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pIf you#39;re new to Blackbaud or would like to learn more about the resources on our award-winning support website, join us for a a href="https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100003672/Registration.aspx?pageName=5xd12tllpgr5wjbb" target="_blank"complimentary roundtable webinar/a from 4-5 p.m. ET on July 21, 2010. /p pWe#39;ll explain how to access and make the most of a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=home" target="_blank"Knowledgebase/a, a class="" href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/" target="_blank"forums/a, a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/casecentral/casecentral.aspx" target="_blank"Case Central/a, a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/newsletters/supnewsletters.aspx" target="_blank"newsletters/a, and even the a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/company/blogs/blogs.aspx" target="_blank"blogs/a. There will also be time for you to participate in a live Qamp;A sessionnbsp;so we cannbsp;address any questions you may have about our website./p pAre therenbsp;specific topics or questions you#39;d like us to cover? Please let us know bynbsp;emailing a href="mailto:supportroundtables@blackbaud.com"supportroundtables@blackbaud.com/anbsp;or leaving a comment on the blog./p pa href="https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100003672/Registration.aspx?pageName=5xd12tllpgr5wjbb" target="_blank"img alt="Register today" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/button_registertoday.jpg" align="absMiddle" border="0" //a/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=149268" width="1" height="1"

pToday#39;s post is a quickie but goodie for those of you getting ready for year-end processing.nbsp; We#39;ve compiled a list of all steps in the year-end process from creating a new data table to posting revenue and expense balances to rolling the beginning balances forward.nbsp;You can find this fabulous special edition of The FundWare Post on the a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/newsletters/supnewsletters.aspx"Support Newsletters/a page.nbsp; Not subscribed to The FundWare Post?nbsp; a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB65955"Subscribe today/a to receive tips, tricks, and morenbsp;to your inbox each month./p pHave a year-end question?nbsp; Leave a comment and we#39;ll work together to get it answered.nbsp; Talk to you soon!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=149244" width="1" height="1"

pimg style="WIDTH:234px;HEIGHT:158px;" hspace="5" align="right" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/pageheaders08/iph_events_usergroups.jpg" width="234" height="158" alt="" /Your nonprofit or foundation could be one of this year#39;s Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award (a.k.a. The Taggies) winners!nbsp; And this year, for the first time, you can submit your organization’s program, fundraising campaign and/or and special event taglines, in addition to your organizational tagline. a href="http://bit.ly/cahJgC"So enter here now/a./p pA strong tagline does double-duty — working to extend your organization#39;s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It#39;s one of your most basic, and effective, marketing tools, but a recent GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don#39;t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly. The awards program is designed to help close this gap by providing both motivation and models./p pAll entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report in late 2010. It#39;s the only complete guide to building your organizational, program, fundraising or special event brand in 8 words or less — filled with how-tos, don#39;t-dos and models. /p pHere are the a href="http://bit.ly/dt2Cz3"winners of previous Nonprofit Tagline Awards/a (selected by more than 4,800 voters in the field in 2009). This could be you in 2010! Please take 3 minutes now to a href="http://bit.ly/cahJgC"enter your nonprofit#39;s taglines today/a while it’s on your mind. The deadline for entering is July 28./p pThis program is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of a href="http://bit.ly/bqIcKP"Blackbaud/a, a href="http://www.event360.com/blog?utm_source=getting-attentionamp;utm_medium=websiteamp;utm_campaign=tagline"Event360/a, a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/npo?ref=ads0taglinenpo"Eventbrite/a, and a href="http://www.see3.net/taglineawards2010?=awards"See3 Communications/a. /p pBe sure to follow the a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23taggies"tagline award news on Twitter/a via the hashtag a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23taggies"#taggies/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=149246" width="1" height="1"

