Journal Entry Batch Creator Excel Add-In

To extend the functionality of Financial Edge NXT, your organization can use additional applications created by Blackbaud, providers in the Blackbaud Partner Marketplace, someone at your organization, or approved external developers. These applications securely access your Financial Edge NXT data via the SKY API, so you can do more with your accounting efforts.

The Journal Entry Batch Creator add-in is an application built by Blackbaud and is available in Microsoft's Office Store. You can use this to enter transactions in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which you can then import and submit as a new journal entry batch to Financial Edge NXT. This integration enables flexible data entry (in bulk) and saves time, especially when entering similar data.

To access the add-in from Financial Edge NXT, from the Solutions menu in the upper left corner, select Marketplace. An administrator must approve and activate the add-in, and confirm you have appropriate rights to access records, such as accounts and projects. You can then download the add-in from Microsoft's Office Store.

Your organization's administrator must enable and activate the add-in under Manage in the Blackbaud Marketplace.

Once enabled, the add-in accesses your Financial Edge NXT data through the Blackbaud SKY API, and everyone at your organization — in respect to their security group's rights and permissions — can use it. You only need to enable the add-in once.

  1. Copy the following Journal Entry Batch Creator add-in application ID:

    2b3bce1f-6589-499c-919c-c6273ad016a3

  2. Under Manage in the Blackbaud Marketplace, select Connect app.

  3. Enter the ID and select Connect.

    To notify your organization of the application, share its URL with users as necessary. You can access the URL from the add-in's overview page or when connecting the application.

You can access and download the add-in here, or use the Excel menu ribbon to access the Microsoft store.

  1. To download the add-in, from Microsoft Excel's menu ribbon, select Store. The Office Add-ins screen appears.

  2. Search for "Journal Entry Batch Creator for Financial Edge NXT" and select Add.

  3. In the Home menu ribbon, select Create Journal Entry Batch. The add-in Welcome panel appears for you to enter your Blackbaud ID credentials and sign in. A confirmation page appears.

  4. Review the name of your Financial Edge NXT environment, and select Authorize.

    Tip: It's possible for multiple Financial Edge NXT environments to appear on this page. Your ability to view and select them depends on your permissions. For information, contact your organization's administrator.

  5. After the authorization is successful, Financial Edge NXT journal entry batch fields are added to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and the Journal Entry Batch Creator panel displays on the right.

    Because the Journal Entry Batch Creator add-in accesses your Financial Edge NXT data through the Blackbaud SKY API, everyone at your organization — in respect to their security group's rights and permissions — can use it. You only need to download the add-in once.

    Tip: After the initial download, each time you want to work with the add-in, select it from Blackbaud in your Microsoft Excel menu ribbon.

Once enabled and downloaded, you can start entering transactions in the Excel spreadsheet to import and submit them as a new journal entry batch to Financial Edge NXT. This integration enables flexible data entry (in bulk) and saves time, especially when entering similar data.

  1. After the download is successful, Financial Edge NXT journal entry batch fields are added to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and the Journal Entry Batch Creator panel displays on the right. You can begin entering data.

    Tip: When you enter an account number, the corresponding account description and class are auto-populated. Also, when you enter a project ID, the project description is populated.

  2. Once data entry is complete, from the Journal Entry Batch Creator panel, enter a description and select Submit.

    At this point, the data you entered is validated. Where possible, cells with errors are highlighted in red. Some errors with the batch (such as violating a project’s account restriction) may not be highlighted, but they will need to be corrected before you can submit the batch. Make any necessary corrections and select Submit again.

  3. When your data has been successfully submitted, a confirmation appears on the bottom right of your screen. A new journal entry batch is then created in Financial Edge NXT and displays in the Journal entry batches list of General ledger.

  • In the spreadsheet, enter batch data using the Financial Edge NXT columns and rows. To save time, you can use Excel macros or copy and paste data into the spreadsheet.

  • A single spreadsheet supports up to 1000 rows of distributions. While 1000 rows is the recommended maximum, it is possible to exceed 1000 rows. Keep in mind, if you exceed 1000 rows you could experience slower performance.

  • To make the spreadsheet larger as you enter data, drag the Blackbaud sidebar over to the right to extend your workspace. We recommend you not close the Blackbaud sidebar completely, because you will lose the auto-fill functionality as you enter account numbers.

  • If you need to save the add-in spreadsheet and come back to it later in Excel, select File, Save as.

For information about working with journal entry batches in Financial Edge NXT, see Journal Entry.