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NXT Dashboards / NXT Reports Insight Totals Incorrect - How often do you spot-check?

Rhona Skene

Has anyone using NXT dashboards / NXT reports experienced any issue with the totals displayed on the insight not matching up to either manual cross-checking or the list that is generated by clicking on the insight.
For example, we may have an insight on NXT dashboard / report which is showing a basic gift total as £100,000, but when we click on that insight and export the gift list, and sum the gift amount from that list generated from the insight the total is actually £95,000. When running the equivalent report in database view to check we also get a total of £95,000.

Just for context;

We have confirmed that we are set-up correctly in giving analysis (and had staff from Blackbaud check this to confirm), including ensuring that the tax claim is applied - i.e. gift aid applied for anyone in the UK
Manual check totals all are gross numbers, so including gift aid / tax
The list pulled from the insight on the NXT dashboard totals the same gross amount as database view reports, and even NXT lists that are built to replicate the same criteria - i.e. gift amount of X gift given with gift date Y and Z
There are no complex filters and metrics, just basic sum of gift amount and filtered for gift type, and date
This issue has happened a few times now and there does not seem to be a pattern to it, e.g. this time it is impacting funds received, last time it was committed funds etc.
We have seen this when looking at recent gifts and more historical gifts (going back a few years)

As I mentioned, there is not a pattern that I have been able to identify as to why this is happening, it seems to be almost completely random. We have a current ticket raised regarding this, and we have raised a few previously, but I am curious if this is something that other users have noticed happening, and if they were able to resolve the issue long-term. To Blackbaud's credit, each time when we have raised a ticket about this they have managed to resolve it, but it does sometimes take a few weeks, and in the meantime means that the dashboards are not entirely accurate. I am also curious how often people are spot-checking dashboards, as we tend to do this fairly regularly since we have had this issue a few times now, and it can be quite labour intensive to double-check all those figures.

First time poster here, so I hope that all makes sense, and any input would be greatly received!

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Comments

Tom Klimchak

@Rhona Skene Congratulations on your first post! ?

We've stumbled on a few similar cases where the numbers are always close but not always exact to some of the manual calculations and gift lists we've looked at. Here's how I typically troubleshoot: narrow down the dates on each side until you can find an exact week or even DAY where the totals don't match to what you're expecting… Then look at that day and you will most likely see what gift is causing the issue.

So look at a gift range of 7-1-24 to 12-31-24. If the totals are different then shrink the date window. Next look at 7-1-24 to 11-30-24. If the numbers are the SAME you know the trouble exists in December. If the totals are different you know the trouble is between July and November. Repeat until you can get it down to a single day or week…

We have found that RE NXT (and the insights) have gotten much better over the last few years but we still have some unexpected totals when it comes to pledges that are written off, recurring gifts in some cases and gifts that are realized against planned gifts.

We've even had a few cases where really old gifts (converted 15 years ago from our legacy system) were causing a problem. We'd delete the gift and re-enter it with Raiser's Edge and everything suddenly totaled out properly.

Also be aware that there is sometimes a bit of a delay with RE NXT and changed data. I believe giving records are refreshed/synced with database view every 30 minutes or so…

Alex Wong

@Tom Klimchak
RE NXT webview report and insight designer works in a way that is consistent, however, the inconsistency is likely due to how you are comparing information, is it apple to apple.

Few important things to check:

Soft Credit - does your org use soft credit, does your gift potentially soft credit to multiple people where total amount soft credited exceed the actual gift amount
- Some Org has a gift of $1,000 and is soft credited to John Doe for $1,000 and Mary Smieth for $1,000
Split Gift - does your org use split gift, meaning a single gift record is going to mulitple Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Pakcage, if so, are you looking at gift amount or gift split amount

Tom Klimchak

@Alex Wong Most of the differences I've seen are more between database view and RE NXT webview/insights…

Alex Wong

@Tom Klimchak
Yes I understand, but data is data, however the report is “created/define" is always going to be consistent (even if Blackbaud has some “bug” the “bug” would consistently show up).

So to find the difference, is to find how each report is “defined” and what I mentioned is how I have seen any people trip over in getting same results in different report: any one to many relationship that may not be reported in the same manner.