pWhennbsp;you need to review your cases, check their statuses,nbsp;or add notes to open cases, you may notice your a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/casecentral/casesearch.aspx"Case Search/anbsp;results display more quickly. We#39;ve optimized the performance of the search engine on a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/casecentral/casecentral.aspx"Case Central/a to help keep your day moving along at a good pace. img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/emoticons/emotion-1.gif" alt="Smile" //p pWe#39;ve also updated the Date of Creation search field to default to the last three months, though you can select a different option in the drop-down menu if you prefer tonbsp;narrow or widen thenbsp;time frame. Likewise, if you know your case number, you can still enter it directly in the Case # field and click Find./p pnbsp;img title="Case Search" style="WIDTH:675px;HEIGHT:212px;" height="212" alt="Case Search" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/websitings/casesearch.gif" width="675" border="1" //p pIf you havenbsp;ideas for Case Central or othernbsp;resources on our support website, pleasenbsp;share themnbsp;in the a class="" href="http://bbwebsite.uservoice.com/forums/56738-blackbaud-com-idea-bank"Blackbaud.com idea bank/a!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=149075" width="1" height="1"

pHere#39;s a list of some of the a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/events/industryconf.aspx" target="_new"Industry Events/a that Blackbaud employees are attending in July. If you#39;re attending one of these events, we’d love to meet you - drop by and say “Hi!” /p ul listrongPartners In Mission: Advancement Conference (Elementary and Middle)/a/strong: Boston, Massachusetts (July 11 - 15)/li listrongCASE Summit for Advancement Leaders/strong: New York, New York (July 18-20)/li/ulimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=149072" width="1" height="1"

pEach month you ask us hundreds of questions. To help anticipate your questions in July, we#39;ve listed the top 10 questions, by module, for July of 2009 on a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/faqs/fe7.aspx" target="_blank"The Financial Edge FAQs/a. You#39;ll also find answers to the most popular questions from last week and information about critical issues./p pHere are the top questions you asked in June:/p ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:square;" liHow to troubleshoot performance issues in Blackbaud Application Hosting?: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/esupport/esupport.asp?resource=amp;number=0amp;id=BB296390" target="_blank"BB296390/a/li liHow to install or update The Financial Edge: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/esupport/esupport.asp?resource=amp;number=0amp;id=BB273248" target="_blank"BB273248/a/li liHow to void checks, bank drafts, and EFT notices: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/esupport/esupport.asp?resource=amp;number=0amp;id=BB59007" target="_blank"BB59007/a /li liHow to move to a new server: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/esupport/esupport.asp?resource=amp;number=0amp;id=BB114770" target="_blank"BB114770/a/li liError: Unable to establish database connection. Native error: 4060 when logging in: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB144086" target="_blank"BB144086/a/li liHow to reset a Blackbaud Application Hosting user#39;s password?: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB172996" target="_blank"BB172996/a /li li(Resolved) Blackbaud OnDemand Service Disruption Notification - All Applications (Atlanta Data Center): a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB707306" target="_blank"BB707306/a /li liHow to create a new database or add an additional database: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB110685" target="_blank"BB110685/a /li liHow to reprint a check: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB44059" target="_blank"BB44059/a /li liBlank dialog box or quot;iquot; error message when clicking on Create Now in Create Payments window: a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/esupport/esupport.asp?resource=amp;number=0amp;id=BB713272" target="_blank"BB713272/a/li/ul pTalk to you soon!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=148054" width="1" height="1"

pI know you weren#39;t expecting to hear that in July, but for many of you it#39;s the beginning of a new fiscal year.nbsp; We#39;re preparing a special comprehensive document about year-end processing but I thought you might want to get this little sneak peek first.nbsp; Before you can post, or use a Business Date in the next year, you need to create the date table.nbsp; The steps below will have you working in your new year in no time!/p ol liSelect General Ledger, Maintenance, Date Tables and click the New button./li liSelect your ID from the drop down. Don#39;t forget to create a date table for each ID Type!/li liSelect the number of adjustment periods (0-4)./li liMark the radio button for Next Year and click OK.br //li/ol pThere you go!nbsp; You#39;re ready to begin working in the new year.nbsp; img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/emoticons/emotion-15.gif" alt="Geeked" //pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=148135" width="1" height="1"

