GL Raiser's Edge to Financial Edge

Cindi Stewart

I work for a large religious organization with a large Raiser's Edge database.  We are currently working on the GL posting process between RE and FE.  I would love to talk to anyone who has walked this path previously.  We have about 380,000 records (households with husband/wife on same record).  In addition, we have numerous campaign/events.  I am most interested in how often others run this process (daily, weekly, monthly), how much paper documentation they pass through to their Accounting staff or any issues you may have faced during the process. 

Nia Smith 2

Hi Cindi,


At my last organization, we had FE & RE intergrated. I will first say if you haven't already done so, that's where you should start. 

Next our gifts were done in batches which was great for tracking. Format xxxx-xx-xxx (year-month-batch number that corresponded to gift tender type) 100s- check, 200- credit/ debit 300 -pledge, 400 - wire/eft, 500 -cash, 600- stock. All gifts were entered this way no matter what. 


As far as entry, the gift date was the date of entry and the GL Post date corresponded to the date of deposit. This ensure that gifts matched with what was in FE and made for much easier reconcilliation. Since credit cards have a tendency to not always deposit at the end of the month closing. We would close the books on the 3rd business day of the month. Any credit cards that were charged in the prior month and did not post within three business days of the following month were counted in the month the money was deposited in. The only time this did not apply was during calendar and fiscal year closings, in which case it was extended to 10 business days for calendar and 7 for fiscal. 


There was very little paper documentation as we scanned all the completed batches to the Finance department. This allowed us to keep a digital copy which could be accessed at anytime, especially in the event something got misplaced. 

I will say it took quite some time may a year to get this process in place. I left there 9 months ago and it's still in place.


I am currently trying to implement a similar set up at my new job but they do not have FE.


Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this helped.

Cindi Stewart

Nia Smith:

Hi Cindi,


At my last organization, we had FE & RE intergrated. I will first say if you haven't already done so, that's where you should start. 

Next our gifts were done in batches which was great for tracking. Format xxxx-xx-xxx (year-month-batch number that corresponded to gift tender type) 100s- check, 200- credit/ debit 300 -pledge, 400 - wire/eft, 500 -cash, 600- stock. All gifts were entered this way no matter what. 


As far as entry, the gift date was the date of entry and the GL Post date corresponded to the date of deposit. This ensure that gifts matched with what was in FE and made for much easier reconcilliation. Since credit cards have a tendency to not always deposit at the end of the month closing. We would close the books on the 3rd business day of the month. Any credit cards that were charged in the prior month and did not post within three business days of the following month were counted in the month the money was deposited in. The only time this did not apply was during calendar and fiscal year closings, in which case it was extended to 10 business days for calendar and 7 for fiscal. 


There was very little paper documentation as we scanned all the completed batches to the Finance department. This allowed us to keep a digital copy which could be accessed at anytime, especially in the event something got misplaced. 

I will say it took quite some time may a year to get this process in place. I left there 9 months ago and it's still in place.


I am currently trying to implement a similar set up at my new job but they do not have FE.


Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this helped.

Thank you for your reply!  This is very helpful!  How often did you run the process?  Did you always make sure the runs coincided with the month end?  My instinct says we should but we have so many credit card gifts, I am not sure if it will be beneficial or not.  Our Accounting department wants us to continue sending a great amount of documentation such as letters from donors regarding their designation for a gift.  I am not sure that is their function so I am trying to figure out if we can stop the practice. 

Marc Seleman

I worked in 3 NPOs prior to coming to Blackbaud and at all 3 we had FE and RE and they were interfaced.


First of all having the interface is a definate must.  It's saves time on double entry and reconciliation time.


I recommend that you post a batch of information from RE to FE that matches the monies that would reflect a single deposit at the bank.  Whether you do it in batches or not in RE is up to you.  This will make tying info in both systems, and ultimately the bank, together much easier.


As far as documentation, I always required documentation on pledges or anything doing with funds that were restricted in any way.  Ultimately the business office is accountable for all monies and how it is accounted for.  They will have to provide information and justify everything during the audit, otherwise there could be issues with the final audit.  And no one wants to explain this to the board.  Too many times did I have to clarify with the development office how they were treating certain donations per the donors desires.


Regarding the volumn of your credit card transactions - I highly recommend that you use a gfit sub-type in RE to record these and have them post to a separate charge card asset account in FE if that is not already being done.  This makes reconcilliation monthly much easier as credit cards don't always settle in the batches in which they are recorded in RE.


If you have any further questions about any of this feel free to message me directly.

Faith Murray

Yes, definitely integration between RE and FE is the way to go. We enter all gifts in Batches daily, and the Business Office posts them on their side and deposits them the same day, so our Gift Date and Post Date are the same. At the end of each month, we run a Gift Detail Report from RE, and a credit card transaction report from BBMS, for the Business Office to make sure our totals match. At the end of the fiscal year, we run a number of reports for the Business Office to send along to the auditors.


As far as passing along designation documentation to the Business Office, I think that largely depends on how much proximity and ease of communication exists between the two offices. Our Business Office is located in the same building, just down the stairs from us. They may occasionally call us on the phone to inquire about a very large pledge or bequest, but in general never requires us to send down documentation for gift designations. We know what our appeal reply devices look like, & we're the ones speaking with the donors directly, so we're the best ones to know where the money is meant to go. The auditors have access to RE and all our Development files during the audit process, so they know where to look if they have questions.


 

Cindi Stewart

Thank you to all that replied.  Every answer had valuable information that I can use and build on.  It is nice to know someone has walked this path if we hit any issues moving forward!  Thanks again!!!