Lists or....

Jolynn Uyehara
Jolynn Uyehara
Fourth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Aloha Friends,

This may be an odd question but I'm a little puzzled on why this is happening.

My boss pulled some giving totals for FY24 to report to our Board. She asked asked me to confirm her numbers so when I did, it was off. I asked her how she ran her report and she told me she went to Fundraising > Reporting > Overview and put in the date range and fund, etc.

When I ran it, I did it through Lists > Gifts and put in “last fiscal year” and the selected fund.

Are her numbers just an “overview” which is why our numbers don't line up? I don't dabble in fundraising /reporting much but I would think running it through lists would give a more accurate number.

Curious how you all run your giving totals for the board and also if the totals in lists should match up to the overview in fundraising/reporting.

Thank you,

Jolynn

Comments

  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong Community All-Star
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    @Jolynn Uyehara
    were you both using same gift type criteria?

  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management

    @Jolynn Uyehara DB view reports. NXT reporting isn't as consistent TBH, for the reasons @JoAnn Strommen stated.

  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong Community All-Star
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    @JoAnn Strommen
    webview does have a delay in reporting numbers, but if he isn't reporting on a period of time that can have much changes in gift anymore, then dbview and webview should line up.

    Also it depends on what is being run and what option is selected. db view has option to do soft credit that can mess up financial number vs fundraising number. While webview report in the fundraising/reporting area does not do soft credit, so i think as long as the gift/revenue type line up, they should have the same outcome.

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
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    @Jolynn Uyehara There are users who do all reporting in web view. We don't. It seems like defaults are not consistent and not always clear up front what gifts are included/excluded.

    Other reasons why I prefer db view.

    82f2463e3934bb05e7aa14711c5315fe-huge-im
    1. Knowledgebase Article 112587

    Report in Database View does not match Revenue amount in Raiser's Edge NXT Web View in Fundraising > Reporting.

    1. Knowledgebase Article 108065

    Reporting revenue amount in Raiser's Edge NXT web view does not match the total amount of gifts being considered in a dashboard

  • Jolynn Uyehara
    Jolynn Uyehara
    Fourth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    @JoAnn Strommen thank you for your feedback. Sorry, but can you direct me on the steps to run it in db? Assuming I go to reports but not sure after that?

  • Faith Murray
    Faith Murray
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    @Jolynn Uyehara
    Database view often pulls differently based on how you have the reports set up in Settings for “Received” and “Committed” revenue. For example, reports may include pledges but not pledge payments; or it may deduct write-offs. Your List may include pledge payments and/or recurring gifts along with the pledges, unless you have the filters set to exclude them; and it will not deduct write-offs.

    Like @JoAnn Strommen I much prefer database view if I want to-the-penny accuracy. However, I hesitate to recommend you “write off” webview because I believe the long-anticipated (long-dreaded?) day is coming where database view will be no more. It has finally happened for Financial Edge, and BB has announced an accelerated schedule to finally move database view functions over to webview within the next 2 years. My hope is that, when that happens, they enable the “Reports” function in webview, just as they are in process of adding in “Query” as well as “Lists”. (They realized Lists just wasn't as robust as Query.) And after all, the Fundraising reports never were meant to replace db Reports - they were meant to replace db Dashboards.

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
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    @Jolynn Uyehara
    If you are looking strictly at received, I'd suggest Reports > Financial Reports > Cash Receipts Journal. You can set desired date ranges, campaign/fund/appeal, gift type etc.

    If you want to include pledges, I would look at Reports > Financial Reports > Gift Detail & Summary Report. If selecting pledges, just be aware you could double count if you select pay-cash gift type to include and do not select check box to use gift balance instead of gift amount.

    when you select a report name, there is is a description at the bottom of the window and a link to more info. They seem to have removed option to view samples.

    Others may suggest their preferred reports.

  • Joe Moretti
    Joe Moretti Community All-Star
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    @Jolynn Uyehara My advice is to use Database view (much more accurate than RE NXT). Use Financial Reports/Gift Detail and Summary Report. Since you did not go into much detail did the two of you use the same gift tpes such as Cash, Pledges, Stock, etc because if you both used different gift types, then you will have different totals. Like other said, RE Database View is best for reporting purposes.

  • Jolynn Uyehara
    Jolynn Uyehara
    Fourth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    @JoAnn Strommen thank you so much! Very helpful! ?

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