pSeveral times a week, we offer free, hour-long web seminars on our website. The seminars usually focus on Blackbaud products or best practices for nonprofits./p pTo register, select a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/events/webseminars.aspx" target="_new"Web Seminars/a from the Events menu on our website, find a seminar you want to attend, and click Register Now. Once you submit the enrollment form, you’ll receive an email with instructions for viewing the online presentation, as well as the telephone access number. If you’d like to enroll for additional seminars, click Continue after you fill out the enrollment form./p pHere are some of the web seminars coming up next week:/p blockquotestrongJuly 6:/strongbr /strongIntroduction to The Financial Edge, 2:00 p.m. ET:/strong Join us to learn about The Financial Edge, our accounting software. a href="https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100003672/Registration.aspx?pageName=73nb0lz1gz9l8qd7" target="_new"Register now/a/blockquote blockquotestrongJuly 8:/strongbr /strongIgnite your website with Blackbaud NetCommunity Spark, 2:00 p.m. ET:/strong Join us to learn how Blackbaud NetCommunity Spark can help you complement or expand your current online strategies. a href="https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100003672/Registration.aspx?pageName=041kshjcct1mxlqx" target="_new"Register now/a/blockquote pExclusive to our a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/raisersedge/archive/tags/Blackbaud+Learn/default.aspx" target="_new"Blackbaud Learn/a and Training Pass customers join us on July 7 at 2:00 p.m. ET, for strongEmbracing Technology for Moves Management Success/strong to learn how Moves Management can help you turn prospects into donors and on July 9 at 2:00 p.m. ET for strongGetting started with your Blackbaud Learn program!/strong to learn everything you need to know to take full advantage of your training program./p pHave a super weekend!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=148101" width="1" height="1"

pTo make it easier to search a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=home"Knowledgebase/a, we#39;ve added the Ask a Question box to a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/support.aspx"Support Overview/a so you can search directly fromnbsp;our main supportnbsp;page. Just type in key words, a phrase, or a solution ID (e.g., BBXXXX) and click Ask to view the corresponding search results in Knowledgebase. If you need to filter the solutions, you can select your product from the left sidenbsp;of the results page. /p pIf you#39;re not logged in, you#39;ll be prompted to enter your Blackbaud.com user name and passwordnbsp;when you click Ask. After you log in, the Knowledgebase search results will display.nbsp;If you neednbsp;assistance resetting your login, visit a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/loginhelp.aspx"Login Help/a./p pimg title="Ask a Question box" style="WIDTH:642px;HEIGHT:310px;" height="310" alt="Ask a Question box" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/websitings/kbaskbox.gif" width="642" align="middle" border="1" //p pHave an idea for how we can improve your online support experience? a class="" href="http://bbwebsite.uservoice.com/forums/56738-blackbaud-com-idea-bank"Share your suggestion!/a/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=148071" width="1" height="1"

pThe a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/guides/re7.aspx"user guides/a contain step-by-step instructions for using The Raiser#39;s Edge. User guides are in Portable Document Format (PDF) which can be opened with Acrobat Reader and are available for download on the a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/guides/re7.aspx" target="_new"User Guides section/a of our website. The Raiser#39;s Edge user guides are divided into the following categories:/p pEach month, we track how often each user guide is downloaded. Here are the User Guides that were downloaded the most last month:/p ul liThe bImport Guide/b provides how-to instructions for importing data into The Raiser#39;s Edge. /li liThe ba href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/raisersedge/archive/tags/The+Raiser_2700_s+Edge+7+for+Beginners/default.aspx" target="_new"The Raiser#39;s Edge 7 for Beginners/a/b is a lighthearted, informal introduction to The Raiser’s Edge. /li liThe bConstituent Data Entry Guide/b teaches you how to properly set up constituent records. /li liThe bGift Records Guide/b explains all procedures related to adding, editing, and deleting gift records./li liThe bQuery and Export Guide/b contains information on extracting and outputting data. /li/ul pYou can also navigate to the user guides directly from The Raiser#39;s Edge by selecting Help, User Guides./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147791" width="1" height="1"

