CFO outlines move to Blackbaud, says "If it's not in Blackbaud, it doesn't exist"

At a meeting of the Town of Loxahatchee Groves Financial Advisory Committee, CFO David Delaney said the town is consolidating its accounting work inside the Blackbaud system and training department heads to use purchase orders and approvals there to reduce manual errors. "If it's not in Blackbaud, it it it doesn't exist," Delaney told the committee, summarizing the finance team's approach to creating a single source of truth.

Delaney walked members through a budget-to-actual report that compares straight-line budget targets to year-to-date actuals and described the mechanics he is promoting: department heads should create purchase orders in Blackbaud, invoices should be matched to those purchase orders, and the system will alert staff to outstanding items. "The system will tell you if you have outstanding purchase orders," he said, adding that most reconciliations are performed monthly while transactions are entered daily.

Town Manager Francine supported the move and said the previous accounting process required many manual adjustments. She and Delaney told the committee they will produce a fund-level profit-and-loss report in the format the committee requested and provide brief training or video primers so members can use Blackbaud to inspect invoices and line items. The committee asked Delaney to produce that fund-wise P&L and to share login instructions and a short primer for members.

Why it matters: Centralizing transactions in Blackbaud aims to shorten the time between expense approval and posting, reduce off‑book journals and make month‑end audit preparation faster. Committee members said better, fund-by-fund reports will make it easier to verify whether budgeted transfers have been recorded.