Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions: What’s New for January 9, 2024

Bryna Gleich · January 2024

Here are the latest changes, updates, and new features for the Education management products for January 9, 2024.

Learning resources

Billing Management: Intro to Advance payments video

We’ve released a short video introducing and exploring advance payments.

Advance payments allow for the record of payments made before a defined date (e.g., July 1, 202X) into a deferred liability account instead of receivables. These advance payments credit a liability account (e.g., Prepaid Revenue) when applied to charges within the billing year until the defined date passes. On this date, a reversal occurs, and the money is debited from the Advance payments account, and Accounts Receivable is credited.

Billing management (Limited Availability)

Blackbaud Billing management is available to customers not currently using Blackbaud Tuition management.

Mark failed post attempts as posted

Posts to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT with a Status of Failed can now be marked as posted by a billing clerk.

To mark a failed post attempt as posted, open the Work with previous runs page and select a failed post. Select More, and then choose Mark as posted.

This feature update currently applies only to schools participating in the direct post to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT early adopter program (EAP).

Enrollment management

Contract List

The Contract Type filter on the Contracts list no longer shows the Archived status.

Events

When an admissions manager removes a selected attendee when checking them in, they’re marked as Did not attend instead of Canceled.

With this release, access to the old Podium style event registration form builder has been removed, leaving the newer SKY UI experience introduced last year.

When viewing a checklist for a candidate, admissions events that have been registered and processed now appear as Scheduled.

Notifications

Email notifications now defaults to the new notifications management task instead of the older Podium experience.

Student Checklist

Admissions managers can now delete a student checklist right from the student record. A new button called Remove checklist can be selected next to Assign checklists.

Tuition management

Credit card usage rate increase

With this release, the credit card usage fee is increasing from 2.98% to 3.12%. This change only impacts Blackbaud Tuition Management and was communicated to schools via email in September. Review your school’s internal family communications to update the rates if needed.

Updates for California resident donation processing due to Assembly Bill 488

The State of California recently enacted legislation, California Assembly Bill 488 (CA AB488), which regulates online charitable fundraising in the state. Beginning January 1, 2024, Blackbaud will be prohibited from assisting organizations not in “good standing” in California with making charitable solicitations to and receiving funds from California residents. As a result, Blackbaud has made the following changes:

Beginning in November 2023, Blackbaud will notify charitable organizations that we believe may not be in “good standing” in California based on government data. To help you navigate the regulations and check your status, see California Assembly Bill 488: Impact to Charitable Organizations.
Beginning January 1, 2024, donations made through Blackbaud solutions by California residents to organizations that are not in “good standing” will no longer be accepted. To suppress California residents from upcoming email solicitations or view failed transactions due to California Assembly Bill 488, see our help documentation.

Note: Any U.S. registered charitable organization that operates or solicits donations in California is subject to this law.

API and Integrations

School API

New

Delete an address from a user record

We’ve added a new endpoint for deleting the address property associated with a user record. This endpoint is in BETA and may be removed or replaced with a 90-day deprecation period.

DELETE User address delete removes the specified address from the user record based on the provided user_id and address_id path parameters. If the address is shared, other users linked to the address will not be affected.

Delete a phone number from a user record

We’ve added a new endpoint for deleting a phone property associated with a user record.

DELETE User phone delete removes the specified phone number from the user record based on the provided user_id, phone_id, and phone_type_id path parameters.

Delete an occupation from a user record

We’ve added a new endpoint for deleting an occupation property associated with a user record.

DELETE User occupation delete removes the specified occupation from the user record based on the provided user_id and occupation_id path parameters.

Delete an education entry from a user record

We’ve added a new endpoint for deleting an education entry associated with a user record.

DELETE User education delete removes the specified education entry from the user record based on the provided user_id and education_id path parameters.

School API and OneRoster API

For information about recently added endpoints and other updates, view the School API and OneRoster API changelog.

Subscribe to “What’s New”

To receive email notifications when the What’s new update appears, make sure to subscribe to the K12 community’s blog by logging into the community site and selecting the Subscribe button.

To manage your community subscriptions:

Log into the community and locate your name and profile picture in the upper right corner.
Select the drop-down arrow and select My Account.
From the My Account page, select the Subscriptions tab and scroll down to the Blogs section.
Locate Blackbaud K-12 Education solutions Blog. If you want to be notified as soon as the What’s new content goes live on the community, select the Instant option. You can also opt for Daily and Weekly notifications.
Scroll to the end of the page and select Save changes.