pThis week, I presented a webinar on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to Blackbaud clients and interested organisations. It was an enjoyable session, and I think that we managed to share a lot of good information with organisations that are looking to get started with SEO or who are hoping to understand this area more.br /br /With this in mind, I#39;d like to share with you the key points of this presentation, as SEO can be quite a daunting topic to grasp. It#39;s often hard to know where to start, or if you can undertake an SEO campaign without the help of external providers./ppbSo what is SEO?/bbr /br /SEO is the process of improving your website#39;s performance in search engine rankings. It#39;s an area in need of continual improvement - you can#39;t tweak your website once and walk away and expect to achieve a good long term ranking. SEO requires hard work, patience, and an open mind with just a smidgen of luck thrown in as well!br /br /bHow do Search Engines work?/bbr /br /Most of the major search engines are crawler-based. This means that the Search Engine has created a program that constantly scans the internet, reading web pages and moving along links from this into other pages. These programs are often referred to as bots or spiders.br /br /Once a spider has scanned a page, this information gets sent across to the search engine index. The index is essentially a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider has found. br /br /Until your web pages are listed in this index, your website will not be found by searchers. Once your pages are submitted, the search engine uses software to review all of these pages and rank them in order of relevance (which is determined by an algorithm unique to the search engine.)br /br /bWhat#39;s all this fuss about keywords or key phrases?/bbr /br /Keywords (or key phrases) help tell a search engine scanning your site what your website is all about. You need to decide what search terms you would like your website to be found under, and then insert these into your website pages.br /br /The best way to start your keyword research is to take a look at what keywords searchers are already searching on, and what keywords people are already discovering your website through. Two great tools to help you do this are a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/" target="_blank"Google Analytics/a and the a href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000amp;__c=1000000000amp;ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none" target="_blank"Google Adwords Keyword Tool/a.br /br /Once you#39;ve determined the keywords you#39;re interested in, you need to ensure that:br //pulliThe keywords actually relate to the content currently on your website/liliThe keywords are inserted in your page titles and the top paragraphs on your page, as well as your meta data (for more information on meta data click a href="http://www.seoconsultants.com/meta-tags/" target="_blank"here/a)br //liliEach page on your site should be optimised for different keywords, otherwise all of your web pages will end up competing against each other!/li/ulYou can be sure a keyword is working well when it is driving traffic into your site and is promoting conversions.br /br /bWhat about site structure?/bbr /br /To make optimsing your website worthwhile, you need to ensure that the Search Engine spiders can follow all of the links between pages on your website.nbsp; To get started with this, make sure no links are hidden in images (particularly menus) and make sure that all links possible are HTML-based (or text links.)br /br /bAnd links?/bbr /br /Links into your website from external sites can also help improve your search ranking. To put it very simply, every site that links into your website is #39;voting#39; for your site, and the more #39;votes#39; you have, the more attention the search engines pay and the more credibility they will give to your site. Start fostering links in from all of your vendors, partners and any other sources, and you#39;re off to a good start.br /br /bFinally, how does our content affect our rankings?/bbr /br /The more content you have, the more keywords you can consider ranking on! The more content refreshing you do, the more the Search Engine spiders will return to your site to see what#39;s new and your search listings will remain up-to-date. If you never update, they are likely to return to your site every 12 months or less.br /br /br /img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147641" width="1" height="1"

pHere are the most popular Forums posts as well as unanswered posts and shared client documents from last week:/p pbMost Popular Topics:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15445.aspx" target="_new"Printing a list of selected members and their emails onto our electronic letterhead - How?/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15428.aspx" target="_new"Constituency Codes/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15458.aspx" target="_new"Gift types included in Annual Report (fiscal year)/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15397.aspx" target="_new"Segmented Direct Mail Runs/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14581.aspx" target="_new"Deceased Records/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15406.aspx" target="_new"separating out spouses/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15407.aspx" target="_new"How do others handle the need to add a PDF to an action record?/a/li/ul pbUnanswered Posts:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15404.aspx" target="_new"grateful patients/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15426.aspx" target="_new"AHP Benchmarking Survey/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15442.aspx" target="_new"Classifying amp; Organizing Prospects/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15415.aspx" target="_new"Volunteer Module - is it worth it???/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/15433.aspx" target="_new"Wish list item for date fields in queries... Date Age/a/li/ul pbShared Client Documents:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/p/15424/146503.aspx#146503" target="_new"Campaign Comparison Charts/a/li/ulimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147569" width="1" height="1"

