Is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central a right fit for your non-profit organization? Here’s what you need to know.
The challenges of dealing with the pandemic added pressure to organizations worldwide. For non-profits, this not only meant scrambling to reinvent things like fundraising and volunteer coordination, but at the same time, need for your social, environmental, and humanitarian services increased globally.
For many non-profits, there was a demand to explore online fundraising options, find new ways to measure impact and ensure the security of their constituent and donor data as many staff transitioned away from in-person-only offices.
This is where cloud computing and SaaS solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help digitize your non-profit and alleviate many of these challenges. In fact, Microsoft’s commitment to the non-profit industry means that you can access relevant, affordable cloud solutions through ready-to-use technology, discount licenses, and grants designed specifically for the non-profit sector.
In this blog post, we’ll explore why Dynamics 365 solutions are a popular choice across a range of industries – including non-profit – and how they can benefit your organization.
Understanding the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Suite
First off, what is Microsoft Dynamics 365? Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based suite of business management solutions or applications that meet a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) needs. Each solution in the suite works as a standalone application and seamlessly integrates with the others if you require additional capabilities. There are a lot of advantages, including robust functionality and cost efficiency. It comes with a host of cloud-based benefits, including agility, reduced operational costs, and hassle-free software updates, to name a few.
Many small and mid-sized non-profit organizations find that the all-in-one Dynamics 365 Business Central more than fits their needs. Others that require specialized CRM functionality choose to add on Dynamics 365 Sales as well.
Dynamics 365 Business Central for Your Non-Profit Organization
Why should you consider Dynamics 365 Business Central for your non-profit? Business Central is a cloud-based ERP solution that is designed for small and mid-sized organizations. As it works on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, Microsoft is responsible for hosting, maintaining, and updating the software so that your internal team can get up and running without the effort and costs associated with hardware and software management.
You can also rest assured that your mission-critical business data will be protected from unauthorized access with automatic Microsoft data center encryption and other enterprise-level security features.
Once deployed, your team can access the software through any browser or device using an internet connection. If your non-profit is in an area where the internet is unreliable, you can also deploy the software on-premises.
Here's how Dynamics 365 Business Central can help your non-profit:
Business Central will streamline your financials, accounting, and operations under one unified platform. Here are some features and capabilities you should know about.
✅ Stress-free and modernized financial management
Business Central makes it easy to manage multiple companies and locations within a single system with the ability to post intercompany transactions automatically.
Consolidation is fast and automatic for multiple currencies, dimensions, and budgets.
You can easily set up authorization workflows and audit trails to verify and track transactions.
✅ Robust financial reporting and actionable insights
Business Central has robust financial reporting out of the box, with pre-built reports and dashboards you can customize to get real-time cash flow, identify financial trends, and improve your planning.
You can set up dimensions for different funds, grants, departments, projects, etc, and can simply filter down to the dimension you need for quick and streamlined reporting against multiple funders.
Reduce your month- and year-end closing times with connected general ledger, accounts receivable, payables, and fixed assets data.
✅ An all-in-one solution that will unify your company’s operations
With in-built CRM capabilities, you can record and track interactions and activities with your donors and volunteers, as well as manage campaigns.
The purchase ordering processing capabilities can be used for internal procurement and planning of supplies and materials if required.
The project management capabilities help you easily track time, expenses, and billing against funds or grants for specific projects.
✅ Seamless integration with solutions you may already use
Business Central easily integrates with Excel, and once connected, you can edit your information in Excel and publish data back into Business Central.
Connecting Word to your Business Central solution allows you to use pre-built templates you can easily customize for financial documents, vendor and donation letters, etc.
Business Central also seamlessly integrates with the Power Platform, along with over 2,000 apps from the Microsoft AppSource that can easily extend the functionality of your solution.
Learn More About Business Central for Non-Profits
If you'd like to learn more about Dynamics 365 Business Central capabilities for non-profits and how it can benefit your organization, get in touch with the team at Kwixand Solutions by booking a free consultation. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have.
We are a Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner based in Vancouver, Canada. We help clients across Canada and the US successfully implement and get the most out of their Business Central cloud solutions. We also offer fixed-fee and fixed-timeline implementation plans for Business Central for companies who are looking to constrain the risks of an implementation.