold a new PUB twice annually, so look forward to receiving communication to register for the next Financial Edge NXT PUB in the coming weeks!

Heather Johnson
Senior Manager, Product Management

Karen McCart

@Heather Johnson I have concerned like Jeff and Dana. I can't even print from FENXT because we have to use Microsoft Edge. I get a popup that says 'this browser does not support printing. You can download the file as a PDF and print, or use a different browser. So, anything from FENXT needs to be download to PDF and then print. A huge waste of time.

Heather Johnson

@Dana Flanery

Hi Dana, thanks for the feedback and welcome to FENXT! I would encourage you and your team to review our Blackbaud University Training and Customer Success Sessions as you ramp up. We have a great Bank Reconciliation webinar that may be helpful.

If you are using Bank Feeds in FENXT, we have a planned upgrade this quarter to improve performance, the existing user experience, and support open banking.

Mary Hart

@Karen McCart
Totally agree. So time consuming

Nikki Baldwin

@Karen McCart Hi Karen, you can actually bypass that process of exporting and then printing by clicking CTRL + P on your keyboard with the preview open. Check out this Knowledgebase article for more details:

Shannon Simmons

@Nikki Baldwin
That doesn't work for me!

Nikki Baldwin

@Shannon Simmons I'd definitely recommend you reach out to support to let them know that short cut doesn't work for you, as it should! We certainly want to know about things like that and get them resolved!

Karen McCart

@Nikki Baldwin
Doesn't work for me. And, I can't print checks that way even if it did. It's only a print screen.

Jeff Trzaska

@Heather Johnson Thank you Heather. I would suggest that when those emails go out, they give more specific information like was shared here.

I may go to the Ideas page, but I have your ear here. I would suggest not putting anything out that isn't 100%. As I mentioned in my post, income statement report criteria is not available in webview. Balance sheet reports in webview provide the criteria in the report. Other sorts of reports provide the criteria information. Income statement reports do not. Except if income statement reports are run out of DB view, then it works. I seems like the reports module is half done. That is one example. Another is that editing report criteria is much faster and easier in DB view. I am sure you can't just put a new skin on the same function, but it can definitely be improved.

Don't put out “upgrades” that are half finished. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Not everyone likes change. So when these updates come out and they don't work properly, it sours the opinion of the users towards the software and you. This plagues the entire software industry. Having quality control could be what makes BB stand out in the marketplace.

Regarding the Status Page. Can you ask them to provide useful information? If BB is running slow, I tell my people to check the status page. Except it doesn't say anything useful. It's always, “Some people, somewhere are having some problem that might be affecting the performance of something. Some people may or may not be looking into it.”

Bless your heart. That is absolutely clear now.

Lastly, and least. Here in the support pages you have some obnoxious pop up asking to help. Every time I open a page, it dings. Nothing is easy. It is always a link to a link to a link. So its Link, DING! follow the link, DING! DING! DING! DING!. I had to contact support. They showed me how I can mute your site. I can't get rid of it. There is no need for it to DING!, especially in an office setting. In addition, it also is distractingly blinking up in the webpage tab, changing from the tab name to the “You have (1) messages”, which is that stupid thing that is dinging and asking to help. Can you get rid of your Clippy?

e3f1449b1386306a9488b65d63c9f0af-huge-im

a5527dc2bee164d88b02764084954173-huge-im

Thank you,

Sylvia Cook

@Karen McCart I didn't know about the ctrl P until today. First time I tried it I thought it was a screenshot, but the second time it was a real print document.

I'm struggling more with the print cheque alignment in NXT. While it has an area for adjusting the alignment, it seems to ignore it all when printing to pdf.