pbPCI DSS/PA DSSnbsp;compliance.../bbr /The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council has mandated that all merchant processors use a certified payment application.nbsp; Blackbaud has validated compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (a href="https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_dss.shtml"PCI DSS/a) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (a href="https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pa_dss.shtml"PA DSS/a).nbsp; Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC) is PA DSS compliant with version 6.10 and later, and The Raiser#39;s Edge (RE) is compliant with version 7.91./p pbWhat changes have been made to The Raiser#39;s Edge?br //bIn order to make The Raiser#39;s Edge compliant with PCI DSS/PA DSS standards, we have developed the Blackbaud Payment Service (BBPS). BBPS will integrate with RE and store credit card and merchant account information in a secure environment.br /br /During the update to PA DSS version of RE, you will be prompted to choose whether to store your credit cards in BBPS or to delete them. If you choose to use BBPS, credit card numbers will no longer be visible in RE and will be replaced with reference tokens; users will see these token as the last four digits of the credit card number. When you process credit card transactions, the reference token in your database will summon the stored credit card number from BBPS to be used in the transaction.nbsp; /p pIf you choose not to use BBPS, back up your credit card data before updating to the PA DSS version of our software as all credit card information will be removed. Contact a a href="https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pci_qsa_list.pdf" target="_blank"Qualified Security Assessor/anbsp;(QSA) for advice on how to secure this credit card information in accordance with PCI DSS./p pbWhat changes have been made to Blackbaud NetCommunity?br //bAs with RE, Blackbaud NetCommunity integrates with BBPS to store credit card and merchant account information in a secure environment.nbsp; This change does not affect existing functionality.nbsp; For one-time donations, there is no change from a user perspective between an existing payment service and BBPS.nbsp; Your data will move from the existing service to the BBPS./p pIf you accept recurring debit or credit card gifts through BBNC, you will need to upgrade to a compliant version of RE to continue processing new gifts in your usual manner.nbsp; If you do not download credit card information into RE, you will not notice a difference between the current version of BBNC and the compliant version.nbsp; However, if you do not upgrade to the compliant version of RE, you will no longer have the option to download credit card numbers/tokens into RE./p pbHow to upgrade to the PA DSS compliant versions of RE and BBNC if Blackbaud hosts BBNC and you host RE.../bbr /If Blackbaud Application Hosting hosts BBNC and you host RE, it is important to schedule your update with Blackbaud before running the install file of the new version of BBNC on your RE7 Web Services server.nbsp; The BBNC web server which Blackbaud hosts should be upgraded to the latest version at or around the same time that you update your RE7 web services server.nbsp; After our hosting administrators upgrade your BBNC site to version 6.10 or higher, you should upgrade RE to version 7.91.nbsp; Review our a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB704084"Knowledgebase solution/a for more information about the update.nbsp; When you are ready to upgrade your site, contact our BBNC Support team; they will be happy to assist you with scheduling a time./p pbHow to upgrade to the PA DSS compliant versions of RE and BBNC if you host BBNC and RE.../bbr /If your organization does not plan to upgrade to RE 7.91, and you choose tonbsp;continue processing credit cards by exporting or printing credit card numbers, we strongly recommend that you contact a a href="https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pci_qsa_list.pdf" target="_blank"Qualified Security Assessor/a.nbsp; A QSA can advise your organization on how to secure your credit card data and authorize credit card transactions in accordance with PCI DSS./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147551" width="1" height="1"

pIn BBNC 6.15, you now have the option of sending email messages to selected constituents at specificnbsp;dates and times.nbsp; A good example ofnbsp;this would be an email message sent to your constituents during the month of their birthday.nbsp; You create the email template and a list based on an offline constituent query in RE.nbsp; BBNC will merge the information in the list with the merge fields you selected for the email template.nbsp; After the list and email template have been created, you#39;ll schedule the message for delivery.nbsp; The email will be sent on the scheduled day and time you select.nbsp; You can also set a recurrence for the email if you would like to send it daily, weekly, monthly, or annually./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147548" width="1" height="1"

