A Brief Map of Your Program

• Tell me briefly how your grants program is organized today, including primary funding sources and the approximate annual budget.
• How many active awards and subrecipients are you managing right now? Options: 1-25 awards, 26-100 awards, 101-500 awards, 501+ awards
• Walk me through a typical award from application intake to closeout, naming the systems, key documents, or spreadsheets used at each step.
• Which internal roles are responsible for eligibility screening, award approval, financial monitoring, and preparing audit responses? Options: Program director, Grants manager, Finance director, Compliance officer, IT or system admin, Shared responsibility, Other
• Who holds daily ownership of federal compliance activities for your pass through funds? Options: Program office, Finance team, Compliance team, Hybrid team, No single owner
• Are you open to replacing your primary tracking tool within the next 6 months? Options: Yes, No
• Please describe the main blocker if you answered No to replacing the primary tracking tool within 6 months.

Where It Actually Breaks

• If a single compliance mistake occurred tomorrow that would trigger an audit finding, what would it most likely be?
• Describe the last monitoring review or audit where your team was asked for corrective action, including the issue and your response timeline.
• Estimate how often you see questioned costs, disallowed cost flags, or similar audit issues across awards in a typical year. Options: Almost every year, Every few years, Rarely, Never tracked
• Tell me which types of documentation cause the most last minute scrambling during audits or federal reports. Options: Budget narratives, Expense backup and receipts, Timekeeping records, Subrecipient monitoring files, Procurement records, Other
• If a federal audit uncovered systemic documentation gaps, could your team produce the required evidence within 30 days? Options: Yes, No
• If No, please explain the single biggest blocker to producing evidence within 30 days.

How You Know the Program Is Working

• Name the top three measurable signals you use to judge program health and compliance, and indicate which you trust least.
• How do you currently calculate subrecipient spend against award budgets and federal cost categories like administrative versus program costs?
• Which reports are required for your federal submissions and internal oversight, and how often are they produced? Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, On demand
• Who would need to sign off internally before you could move to a contract if a pilot showed a 30 percent reduction in reporting errors? Options: Program director, Finance director/CFO, Procurement lead, Legal/compliance, Steering committee
• Which single metric, if improved, would most accelerate your willingness to proceed with a new system? Options: Audit findings reduced, Time to generate reports, Accuracy of expense classification, Staff time saved, Other
• Please provide a recent baseline for that metric so we can measure a pilot against it.

The Tools, Files, and Data You Rely On

• Walk me through the last time your primary tracking spreadsheet or system failed you during a critical submission, including the consequences.
• List the core systems, databases, and file formats we would need to integrate for a typical award, for example accounting exports, application forms, monitoring checklists, and payment logs.
• Do you publish award financials or monitoring outcomes to a central repository or public portal, and who maintains that access? Options: Yes, maintained by finance, Yes, maintained by program office, No central repository, Other
• Identify the one integration or data source that, if unavailable, would halt a migration or proof of concept.
• How frequently are your source systems reconciled to your award records? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad hoc

Alternatives You Are Considering

• Imagine you decide to keep your current approach, what measurable improvements would have to exist for you to avoid changing vendors or tools?
• List the external vendors, consultants, or internal options you are actively evaluating or that are currently incumbent.
• Have any internal groups proposed building a homegrown replacement instead of purchasing a vendor solution? Options: Yes, actively building, Yes, proposed but not building, No internal proposal
• What single factor would make you rule out an external vendor and commit to keeping or building internally?
• Rate your confidence that your incumbent or internal approach can meet federal reporting and audit readiness needs. Options: Completely confident, Mostly confident, Partially confident, Not confident, Unsure
• If you selected Partially or Not confident, please explain the gap you see most clearly.

Readiness, Constraints, and Gatekeepers

• Could missing API access or export capability from a key financial or grants system stop the implementation within your target timeline? Options: Yes, No, Unsure
• Identify each third-party system that must be integrated, and indicate whether an API, scheduled export, or manual extraction is available. Options: API available, Scheduled export, Manual extraction required, No access
• Name the person or role who will be the full time technical point of contact for integrations and data migration.
• Estimate the amount of cleanup your award and financial datasets need before migration using low, medium, or high. Options: Low, Medium, High, Unknown
• Are regulatory approvals, legal signoffs, or data use agreements required to share restricted data for a pilot, and can those be secured within 60 days? Options: Yes, required and obtainable within 60 days, Yes, required but longer than 60 days, No approvals required, Unsure
• What single operational constraint would force us to pause the project?

