For a not-for-profit, financial clarity means more than knowing the bank balance. It means knowing what each program has spent, what is already committed and how much funding is still available under the conditions attached to it.
The starting point: separate systems, shared workload
An Australian not-for-profit delivers more than 100 ongoing projects, many funded by grants with conditions on how the money can be spent. Each month it processes around 500 supplier invoices, and 120 employees submit expense claims. Its finance processes were spread across three tools: Microsoft Dynamics AX for accounting, SAP Concur for expenses and Excel for project and fund tracking. Month-end took a week. The organisation replaced them with one platform. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Finance and Projects) is the core, extended with PRYME Fund Management, Continia Document Capture, Continia Expense Management and the Power BI apps for Business Central.
The challenge
No single system showed the full financial picture, so finance spent much of its time joining the pieces together. Project costs were the first problem. Posted costs were in AX, expense claims were in Concur, and budgets were in Excel. A simple question from a program manager, such as how much a project had spent to date, meant pulling figures from all three and reconciling them. Restricted funding added a second problem. Grant conditions, periods and commitments were tracked in spreadsheets. A fund could look available even when part of it was already committed through a purchase order. Keeping these trackers right depended on a few people updating them by hand. The third problem was manual handling. Approved expense claims were re-keyed from Concur into AX, and supplier invoices were entered by hand. Each transfer added work and created room for error. All of this came together at month-end. The close took a week, most of it spent collecting and reconciling data rather than reviewing results. By the time reports reached management, the next month was already under way.
The solution
The organisation moved to one connected platform, with Business Central as the central framework. Each extension handles one step of the process, inside the same system and on the same data.
- Projects and finance in one place Business Central Finance and Projects hold the general ledger, purchasing, payables and the project structure. Every transaction is coded to a project and the relevant dimensions when it is entered, and project budgets sit beside actual costs. Cost to date is a report, not an investigation.
- Funds tracked where the money is spent PRYME Fund Management replaced the Excel trackers. Funders and funds, restricted or unrestricted, are recorded with their amounts, periods and conditions. Funding is reserved for projects, and spending is posted against each fund. Finance can see what has been spent, what is committed and what remains available.
- Purchases approved before money is spent A program manager raises a purchase order coded to a project and fund, and the order goes through approval. This is the main control point for procurement.
- Invoices captured and matched automatically Continia Document Capture receives supplier invoices by email, reads them and matches them to the purchase order and receipt. If the invoice matches within the agreed tolerance, no further approval is needed. Only differences outside tolerance go for review. The invoice image stays attached to the posted entry for audit.
- Expense claims on a separate path Continia Expense Management replaced Concur. Employees photograph receipts in the mobile app or use the web portal, code each expense to a project and fund, and submit the claim. The claim follows its own approval workflow, separate from purchasing, and once approved it posts directly to Business Central.
- Reporting without spreadsheets The Power BI apps for Business Central give finance, program managers and leadership dashboards for finance, projects and purchasing, with fund reporting added. The data refreshes on a schedule, so no reports need to be rebuilt in Excel.
Each item is entered once, at the point where it starts, and carried through approval, posting and reporting.
The outcome
Month-end in one day. Invoices and expenses are processed and coded during the month, so little is left for the close. Finance now spends that time reviewing results instead of preparing data. One source of truth. Accounting, projects, funds, invoices and expenses all use the same data, so everyone works from the same figures. No double entry and no integrations. Invoices are captured automatically and expenses post directly. Because every extension runs inside Business Central, there are no interfaces between separate systems to build or maintain. A consistent user experience. All the extensions share the Business Central look and feel, so what staff learn in one area carries over to the others. Approvals that are easy to follow. Purchase orders and expense claims each have a clear workflow, with the approval history and supporting documents attached to the transaction. Reporting that stays current. Program managers see spent, committed and available funding for each project, so decisions are based on the full position, not just posted costs.
Lessons learned
(1) Design around the questions people ask. Cost to date, available funding and a faster close shaped every design decision. (2) Get the project and dimension structure right early. Reliable reporting depends on correct coding at the point of entry. (3) Agree the commitment rules up front. Decide when a commitment is created and when it is released, so costs are neither missed nor counted twice. (4) Treat purchasing and expenses as different processes. Purchases are controlled at the order, with invoices checked against tolerance. Expense claims need their own approvers and rules. (5) Involve program managers from the start. They code the transactions and use the reports, so their input keeps the solution practical. Finance now spends less time assembling numbers and more time helping program managers make the most of every dollar of funding.