pIn the next few weeks, I#39;ll be writing about new features and enhancements for BBNC version 6.15.nbsp; If you#39;ve ever wanted to capture information from your website users in an online form on your site, this can now be accomplished by using forms in the new Forms section of Site Explorer.nbsp; You design your forms in this new section and display the form by using the new Form Display part placed on a page.nbsp; After your website users complete and submit a form, the responses are accessible in the Data tab of the Forms section.nbsp; The Detail tab allows you to manage instances of forms that website users create, view the data submitted in the form, and export PDF files of the responses./p pCreating forms in BBNC is straightforward.nbsp; In Site Explorer - Forms, you click New form to open the Form Designer.nbsp; When editing in the Form Designer, you select the presentation and field elements to include in the form.nbsp; Presentation elements are the steps, sections, images, and explanatory text of the form.nbsp; Field elements are the fields you place on the form to capture the user#39;s responses.nbsp; They can be either text fields, text areas, radio button lists, checkboxes, checkbox lists, dropdown lists, and a special email field that sends confirmation emails to users who enter an email address./p pAfter you create the Form, you display the form on a BBNC page by using the new Form Display part.nbsp; The Form Display part allows you to create a landing page for one or more existing forms that have been designed in the Forms section.nbsp; When a website user views the Form Display part on a page, they will have the option to resume a form they started, or select a new form to complete./p pForms in BBNC are only one of the many new features included in version 6.15.nbsp; In the coming weeks, I#39;ll be explaining some of the other new featuresnbsp;of 6.15./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147547" width="1" height="1"

pDon#39;t worry if you missed our General Ledger End-of-Year Roundtable last week.nbsp;nbsp;You can watch the session online or check out the PowerPoint presentationnbsp;on a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/roundtables/financialedge.aspx"The Financial Edge Roundtables/a page. Here are some of the excellent questions your fellow GL users asked:/p ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:disc;" liWhat would cause amounts not to balance on the reports used for reconciliation? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liNumerous issues could cause out of balance issues. Sometimes not all accounts are included in the VCO or filters might be different on the reports. Refer to Knowledgebase solution a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB63184"BB63184/a for troubleshooting steps.br /br //li/ul/li liCan you close funds independently? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liNo, all funds must be closed together. br /br //li/ul/li liWhat#39;s the difference in soft-close and pre-close? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liSoft-closing just prevents data entry and is period to period. Pre-closing is for the entire year, and also will speed reporting by calculating the NSD in the backend.br /br //li/ul/li liIs there an impact to your performance to only soft-close? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liThe more years you have open, the longer it can take to process reports. Pre-closing or optimizing will allow you to gain the benefits to closing with the ability to re-open the years if needed. br /br //li/ul/li liWhen closing the fiscal year, will details be preserved after closing the year? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liIf the fund is marked to Preserve Details During Closing for projects then the balance will roll forward year to year. br /br //li/ul/li liIs it possible to close old fiscal years? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liFiscal years must be closed in succession from the oldest to the most recent. br /br //li/ul/li liHow many years do you suggest to stay home? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liSince there#39;s no harm in pre-closing, that can be done immediately. Hard closing is permanent so you should decide that based on your organization#39;s needs.br /br //li/ul/li liWhat#39;s the importance of having a back-up when closing? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liSince hard-closing is irreversible, it#39;s important to have a back-up in the case the data needs to be reverted prior to the close. This is recommended for all large processes in FE.br /br //li/ul/li liHow long does it take to close the fiscal year? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liThis depends on the size of the data so it can take from a few minutes up to a couple of hours for very large databases.br /br //li/ul/li liWill summarizing the fiscal year also summarize your AP and AR transactions? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liNo, the transactions summarization only occurs in General Ledger; the individual records in the subledger will remain intact.br /br //li/ul/li liHow do you default the budget scenario on the activity tab of an account? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liSelect Tools, Options from The Financial Edge menu bar, and select the Records tab. Under Account, highlight Account Activity. In the Account Activity Options screen, select the appropriate budget scenario from the Default budget scenario drop-down list. br /br //li/ul/li liHow do you default the budget scenario on the activity tab of an account? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liThis has been filed as a suggestion and may be included in a future version of FE.br /br //li/ul/li liWhen increasing budget scenarios with a percent, is there a way to go back and see what you chose? ul style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:circle;" liThis is not saved in the database. You#39;d have to mathematically figure out what the increase was using multiple columns on a report./li/ul/li/ul pLeave a comment with your GL end-of-year questions.nbsp; We can work together to get them answered.nbsp; Talk to you soon!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147166" width="1" height="1"

