I recently had a chance to view a presentation of a Budgeting system that integrates with both Blackbaud Financial Edge and FundWare.  This budgeting module has some significant features that many of our clients have been looking for over the years.  The product is called City Vision and it was written by PowerPlan Corporation.  This product allows the chart of accounts and actual accounting data to be uploaded into the software.  From there, it can be manipulated and run through several different scenario's to ascertain your final budget.  Once the budget is finalized a file is then uploaded into the accounting application.  Once the final budget has been loaded it is available for your normal actual vs. budget reporting.  Examples of some its advanced features include:

- FTE budgeting.  Employee's can be budgeted based on hire or termination dates.  
    -Allocation of benefits to budget line items
    -Budgeting of seasonal employee's
    -Payroll computations such as FICA, etc.
    -Map payroll periods to budget periods
    -Allocate employees to multiple departments or projects
    -Allow mass changes by job classification

Capital Budgets
    -Define supporting details for the requests, including cost details, and sustaining notes
    -Accomodate asset depreciation
    
Also, all of the standard functionality that you would expect in a budgeting system exist such as:

    -Typical operating budget what if scenario's
    -Viewing line item budget details and notes
    -Publishing budget guidelines and assumptions
    -Review multiple years information

Overall, it was a very impressive presentation.  The level of detail that can be utilized is better than anything that we have seen to date.  

If you would like some additional information about this product, please let us know and fill out the sales contact form located under "Contact" on the main navigation bar.   

Many of our clients have contacted us indicating that competitors in the marketplace are telling them that FundWare is no longer supported and that they need to change accounting systems immediately.  Unfortunately, some software companies attempt to sell on fear, doubt and uncertainty to sell their products. 

The facts are:

- Blackbaud has not declared an end of life for the FundWare product.

- Blackbaud is continuing to provide enhancements to their software and release new functionality.  Please see the FundWare v7.6 post.

- If you are desiring additional functionality that FundWare cannot provide, you have the option of changing to the Financial Edge product at no charge for your existing licensed modules.  Also note, FundWare has functionality that Financial Edge does not currently contain.  It is important to take a detailed look at your specific requirements. 

- Blackbaud is currently in development of their next generation products.  Their new platforms will be 100% browser based. 

For those FundWare clients that wish to take advantage of some of the functionality with the Blackbaud Financial Edge product, there is currently an upgrade credit available for the entire amount that you paid for FundWare.  In essence, you would get the corresponding Financial Edge module at $0.00 cost.  If you are looking at adding additional modules or users then applicable pricing would apply.

Please contact us for specific information about differences in functionality between the two products. 

Blackbaud will be releasing a new version of FundWare this coming February.  The scheduled release date is February 19, 2010.  This release will have some additional functionality and bug fixes.  A summary of the changes for 7.6 are:

PaperSave

A new module called PaperSave will be available with this release.  This module will FundWare clients to take advantage of document management features.  The initial release of this module will allow for financial transactions in Accounts Payable.  It is integrated with Accounts Payable in regards to the Obligation Number and Vendor Number.  So if a client has different stages in their obligations that they track (say Requisition, PO, Invoice), they are able to set up folders for scanned documents in each of those stages so that they can pull up the requisition, PO, and invoice tied to the same obligation.

Technology Enhancements:

- Support for server virtualizations, specifically VMWare
- SQL 2008 will be supported

Functionality Enhancements:

- 30+ bug fixes will be released
- Social Security number masking in Payroll
 
I will provide further details in a later Blog.  If you would like further information about anything in this blog, please contact us using our online form http://wtisystems.com/contact or by calling 314-754-1938.