Decision Process and Timelines

• Assuming a pilot shows the outcomes you need, who must approve the final purchase and what typical timeline do they operate on?
• Describe the procurement steps, committees, or formal reviews that must sign off before a purchase order is issued.
• When do you expect to run a proof of concept or pilot, measured in weeks from a signed mutual commitment? Options: Within 2 weeks, 2 to 6 weeks, 6 to 12 weeks, 12+ weeks, Undecided
• Provide the title and level of the person with final budget authority to approve a purchase order and indicate whether funds are currently allocated in this fiscal quarter. Options: Budget allocated this quarter, Budget requires next quarter approval, No budget allocated yet, Unsure
• If a pilot met the acceptance criteria, what is the fastest realistic date your organization could sign a full contract? Options: Immediately, Within 30 days, Within 60 days, Within 90 days, Longer

People, Training, and Adoption

• Imagine your staff had to use a new grants workflow daily, what would make them resist or refuse that change?
• Please name the primary user groups and estimate user counts per group, for example program staff, finance, compliance, and external reviewers.
• On average, how many training hours per user do you budget for a system change of this scope? Options: <4 hours, 4-8 hours, 8-20 hours, 20+ hours, No standard budget
• Provide the titles of two to three staff who would be natural internal champions during rollout.
• Can your team maintain parallel operations for two months during a pilot without creating backlogs? Options: Yes, No, Only with extra temporary staff
• If No or Only with extra temporary staff, describe the minimum additional support you would need to run parallel operations.

Next Steps and Red Flags

• What single unanswered question or red flag would make you pause engagement right now?
• Which two small milestones would you need to see in a pilot to consider the project successful and move to contract?
• How would you prefer we report pilot progress and issues, for example weekly status calls, written scorecards, or a shared issue log? Options: Weekly status call, Weekly written scorecard, Shared issue log accessible to both teams, Ad hoc updates
• Who should be included in kickoff, pilot reviews, and final acceptance conversations from your side? Please list names or roles.
• Is there anything else that would help us prepare a realistic pilot and implementation plan for your program?

• Solution Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and its cost
• You confirm the demonstrated workflow eliminates the manual rework and single-point spreadsheet risks described in Discovery.
• Provide a representative award package and the current spreadsheet or export used to track that award, including sample transactions and monitoring notes.
• You confirm the compliance checks shown cover your federal requirements including 2 CFR 200 style controls and reporting needs.
• Map the solution to your grant lifecycle using a representative award
• Seller to configure and run the representative award scenario in a sandbox and deliver a recorded walkthrough of the executed workflow and outcomes.
• You agree on the remaining evidence and a short list of technical dependencies required for a commercial decision.
• Demonstrate enforcement and remediation for federal checks
• Seller to deliver a compliance mapping table showing how the enforced checks map to federal requirements (example 2 CFR 200 items) and any gaps to resolve.
• Validate the demonstrated future state
• Provide a draft list of integrations and data sources required for migration so the seller can produce a scoped implementation estimate.
• Agree remaining evidence and next decision steps

• Solution Experience Session
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Configure Application Forms and Intake Workflows
• Set Up Reviewer Scoring Portal
• Configure Award and Contract Templates
• Implement Disbursement and Drawdown Tracking
• Map Budgets to Expenditures and Reconciliation
• Configure Subrecipient Monitoring Workflows
• Activate Automated Federal Compliance Checks
• Enable Federal Reporting Exports and Endpoints
• Migrate Legacy Grant and Financial Data
• Provision User Accounts and Role-Based Access
• Deliver Administrator and End-User Training
• Provide Ongoing Support and System Maintenance
• Configure Closeout and Final Audit Reporting

Configure Application Forms and Intake Workflows

• Do you have existing application forms to migrate or redesign? Options: Migrate as-is, Redesign in platform, Create new forms
• How many distinct application types (intake form templates) will you require? Options: 1-3, 4-10, 11+
• Which mandatory federal attachments do your applicants submit (for example SF-424, budget narrative, indirect cost rate agreement)? Options: SF-424 Federal Assistance Application, Budget narrative, Indirect cost rate agreement, Other
• Who in your organization will own form updates and version control?
• Describe required conditional logic or routing rules (eligibility gates, budget thresholds that route to legal or finance review).

