bbcon 2013

1. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 1
(Re)Constructing The Financial Edge:
Design and Re-implementation
PRESENTED BY JONATHAN HOWELL

2. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 2
• Describe the components of the chart of accounts in Financial Edge
• Differentiate between account elements and transaction characteristics
• Determine how the reporting options in Financial Edge impact your business
• Decide whether changes are necessary for your organization
AFTER THIS SESSION, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO:

3. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 3
DR
$500
Account
Project
Transaction
Code 1
Transaction
Code 2
THE TRANSACTIONS ARE THE KEY!

4. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 4
• Every transaction will be associated with an account
• Accounts are made up of segments
• An account may look like this: 01-5200-03
• Fund and Account Code are required
• Up to 8 additional segments, up to 30 characters total
THE ACCOUNT

5. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 5
• You may call it the “natural account”
• It tells us the type of accounting activity that is occurring
• 01-5200-03
• Sequential account code ranges must be configured in FE to indicate
“Account Category”, eg, Asset, Liability, Revenue, Expense, etc.
• Make sure that it’s consistent!!!
WHAT’S AN “ACCOUNT CODE”?

6. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 6
• 01-5200-03
• Self-balancing set of accounts
• May represent FAS117 classifications, but doesn’t have to
• Determines how the other characteristics behave
WHAT’S A “FUND”?

7. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 7
• 01-5200-03
• You can have up to eight
• Generally, they should represent aspects of your business that are
relatively permanent, and apply to a large percentage of transactions
• You can always create more segments, or lengthen existing
segments, but you cannot remove or contract
• Examples are segments that represent departments, cost centers,
locations
WHAT’S AN “OPTIONAL SEGMENT”?

8. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 8
BUT, THE ACCOUNT STRUCTURE ISN’T THE ONLY
THING THAT MATTERS!

9. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 9
• A Transaction Characteristic is a data element or code that is used to
further categorize or classify transactions, most often for filtering, roll-
up, and reporting purposes.
• There are four different transaction characteristics: Class, Project,
Transaction Code, and Grant
• Though each is designed with a purpose in mind, you have flexibility in
utilizing each of them
• They are totally separate from the account structure
• They exist to further define the debits and credits that we enter
WHAT’S A “TRANSACTION
CHARACTERISTIC”?

10. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 10
• Simple drop-down menu
• Truly defines FAS117 activity in Financial Edge
WHAT’S “CLASS”?

11. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 11
• It’s a database record that offers another layer of detail for
transactions, apart from the account
• It can be used to ‘carve out’ your GL into separate sub-entities for
easy tracking and reporting without having to create a long,
complicated account string or a highly extrapolated chart of accounts
• For example:
- Without Projects
• 01-4001-03-001 – Flood Relief
• 01-4001-03-002 – Hurricane Relief
• 01-4001-03-003 – Water to Haiti
• 01-4001-03-004 – After-School Care
- With Projects
• 01-4001-03 – Disaster Relief
– FL = Flood Relief
– HU= Hurricane Relief
– Haiti = Water to Haiti
– 274-ASC = After-School Care
WHAT’S A “PROJECT”?

12. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 12
• User-defined drop-down table
• You can use up to five separate tables
• Each table operates independently of the other tables, the projects,
and the accounts
• Example:
- Without T-codes
• 01-4200-03-2-717-49 (Operating Fund, Ticket Sales Revenue,
Productions Department, Summer Series, Cats Production, Civic Center)
- With T-codes (and Projects)
• 01-4200-03
• Summer Series (Project)
• Cats Production (T-Code 1)
• Civic Center (T-Code 2)
• If you use Advanced Budget Management, you can budget by every T-
Code; if not, you can only budget by one, and that’s only if…
WHAT’S A “TRANSACTION CODE”?

13. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 13
• Generally represent Grants coming into your organization, but you’ve
got some flexibility
• Grant records are linked to transaction code table entries
• Using this functionality allows you to budget by those t-code table
entries
…YOU USE THE “GRANT” RECORD

14. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 14
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO YOU?

15. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 15
• Fund settings can be changed…*explosion sound*
• Account Codes can be re-numbered!
• Everything except account code can be alpha-numeric
• Projects, t-codes, and grants can be renamed at will, without changing
the balance in the record itself
• Projects generally represent where money will be spent once you’ve
secured it
• At least one Transaction Code is often used to denote “Funding
Source”; that is, the activity/solicitation/grant that secured the money
in the first place
• Reports run quickest when built around accounts, slower when built
around projects, and slowest when built around transaction codes
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN TO YOU?

16. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 16
• While you have a lot of options with Financial Edge, there are some
general best practices
• Your chart of accounts and characteristics can always expand in the
future; it’s more difficult to contract them
• If you need to contract your chart of accounts, Blackbaud can help you
perform a re-implementation
SUMMARY

17. 10/7/2013 #bbcon 17
TWEET ABOUT YOUR SESSION
#FERESTRUCTURE #FINANCE