Rhona Skene

@Alex Wong @Tom Klimchak

Thank you both for your responses, I really appreciate that. ? I initially had the same thought that it was likely something in the way we were validating the figures that was causing the issue, I totally appreciate it’s important to ensure you are comparing apples to apples. We went through troubleshooting in this way with Blackbaud, and we eventually needed to give the Customer Support Analysts access so that they were able to verify the set-up was correct, and they found that the issue was replicated when they rebuilt reports and dashboards directly themselves.

Each time we have raised a ticket about this, we have eventually been told that there was an issue that BB Engineers had to address on their end, and this has always fixed the issue temporarily, but in the past two years we have had the same issue happen probably three or four times. I would say most of the time the dashboards work fine when compared to database view figures and match-up perfectly, but every couple of months it seems like the dashboards just break and we start over with the troubleshooting with BB.

The thing that is particularly odd for me is that an insight built to look at something basic such as sum total of gifts given during a certain time frame, is showing an incorrect figure, but when you export the list generated from the insight, the list matches perfectly (down to the penny) with the report from database view, which was built to BB’s instruction to test the dashboards when this happened previously.
We did also narrow down over time to see if we could find the specific gift / gifts that were causing an issue, but since the list generated by the insight shows the correct figures, it's difficult to identify exactly where the problem is, unless it can be narrowed down to a single day where only one gift may have been added.

If there were soft credits included in the insight total, would you not expect those soft credited gifts to also pull through to the list which is generated from the insight?

We are looking at just sum of gift total, only filtered by gift type, so I didn’t anticipate that split gifts across different funds etc. would impact this as I am just looking to sum the gift amount, this is before any further breakdown across funds, appeals etc.

Thank you both again, I really appreciate your input! ?

Alex Wong

@Rhona Skene
can you provide the details of the insight and detail config of it. Along with the setting of what gift tyep is received revenue and what is committed revenue.

Also if you can provide how you run report in dbview to compare.

Rhona Skene

@Alex Wong @Tom Klimchak
Sorry for the delay in responding, and thank you both for your help and advice! BB have come back and confirmed that there was not an issue on our end, there was a bug somewhere in the transferring of the files to NXT. It's a similar response to what we have been told previously, but the engineers have advised it is permanently fixed this time, so hopefully that is the case. Thank you both again! ?

Cathy Michitsch-Admin

@Tom Klimchak I have found that there can be GIFTS MISSING from the Dashboard Reporting data. Blackbaud confirmed this is a known issue. The gifts I am missing are from October 2024 and I proved they were missing in March 2025. I don't know when this will be fixed!!

Alex Wong

@Cathy MichitschAdmin
is there specific details support provided you on this “bug”. I find this to be odd.

Kimberly Roesing

@Rhona Skene I complained about this and got nowhere. I spent hours figuring out why the export numbers did not match what the dashboard was showing. Blackbaud closed the case without telling me anything that made sense.

Dariel Dixon

@Kimberly Roesing Have the case reopened and escalated. You need to make sure someone that can resolve the issue looks at your case.

Rhona Skene

@Kimberly Roesing I had a similar experience and have never really had a detailed response as to what the issue actually was, other than there was a bug with transferring the files over to NXT. The biggest challenge I have found in addressing this issue is that each time I have reported this, it seems to be treated as a new issue, which given the fact that I have never been able to get a detailed explanation as to why this has happened it possibly could be, but ultimately in the end it is always the same action needed to fix it, which is for the BB engineers to get involved.

Erin Flowers

@Rhona Skene @Kimberly Roesing I was trying to figure this out again yesterday! I am commenting on this in case anything gets resolved and posted here.

Marisa Morris

@Rhona Skene

We have experienced the same issue, after spending the time to setup the insight in the first place. Afterwards - seeing different totals from what the Raiser's Edge report has. No explanation found on this. So…we are holding off using this feature until we see the NXT dashboard insights are dependable.

Alex Wong

@Marisa Morris
I don't use insight designer anymore but not because of inaccuracy, but lack of flexibility, instead build my own custom report on Power BI and integrate it into RE NXT.

I am having a hard time understanding what inaccuracy there is. When I did check out insight designer, numbers does match. So here's a few point I want to make sure you are aware of.

webview insight depends on the webview configuration of what gift types are consider “Recevied revenue” vs “Committed revenue” and “Recognition”. You will want to make sure you are matching apples to apples with gift types.
webview insight has delays, some has 30 to 60 minutes delay so you will need to account for that