Was there a change to Reports / Export Excel Data Only?

Dave Hoffner

I just noticed that my excel data exports now have merged and wrapped cells in them. I loved the fact that the data option meant I could avoid all that sort of stuff, and get straight into sorting, etc.

Steve Birnbaum

@Dave Hoffner One way to de-risk changes to export formats would be to implement a data warehouse that automatically extracts all data from FE/RE and stores it in a reporting and analytics server that you can access with things like Tableau and PowerBI. Feel free to DM me for more information.

Dan Hout-Reilly

@Dave Hoffner I haven't noticed a change, but might you have used the “Export Excel” option rather than "Export Excel data". I'll somtimes choose the former by mistake.

Shelly White

@Dave Hoffner I just experienced the same thing with a report, so I would say that Blackbaud made some type of change late last week.

Dan Hout-Reilly

@Dave Hoffner I take back my statement. I didn't notice on the report that I was checking, but yes there is a change in my exports. As you indicated, the report is now using merged and wrapped cells.

Laura Vaughan

@Dave Hoffner

I noticed the change also and thought it was frustrating and unfortunate.

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Dave Hoffner:

I just noticed that my excel data exports now have merged and wrapped cells in them. I loved the fact that the data option meant I could avoid all that sort of stuff, and get straight into sorting, etc.

Oh for goodness sakes, I see it too now. This is a fairly recent change, and “unfortunate” is mild compared to my reaction.

Blackbaud, this was the ONE THING that worked perfectly in NXT from day one! If it ain't broke, don't “fix” it - it's now worse! When we export Excel DATA, the result should not be a formatted report that has to be UNformatted again. I can do my own report design and formatting, tyvm. I have to export our entire GL, and many other reports as DATA so that our auditors can import it into their own software. They request our reports as Excel data every year, and it was the one thing I used NXT for, even before anything else was ported over to it. DO NOT take the step of combining a report with a data export - that's a lazy shortcut that will not benefit your clients, who are mostly accountants, not print designers.. The 2 functions are not the same thing, and should not be combined. You had a good thing there, Blackbaud - please don't muck with it. Restore the ability to export raw Excel data again PLEASE. We're 2 weeks away from closing a fiscal year here and we need this function. There's no time for us to try to replicate it with programming, 3rd party add-ins, or re-formatting every export we run. Good grief. ?

Roberta A. Gilbert

I just added my previous comment (more politely than I typed it here, haha) to the FENXT IdeaBank. I couldn't find a share button, but you'll see it if you search for “Restore the true Export Excel DATA in FE NXT” under IDEAS.

Please vote for it - the developers are more likely to see it there than here in the client forums.

Thanks!
--RAG

Dan Hout-Reilly

@Roberta A Gilbert Thanks, Roberta. I voted. Your idea is at the below link.

Susan Trippe

@Roberta A Gilbert I voted!!

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Susan Trippe @Dan HoutReilly

Thank you both for voting! ?

Jann McKenzie

@Dave Hoffner Not to mention how so many of the reports to export to excel have multiple fields in the same column!! I end up fussing things around so I can just sort by one field ALL THE TIME.

Dave Hoffner

I voted @Roberta A Gilbert .

And thank you to all of you who have commented. It is frustrating that this change has happened, but reassuring to know that I am not the only one who thinks it was a bad idea. As someone said below, it was the one FE-NXT innovation that worked so well from the very beginning, and was SO useful…

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Dave Hoffner et al:

Thanks for voting, everybody! I think a lot of people are discovering this change now, as many BB clients are preparing fiscal year-end reports. I really hope Blackbaud sees all this. ?

Denise Garcia

@Roberta A Gilbert I added a vote. This has to be fixed, so frustrating!

Sarah Searle

@Jann McKenzie
This is why I go back to database to export to csv. You still have to do a fair amount of re-sorting using formulas, but at least you can get to a true table - one data element type per column.

Julie Goldsberry

@Roberta A Gilbert I voted! So ridiculous that we have to request something so basic like this. If they had accountants involved in their development process they would not do things that cause us so much hassle.