pOn June 15, Jay Love decided to pursue other opportunities outside of Blackbaud. For everyone here at Blackbaud Blogs, I would like to wish him well on his new adventure. I’ve always enjoyed reading his perspective on the nonprofit sector, and his insightful, funny, and always entertaining blog posts will certainly be missed. We’ll be keeping his blog here as an archive. Thanks for reading!/p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147513" width="1" height="1"

bCharleston, S.C. (June 29, 2010) /b– Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: a class="tracked" href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176673amp;p=irol-irhome" target="_blank"font color="#3d9fc8"BLKB/font/a) today announced that it will be the exclusive nonprofit sales channel for a class="tracked" href="http://www.theport.com/" target="_blank"font color="#3d9fc8"ThePort Network/font/a™ social networking solutions. The companies entered into an exclusive partnership to help nonprofits further engage their constituents by combining the world’s leading online and social networking solutions. p“There was a natural fit between Blackbaud and ThePort Network due to our mutual focus on helping nonprofits connect with their constituencies and our respective leadership positions as online and social networking solutions providers for nonprofits,” said Bob Cramer, chairman and chief executive officer of ThePort Network. “With 22,000 customers around the world and 4,600 nonprofits using their online products, Blackbaud delivers a comprehensive solution to nonprofits looking to better mobilize their constituencies, both on- and offline. We are pleased to further enhance that solution with ThePort’s social networking tools for online constituent engagement.”/p pThePort Network is the only social networking software provider that offers a complete set of products to equip nonprofit organizations with tools to help them take full advantage of the Internet. Providing social tools from blogs to full-scale online communities, ThePort Network offers social media products that enhance an organization’s ability to more effectively communicate and gain insight into constituent behavior. It is the only integrated social platform that offers organizations an easy way to drive awareness and traffic from public networks such as Facebook and Twitter to their own private communities where constituents can meaningfully engage./p pa class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/default.aspx?pgpId=2531amp;PRID=363" target="_blank"Read more/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147301" width="1" height="1"

pWe have identified an issue that causes users to receive the message a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB714461" target="_new"Error: The answer file #39;ICVER001.ANS#39; is not in a valid ICVerify format. This file will not be deleted, please enter the authorizations manually/a when processing credit card transactions in Batch in The Raiser#39;s Edge 7.91 using ICVerify 4.0.4./p pTo resolve this issue, a href="http://www.firstdata.com/icverify/"contact ICVerify Support/a and explain that you have updated to ICVerify 4.0.4, and you need the strongicvdll32.dll/strong and strongicvmlt32.exe/strong files to resolve the long string encryption/decryption issue. Once you receive the files, paste them into the ICVerify\ICWin404 folder and continue a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB37838"processing credit card transactions/a./p pThis has also been documented in Knowledgebase soltuion a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB714461" target="_new"BB714461/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147172" width="1" height="1"

pI#39;m happy to announce that patch 11, which implements a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/financialedge/archive/2010/06/09/canadian-hst-and-rebate-changes.aspx" target="_blank"HST/a, is now available for a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/support/downloads/downloads.aspx"download/a. If your database is hosted by Blackbaud, the patch will be applied to the OnDemand environment on July 11. /p pBefore installing patch 11, make sure you enter all invoices not subject to HST. This ensures GST and PST are calculated correctly.nbsp; After a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB104079"installing/a the patch, you#39;ll need to:/p ol style="LIST-STYLE-TYPE:decimal;" lia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB714330"Configure your database to utilize HST/a./li lia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB714335"Create activity types/a. These house your GST and PST rebate percentages as well as their receivable accounts./li lia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB714409"Create invoices/a with the appropriate sales tax item and PSB codes. /li/ol pFor more information about configuring HST, check out a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/guides/fe/gstcanda.pdf"The Financial Edge Guide for Canada/a. /p pTalk to you soon!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=147152" width="1" height="1"