BBMS Pay Cycle delay

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Heidi Gider
Heidi Gider
Ninth Anniversary
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hello fellow RE users,

I am a new user to BBMS as a credit card processor.  Previously we used Authorize.net.  My co-workers and I (Finance Manager, Executive Director, et. al.) have a concern with the time from when a donor makes a credit card donation to the time the nonprofit receives the funds.  Has there been any advocacy effort on the part of Blackbaud and/or BBMS clients to see if this can be changed?  It seems like Blackbaud earns interest on funds from our donors and we don't see that money 'til, in some cases, 14 days later.  Also, have others had concern about this as it relates to year-end fundraising (or other calendar-driven fundraising) where it's critical to have funds by a certain date of your fiscal year.

I'd be interested to hear from others.  If you wish to email me off-forum my work email is HGider@nwhn.org.

Thanks!

Heidi
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Comments

  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Disbursements four times per month is 3 times more than our previous vendor, which was monthly...we would receive the funds by mid-October from all donations made in September.  We are never in a position of needing the cash funds in hand earlier than happens with the current BBMS schedule, and the amount of interest lost by those funds being in BB's account instead of ours by up to 14 days isn't significant enough to matter.  (We're also saving money on fees every time the donation is more than $65 over our previous vendor.)  So not a concern for us, at all. 
  • Gracie Schild
    Gracie Schild
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Photogenic
    I'm very interested in what responses you get.  I was going to look into BBMS to see if we could get lower fees, but I hadn't heard that they only disburse once a week - seems a little sketchy to me.  We use Authorize.net and the charges clear usually in 1 to 3 days depending on weekend, etc.  It makes for a lot of accounting reconciliation when you have 20 or 30 "deposits" in the bank account per month, but it reflects "actuals" better. I will have to weigh that along with the convenience (or not) of using BBMS.



    As far as having the money in hand at year end, we record the gift date in RE as the date it is received in our office if a check (or the postmark at the end of the year to give donors a little break), or the day the charge was run in the office or entered online - not the day it hits the bank. The same is true for stock gifts even though it often takes a couple weeks to get the actual money in our account - the stock arrived in our trust account on day X and the value of the gift is the value of the stock on that day. Profit or loss is our problem and not the donor's.  I think as long as you're consistent, any reasonable system will work, but this is a way to use "donor action" for credit cards and "receipt date" for checks (the donor action in that case could be to backdate a check, so we can't always use that.). 



    Hope that helps!
  • Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Ditto what Gracie said.  It doesn't matter how long it takes to get the funds from credit card processor/BBMS, the gift date is usually the charge date.
  • Nicole S
    Nicole S
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We had a slight discrepency in how development recorded funds (recieved on this date) and how finance records (deposited on this date) as far as reporting for that last disbursement of the month because the deposit falls into the next month, but he just knows there is a delay in that.  No different that me getting checks and processing on the 30th and finance not being able to deposit until the 1st or 2nd.



    For us, everyone all around preferred 4 deposits a month over 50+ a month.



    Not sure if it matters, but for us the off set from the end of the FY or CY is no different than any other change.  That first year may be off, but after the second annual cycle the rollover is a wash.
  • Elaine Tucker
    Elaine Tucker Community All-Star
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Oh man, I am "mostly" in love love love with BBMS.  Previously we used IATS and Intuit Go Payment, and while the deposits to the bank were daily, all the other processes involved with bank reconcilation were a total nightmare.  The different processing fees based on card type and if the card was present or if they paid via netcommunity made our reconcilliation difficult is an understatement. 



    At first I was "uneasy" about the delay in the deposts hitting our bank, but after talking it over with our Accounting department and they saw how easy the fees were and that it was one flat rate - they were sold!



    We have now adusted posting to FE on the credit card side to coinside with the deposts from BBMS, so they are now done weekly.  Once the batches show up in FE I note the net amount of the depost on the Journal Line and the bank rec can now be done in about 2 hours vs. the 3 days (or more) it would previously take our accounting department.



    The only change I would like to see is having email notifications available when someone uses the MobilePay option - which is using the swiper because the card is at hand - and look forward to the Mobil Pay interfacing seemlessly with RE - right now it's a manual/import process.

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