BBMS vs iATS

Amy Hough · June 2015

We currently use iATS to process payments in RE, but are looking into BBMS. I am interested in finding out opinions regarding BBMS - do you like it; does it do what it claims? Your thoughts are most appreciated.

Lauren Henderson · June 2015

Hi Amy,

I have experience with IATS and BBMS, and since we have a NetCommunity/Raiser's Edge integration, BBMS is great! We also used the MobilePay feature at an off site auction and were very pleased with the performance. We have set up numerous accounts to keep track of different places the money needs to go, and all work very well.

Jennifer Lucarelli · June 2015

I don't have any experience with Iats... but have been using BBMS for over 2 years. I love it. I have multiple accounts so that I can easily direct the money for specific appeals and get reports. We also processes a lot of pledges, and I use the Auto Generate option in batch to create my list of transactions and then also to create EFT transmission forms. For direct debits, we process those directly through our bank with no fee, but I still use the EFT module to create the NACHA files.

JoAnn Strommen · June 2015

I'm on the opposite side of Jennifer - I have no experience with BBMS. Have been using IATS for almost 10 years. Essentially the same as Jennifer noted - as far as using auto generate, EFT used to generate bank files, no issues with gifts processing.

Should our EFTs grown substantially, would consider looking at BBMS, so will be interested to hear comments especially from those who've used both.

Dharmit Patel · June 2015

Almost same here as Jennifer, We use BBMS from more than 2 years. We highly utilize it for CC transactions both one time and recurring gifts. We also use Mobile pay in coordination with BBMS which is really cool. We just started, in Feburary 2015 using EFT module for Direct Debit Transaction and started using NC to accept Direct debit transactions. We create NACHA file using EFT module in RE and then send them directly to bank with no fee, Being said that we did have to develop a utility that will automatically SFTP the file to the bank.

To directly process or automatically process Direct debit using BBMS, i think we need RE 7.93 Patch 11 to process it in the same way we process CC in RE.

I hope that helps.

Thanks

Dharmit

Gina Gerhard · June 2015

We originally used IATS but switched to BBMS due to cost savings.

For the most part, we've been very satisfied with BBMS until recently when they have been reporting a large number of service interruptions and issues with their Data Center in Boston. Not sure why there have been so many issues, but it's starting to be of concern to us.

Perhaps the issue of reliability and up-time might be something to factor into your choice.

Cicely Waters · June 2015

We used IATS and switched to BBMS due to cost savings. At first we processed our Membership and Development gifts though BBMS. Now we have 6 accounts and process everything from tickets sales to charitable gifts, along getting set up to add-on our Museum shop. We have been using BBMS for 5 years, with RE and BBNC, and now Altru.

I work very closely with our Accounting team, who find it easy to work within.

Stephanie Ulmer · June 2015

Very happy with our switch from IATS to BBMS. Lower cost and better integration!

Krista Lippert · June 2015

BBMS is so much better. It is so much easier to tie out credit card transactions at the end of the month than it was in IATS.

robert badley · June 2015

Krista and Stephanie

I am very interested to hear more about how the BBMS experience is better than iATS? We use iATS and have for many years and truthfully find them to be responsive, competitively priced and we have good processes in place for our transactions reconcilliations. We have never looked at BBMS but maybe we should be. In any given month we process about 10,000 to 12,000 transactions and at peak times (December) that number rises to 15,000+.

Robert

Karina Trujillo · June 2015

I only have experience using BBMS and find it very easy to use. I love how well it integrates with Raiser's Edge for online gift. I can also do all my credit card and debit transactions in batch and it runs through BBMS and it's so easy. I can't tell you how much time it has saved me to be able to do this in batch. BBMS is great and the cost is lower than what we were using (not iATS).

Joan Perry · June 2015

Like others we previously used IATS and several years ago switched to BBMS...at the time I know the cost savings were significant for us. IATS and now BBMS integrated with Raiser's Edge nicely. I did not use the system for EFTs, etc. while we had IATS. However, since we switched, we too have added additional merchant accounts, in part, because of the savings. While some may be challenged by their payment disbursement schedule -- it works for us. There are 4 pay cycles in each month and typically the 1st (usually the 1st - 7th of the month) gets paid between the 12th & 16th of the month.

While we do not reconcile with BBMS in our office - the Finance office does - the webinars for the reconcilliation service also looks helpful and should be available soon.