Paul Wu

@Dave Hoffner This has actually occurred before. I had a ticket created back in May 2021 and it eventually got fixed. Just to clarify, last time additional rows were added to the report, not the merging of cells. But still the same issue of distributing a change with no testing and no user feedback.

I have created another service ticket, and support said to submit it as an idea. I refused. This is not an idea, this is an issue with your software that you changed without consulting the users. So please revert back.

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Paul Wu
Glad you found this thread, Paul, where there has been an ongoing discussion of the recent changes to the NXT Export Data to Excel function. As you have discovered, it used to work perfectly, and the NXT developers changed it very recently to merge cells in the titles and add empty columns again. Just in time to send year-end reports to auditors too - it is maddening.

I created an idea a few weeks ago at the below link, please vote for it! I don't know how many votes are needed to get someone's attention over there, but this idea has 51 votes, as I type this, and still says “No Status” . Thanks to all who have voted so far!

Paul Wu

@Roberta A Gilbert
Yes, I have voted for this.

In the mean time I am having to select all the columns and then uncheck the merge cells and I'm basically back to my original report format.

Luckily we had completed our audit work before this change.

Edit:

Just received a reply back from my case and it is being closed as it should now be a suggested idea.

Wendy Croker

I can't believe this, I thought I was losing my mind because it wasn't working for me. I voted for the ‘idea’ and I agree that it's not an ‘idea’, it's a correction to their mistake that needs to be fixed! Of all the work that needs to be done to finally move to NXT, why would they spend time messing with something that already worked? Argh!!

This is going on my list of complaints to my BB rep.

Roberta A. Gilbert

Hopeful news everyone - this is now “under consideration” and has 72 votes! Someone merged it with a similar idea too - so “someone” at BB is finally reading these!

Meanwhile, like everyone else, I've had to highlight the entire data export in countless reports I've sent to our auditors so far this month , and click “unmerge” and then unformat the headers so they are readable again. We just shouldn't have to do this, especially since we DIDN'T have to until a few months ago. Maybe hope is on the horizon though - keep getting your Blackbaud colleagues to vote! ??

Mohit Kumar

Hi Everyone - Just wanted to let you know that the issue you experienced with exporting data to Excel, where the data was getting merged and wrapped, has now been resolved. The fix has been released and is available for all customers.
Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience while we worked to correct this. If you have any further questions or run into any issues, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you!

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Mohit Kumar:

Hi Everyone - Just wanted to let you know that the issue you experienced with exporting data to Excel, where the data was getting merged and wrapped, has now been resolved. The fix has been released and is available for all customers.
Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience while we worked to correct this. If you have any further questions or run into any issues, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you!

Thank you so much! And thanks to everyone who voted for the Idea I added in the Idea Bank - it got 113 votes! I'm so grateful - I spent this summer exporting Excel reports for our auditors, and had to remove the formatting on each one. You have no idea how happy I am that this has been fixed! ?

Julie Goldsberry

@Mohit Kumar Thank you! This works fine now. You have no idea how much easier you have made our lives.

Sarah Searle

@Jann McKenzie
Hi all - Now that Blackbaud has “fixed” the export to excel functionality, let's see if we can get them to make exporting to csv available in NXT. It was available in DB up until they removed GL reports from DB. That was how I used to be able to get to a true data table (Export excel data vs. export to csv.xlsx). I've tried to attach an example of what is available vs what I need. There are two ideas in the “idea bank” that I've found that address this.

Please vote for both so someone at Blackbaud might notice. I can't count the number of time I've heard Blackbaud say that no functionality in DB will be disabled before that same functionality is available in NXT. Well… that's not quite the way things are working out now, is it?

Roberta A. Gilbert

@Sarah Searle

Hi Sarah, the easiest way to get the type of report you uploaded, is to run a Trial Balance report, and export it to Excel Data. The TB lists all accounts with no groupings, and includes columns for opening balance, total debits, total credits, and ending balance.

Sarah Searle

@Roberta A Gilbert
Hi Roberta - Thanks for your reply. If all I needed was the data elements you list, the export to excel functionality would be great. Unfortunately, I need all those data elements distributed to 2 T-codes. So I need 7 columns - those you list plus 1 for each T-code.