Dana Flanery

@Heather Johnson
The problem with the match and clear is that I have over 2000 line items in my bank account monthly. Many of our deposits and checks that we cut are for the same amount. ie - I receive over 150 deposits for $33.08 per month. The match and clear does not clear these correctly. Similarly, we may cut 6 checks for $20. When those clear, the match and clear does not pay attention to check number but just clears whatever comes in first. These are the reasons I started doing the manual reconciliation in DB view. It was taking me days to correct the match and clear and it still wouldn't be correct. The bank feed is a big reason we switched to FENXT. Unfortunately, it has never worked for us as intended.

Paul Wu

@Heather Johnson

Are you aware of times when even simple FE updates have ‘broken’ working items? What assurances do we have that these issues will be ironed out prior to implementation of webview function(s) and removal/read-only of database function?

I'm glad there is an announcement to have this all done by June 2024, but we kinda need to know all the items you are proposing to update/remove. Sure ‘less utilized’ items but at some point it's going to affect my most utilized items.

Dan Hout-Reilly

@Heather Johnson
Which “infrequently used capabilities, such as Administration and Configuration tasks” are transitioning later this month? I'm concerned that tasks that I complete annually or less frequently, but that are no less important, may be impacted in ways unforseen by Blackbaud developers.

Also, if I only access those items in database view now, how will I be notified that the item is changing if the in-product notification is only in FE NXT?

Heather Johnson

@Jeff Trzaska
Great feedback, Jeff. Appreciate the candid response so that we can continue to improve the user experience across the board. Will share with my team and coworkers that own these other areas noted as well.

Missy ODonnell

@Jeff Trzaska
I am freaked it will be a disaster. There are so many things I can't do in NXT that I work in the Data Base all day.

Paul Wu

@Dana Flanery
With my bank I am able to download a Quickbooks file format.

Then I can go into the database view and use the “Clear transactions electronically" this helps speed up our bank rec. Our previous accountant was doing the clearing manually before.

I've only encountered a couple of times where the check number didn't come through properly.

So I expect the webversion to have the same import and clear electronically. I haven't bothered to look as I've seen some previous posts about bank rec issues.

Karen McCart

@Sylvia Cook I didn't either and it didn't work. I've brought this up before and was never given a solution. I can't think how you could print checks this way.

Dan Hout-Reilly

@Sylvia Cook I did not know about Ctrl+P until this week as well. I've found that you need to make sure you've clicked in/on the document for it to print correctly.

Beth Collingwood

@Paul Wu like other users I use DB 100% have confidence in the bank rec, quicker to run ad hoc reports and change the filters without having to save and flexibility in working with our queries that have save me a lot of time with Auditors looking for data. Just make sure the program works when it is rolled out and not make us be the debuggers.

Leia Bridgham

@Heather Johnson We experience a slow down with FENXT almost every afternoon, is anyone else experiencing this? We are logging suggestions, but don't know where to submit them. I haven't posted before, because I've been able to find solutions in the DB. If the DB goes away, we will be spending a lot of time waiting for pages to load.

Anne Swearingin

@Jeff Trzaska
We have add-ons that do our investment pool each quarter. I wonder how that will work or if it will be moved over to NXT.

Paul Wu

@Dana Flanery

Just noticed this in my home page this morning. I rarely look at it as I'm always into reports, Gl, etc. Going to also start a new thread on this as well.

“What's New”

Total web solution

As we communicated to you earlier this year, in our commitment to deliver a total web solution, we are moving database view features completely into webview, with an initial focus on features that are less impactful to your day-to-day.

We are delivering these updates progressively in parallel with new capabilities in webview, to continue to make this as seamless as possible for your organization! On April 12 we began "turning off" the following features in database view:

General ledger processing
VCO
View system statistics
Post
Validate database
Enter beginning balances
Lock beginning balances
Update fund transaction requirements
Account Codes
Fund Configuration
Transaction Codes
Tables
Attributes
Fields
Interfunds

Note: We're releasing these updates in waves. Some of you will see the changes immediately, and some will see these updates in an upcoming wave."

So is it saying I can no longer POST in database view??? WTF?

I can't add account codes?