Ami Gibson 2 · October 2015

Cicely Waters:

We used IATS and switched to BBMS due to cost savings. At first we processed our Membership and Development gifts though BBMS. Now we have 6 accounts and process everything from tickets sales to charitable gifts, along getting set up to add-on our Museum shop. We have been using BBMS for 5 years, with RE and BBNC, and now Altru.

I work very closely with our Accounting team, who find it easy to work within.

Hello! We currently use iATS and are considering moving over to BBMS. Did you have sustaining givers through IATS? If so, how did you migrate them to BBMS? What was the transition from iATS to BBMS like? How long did it take? Do you use the Account updater (automatic credit card update feature)?

Thank you for your time!

Beth Duffus · October 2015

We use both. I inherited IATS when I started here and found it very reliable and well priced once i got the hang of it. They also have the best IT support staff I have ever used. We still have IATS for recurring donations. We switched to BBMS as we would start using Netcommunity and it has a lot of options that don't really exist with IATS. Although IATS has the capability for transactional purchases and batch entry it doesn't amount to MobilePay, being able to use MobilePay for events and a store if you have one is night and day to IATS processing and it's easier that using a terminal from a bank. Exporting info, processing transactions are all pretty great with BBMS.

The real reason to make it your primary merchant service is

1) the almost seamless transfer of data directly into RE

2) The ability to collect much more data and show more options - Aura pages don't really come close

3) Online event registrations (now I know the names in their golfer foursome not just that they want three people to join them and finally

4) Onerate, BBMS charges only one rate for all the credit cards they accept seriously cutting down on Amex fees. I personally had a call where someone upped their donation because they found out they could use Amex and were very close to earning a reward with the card. IATS takes Amex but the fees are much higher.

The place where BBMS has issues. Approving ALL legitimate transactions. We get at least one donor a month who calls or e-mails because BBMS won't process their card, they have the correct name the correct address, there is no issue with the card being comprimised and they have space and the system says they have the wrong addresses. It's not even consistent to PO boxes or funny highway located addresses either, having IATS as a backup processer is great.

Second place they have issues is in Recurring EFTs. I literally spent 3 months trying to reach any blackbaud employee who would fully explain recurring donations in RE. We eentually apid for the recurring training course ($80) where I learned the batch processing system for EFTs to be told BBMS didn't run them. Monthly fee for the srevice of EFT donations from our bank was $60 at the time and IATS is still $10 for all their services it was a no brainer. Apparently the credit recurring payments is smooth process but we didn't want to split up the functionality.

Finally the deposit dates. BBMS amases the doantions and does approximately 4 deposits a month, then it takes a fair amount of time to hit the bank. The issue with this is we enter our credit donations once a month. So someone will donate on the 22nd by phone and want a mailed receipt. I will enter it into the back end of BBMS. Their donation can easily not hit our bank until the 2nd of the next month leading us to either the option of sending them an acknowledgement 1 1/2 months later or sending them an acknowledgement without us knowing the deposit date which for us is the official gift date.

TL;DR So my answer is get BBMS enjoy it's abilities, order a mobilepay device and play around with all the options but don't get rid of IATS, it really is affordable to have both.

Ami Gibson 2 · October 2015

Dharmit Patel:

Almost same here as Jennifer, We use BBMS from more than 2 years. We highly utilize it for CC transactions both one time and recurring gifts. We also use Mobile pay in coordination with BBMS which is really cool. We just started, in Feburary 2015 using EFT module for Direct Debit Transaction and started using NC to accept Direct debit transactions. We create NACHA file using EFT module in RE and then send them directly to bank with no fee, Being said that we did have to develop a utility that will automatically SFTP the file to the bank.

To directly process or automatically process Direct debit using BBMS, i think we need RE 7.93 Patch 11 to process it in the same way we process CC in RE.

I hope that helps.

Thanks

Dharmit

Have you utilized the Account Updater (automatically updates recurring credit card info -expiry date or cc#) feature in BBMS?

Ami Gibson 2 · October 2015

Stephanie Ulmer:

Very happy with our switch from IATS to BBMS. Lower cost and better integration!

Do you have recurring gifts? How did you migrate these from IATS to BBMS?

Mark Gaffney · November 2015

I have the same questions Ami asked... anyone out there have experience with migrating sustainers from iATS to BBMS and/or the credit card updater? Anyone? Bueller?

BBMS vs iATS

Comments

Categories