Blackbaud FENXT

This page documents the current EzeScan WebApps approach for connecting to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT (FENXT) and implementing Accounts Payable invoice capture using the built-in integration pattern. It combines the connection prerequisites with the recommended deployment design for new cloud installs.

Overview

The Blackbaud FENXT built-in integration is intended for WebApps invoice automation scenarios, especially AP-style data entry where operators need to search vendors, allocate distributions, and submit invoice metadata in a structure suitable for Financial Edge NXT.

The current design for new cloud installs focuses on simplicity, performance, and maintainability. Compared with older implementations, it removes several moving parts that were previously hard to support, such as scheduled CSV exports, periodic sync of master data into SQL, and custom server-side route generation for distribution XML.

The key design principle is to use live integration search for vendor, account, and project selection, while storing vendor default distributions in Authority Server for easier management and faster user experience.

Prerequisites

• A licensed Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT environment

• An EzeScan WebApps environment with support for built-in integrations

• Access to the EzeScan Automated Invoice Processing environment for new Blackbaud connections

• A Blackbaud SKY application with a valid Application ID

• A Blackbaud user with Environment Administrator permission to connect the application

Connect the Blackbaud application

Before configuring WebApps fields, the Blackbaud application must be connected in the customer environment.

1. Open Blackbaud Marketplace.

2. Select Manage.

3. Click Connect App.

4. Enter the application ID from the SKY Developer My applications page.

On the SKY Developer page, open the application and copy the Application ID shown under the application name.

If the user does not already have the required access, Blackbaud recommends having at least one Organization Admin who is also an Environment Admin with full access to Blackbaud solutions, so they can process these requests.

To make a user an admin in Blackbaud:

1. Log in to the Blackbaud solution.

2. Go to Control Panel > Users.

3. If not using NXT, select Security from the omnibar/menu.

4. Find the user, or invite them first using Add user.

5. Use the menu button next to the user and select Manage roles.

6. Select Make admin.

Recommended WebApps implementation

For new cloud installs, the preferred FENXT deployment pattern is to keep the integration live for lookup operations, but persist vendor default distributions in an Authority Server lookup table instead of relying on Financial Edge exports or broad data synchronization.

Configuration reference

Vendor lookup field

Use an Integration Find field to obtain the Vendor ID and optional supporting values such as payment terms.

• Search action: Search for Vendors

• Display fields: VendorName,UiDefinedId,CustomerNumber,PaymentDefaults/PaymentTerms

• Output fields: VendorId

For automatic matching, search constraints can be added. If matching by vendor name, use the EQUALS operator for an exact match.

Recommended value mappings:

• Output value: VendorId;PaymentDefaults/PaymentTerms

• Display value: VendorName

This produces values such as 649 | Net 10 while displaying only the vendor name.

To extract the vendor ID from the selected field value, use:

{{fields["vendor_search"] | split("|",1)}}

Vendor default distributions

Create an Authority Server lookup table named vendor_default_distributions to persist the vendor’s last used distribution lines for later invoices.

Key columns include:

• vendor_id - numeric Vendor ID

• debit_account_number - dash-delimited account number

• debit_account_name - friendly account description

• percent - percentage with up to 3 decimal places

• account_class - account class if used

• ui_project_id - user-defined project identifier

• project_name - friendly project name

Distributions grid

Use a Lookup Grid field for coding invoice distributions. Configure the import source to use an Authority Server data query that fetches the vendor’s default distribution rows.

Display guidance:

• Add the custom CSS class distributions-field

• Allow users to add and remove rows

• Use a totals calculation field to show invoice total, distribution total, and difference

Debit account

• Field type: Integration Find

• Display format: pipe-delimited account number and description

• Display fields: AccountNumber,Description

• Enable empty searching

This pattern avoids loading hundreds of accounts into a dropdown and benefits from in-memory caching in the connector.

Credit account

Configure the same way as Debit Account, but with the appropriate value mapping for the credit-side account.

Percent

• Field type: Numeric

• Validation range: 0.001 to 100

• Decimal precision: maximum 3 decimal places

Amount

Use a Database Lookup field to calculate the amount from the invoice total and the row percentage. Set the display type to single numeric and allow editing so users can correct minor rounding differences.

{{ multiply(fields["percent"], 0.01, fields["Invoice_Total"]) | round(2) }}

Project

• Field type: Integration Find

• Display fields: UiProjectId,Description

• Enable empty searching

Use UiProjectId, not ProjectId, because that is the value required for invoice uploads.

Operational notes

• The design intentionally avoids older scheduled export and sync patterns.

• Vendor default distributions are maintained in Authority Server because FENXT vendor defaults are often not maintained well enough for invoice automation scenarios.

• On submit, add a stage that updates the Authority Server lookup table with the latest distribution values for that vendor.

• The current lookup-table update design is restricted to a maximum of 5 distributions per vendor because of current data query limitations around dynamic grid data.

References

• Blackbaud SKY Developer - My applications

There are 2 other internal resources available to EzeScan Support Staff only at this time:

• Connecting applications to Blackbaud FENXT 2024

• FENXT Deployment Guide for EzeScan Cloud Installs