GL Raiser's Edge to Financial Edge

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.

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.