Automated Deposits Tutorial

Note: This feature is part of an Early Adopter Program (EAP). We'll review and implement participant feedback to prepare for limited and general availability.

With automated deposits, Raiser's Edge NXT, Blackbaud Merchant Services, and Financial Edge NXT work together to reduce the burden of manually reconciling a deposit to your general ledger.

After you post gifts in Raiser's Edge NXT, key details from Blackbaud Merchant Services are retrieved and display in Financial Edge NXT including gift amounts, fees, record ID, and the disbursement report. These details are used to create a deposit all within Financial Edge NXT — eliminating the need to manually reconcile disbursed payments with corresponding gift records in Raiser's Edge NXT!

Warning: At this time, only gifts disbursed through Blackbaud Merchant Services are included in the automated workflow.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to :

  • Specify account details in Financial Edge NXT.

  • Post gifts in Raiser's Edge NXT.

  • Track journal entry batches, non-disbursed payments, and Raiser's Edge gift info in Financial Edge NXT.

  • Understand Blackbaud Merchant Services and its role in the connected workflow.

  • View automated deposits in Financial Edge NXT.

  • Post subledgers and reconcile a deposit to your general ledger in Financial Edge NXT.

Pre-post! Set business rules in Financial Edge NXT

Financial Edge NXT> Settings>General ledger>Business rules>Disbursements

First, you must specify General ledger accounts details. Select Edit, choose your accounts, then save.

  • Clearing account - Receivables account that houses non-disbursed transactions prior to creating the deposit. Funds are held here until gifts have been disbursed. For new accounts, see Add Accounts and Account Codes.

  • Fee account - Tracks transaction fees associated with the disbursement of funds and ensures net and gross amounts are properly accounted for.

  • Bank account - Disbursed funds are deposited here.

Post gifts in Raiser's Edge NXT

Raiser's Edge NXT> Gifts>Post gifts

You're now ready to post gifts! You won't see changes in the user interface or with distributions. It's business as usual on the Raiser's Edge NXT side as gift posting already exists. For more info, see Gift Posting in Raiser's Edge NXT.

Remember the automated workflow only supports gifts disbursed through Blackbaud Merchant Services for the following gift types:

  • One-time

  • Other

  • Pledge payments

  • Recurring gift payments

Note: Gifts posted in Summary will be supported in a future release.

After gifts are posted, they're added to journal entry batches in Financial Edge NXT. This workflow exists today, but the benefit with this enhancement is that gifts disbursed through Blackbaud Merchant Services will now be included in the automated deposit created in Financial Edge NXT (later in the workflow).

View journal entry batches in Financial Edge NXT

Financial Edge NXT> General ledger>Journal entries

After gifts process through Blackbaud Merchant Services, they're added to journal entry batches in Financial Edge NXT.

The Record ID column identifies the Raiser's Edge NXT gift record ID. Select the ID to drill in and view gift details directly in Financial Edge NXT! This unique identifier allows users to view gift details and plays a vital role in deposit creation later in the workflow.

View Non-disbursed payments in Financial Edge NXT

Financial Edge NXT>General ledger>Accounts>Accounts record>Non-disbursed payments

At this point, Raiser's Edge NXT payments are held in the clearing account (created in Step 1) until they're fully disbursed. For convenience, you can easily view these payments from the general ledger clearing account record. Under Non-disbursed payments, select the record number.

For each payment, you can view Blackbaud Merchant Services details including Record ID, Gross amount, Net amount, and Fee amount.

Select a payment's Record ID to drill in and view gift details directly in Financial Edge NXT (you can view from the batch as well!).

With this level of transparency, you can easily track payments that haven't disbursed yet. Later, when they disburse, they're removed from this list and added to a new, closed deposit.

Financial Edge NXT retrieves disbursement info from Blackbaud Merchant Services

Once a day, Financial Edge NXT communicates with Blackbaud Merchant Services to determine which gift payments have disbursed. Financial Edge NXT then prepares to create a new, closed deposit to house those gifts until you're ready to post.

Financial Edge NXT creates deposits

Financial Edge NXT> Treasury>Deposits and payments>Deposits tab

After Financial Edge NXT retrieves disbursed payments and relevant details from Blackbaud Merchant Services, a new, closed deposit is created for those payments. A disbursement report is also added to the deposit.

Payments for the deposit can come from multiple batches posted throughout the day. For example, a batch may have 30 gifts and only 20 are disbursed through Blackbaud Merchant Services and eligible for the automated deposit. You would need to manually add the other 10 gifts to a separate deposit which follows the existing, manual workflow. For info on manually adding deposits, see Add Deposits.

Tip: The ID for automated deposits will be similar to "DSB - deposit creation date".

To review payment, distribution, and disbursed payment info, under Deposit, select a deposit's number.

Tip: To protect the deposit's purpose and intent, we recommend against adding additional payments to an automated deposit.

After the deposit is created, you're ready to post.

Post deposits in Financial Edge NXT

Financial Edge NXT> General ledger>Post subledgers

Post the deposit using the normal workflow that exists today. After posting, equivalent payments in the clearing account are released and the deposit reconciles with the general ledger. Reconciled payments are then removed from the list of Non-disbursed payments on the clearing account (from Step 4).

For more info about posting, see Post Subledgers.

Next steps!

Automated deposits are the first step in a larger effort to streamline reconciliation across Raiser's Edge NXT, Blackbaud Merchant Services, and Financial Edge NXT.

In future releases, we'll support greater enhancements that simplify tracking and drive more powerful, automated reconciliation so you can spend more time on your organization's mission!