Set Up Reviewer Scoring Portal

• List the reviewer roles and permissions needed for application scoring (for example peer reviewer, panel chair, technical assessor).
• How many concurrent reviewers will access the scoring portal during review windows? Options: Less than 10, 10-50, 50+
• Provide the scoring rubric or criteria you use, including weightings for technical approach, budget, and community impact.
• Identify any blind review requirements or conflict of interest rules that must be enforced during scoring. Options: Anonymized review required, No anonymization, Partial anonymization
• Are reviewers required to submit narrative comments tied to rubric scores? Options: Yes, No

Configure Award and Contract Templates

• Do you use standardized award letters or multiple contract templates by program? Options: Single standard award letter, Multiple templates by program, Custom per award
• Specify mandatory award terms drawn from 2 CFR 200 or state-specific addenda that must be included in every award.
• Who signs awards in your organization and what is the required approval chain for contractual commitments?
• Indicate required budget line items and allowable cost restrictions that must populate contract schedules.
• Confirm whether electronic signatures and timestamped acceptance are acceptable for award execution. Options: Yes, e-signature acceptable, No, hardcopy required, Hybrid (some documents)

Implement Disbursement and Drawdown Tracking

• How do you currently initiate disbursements (manual check requests, ACH transfers, or federal drawdown portals)? Options: Manual check, ACH/Bank transfer, Federal drawdown portal, Other
• Which financial controls must be enforced before funds release (budget approval, invoice matching, expenditure certification)? Options: Budget approval, Invoice matching, Supervisor sign-off, Compliance checklist
• Who will own reconciliation between disbursements and your general ledger?
• How often do you expect drawdown reconciliations and financial reporting to be performed (monthly, quarterly, or per drawdown)? Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Per drawdown, Custom cadence
• Identify thresholds or limits that should trigger a review or hold on disbursement.

Map Budgets to Expenditures and Reconciliation

• Confirm whether a chart of accounts mapping exists that must align to grant budget lines. Options: Yes, mapping exists, No, mapping needs creation, Partial mapping available
• Provide the primary finance system or general ledger where expenditures are recorded.
• Name the fiscal year cadence and cost allocation method used for indirect costs or shared services.
• State the acceptable variance threshold between budgeted and booked expenditures that should raise reconciliation alerts. Options: 1%, 5%, 10%, Custom
• How will you flag questioned costs or disallowed expenditures tied to 2 CFR 200 cost principles?

Configure Subrecipient Monitoring Workflows

• Are you managing subrecipients subject to subaward reporting and risk assessments under 2 CFR 200? Options: Yes, No
• List the monitoring activities you require such as risk assessment, desk review, on-site visits, and financial sampling.
• Who will be responsible for issuing monitoring findings and tracking corrective action plans?
• Detail the sample sizes or sampling rules you apply for financial testing of subrecipients.
• When do you require escalation to program leadership for high-risk subrecipient findings? Options: Immediate, After confirmation of issue, At monthly review, Other

Activate Automated Federal Compliance Checks

• Prioritize the automated checks you need including exclusion list matches, Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) entity reporting, SAM.gov registration verification, and SF-425 spend rollups. Options: Exclusion list / debarment, FFATA entity reporting, SAM.gov registration, SF-425 rollups, All of the above
• How frequently should the system re-run debarment and exclusion checks (real-time, daily, weekly)? Options: Real-time, Daily, Weekly, On demand
• What acceptance criteria will confirm compliance automation is correct (for example acceptable false positive rate, coverage of required regulation checks)?
• Specify external reference lists or local policy documents we must consult when building compliance logic.
• How will you handle exceptions when automated checks flag a potential noncompliance? Options: Manual review and override, Create corrective action plan, Block progression until resolved, Other

Enable Federal Reporting Exports and Endpoints

• State the target federal reports you must generate such as SAM.gov submissions, FFATA files, and the SF-425 Federal Financial Report.
• Select endpoint formats required for automated exports (for example XML, CSV, JSON API). Options: XML, CSV, JSON API, Custom format
• Name the team or role that will maintain the receiving endpoint and supply API credentials for secure transmission.
• Indicate expected export cadence and cut-off rules for monthly and quarterly federal submissions. Options: Monthly close date, Quarterly cut-off, On-demand exports, Other
• Are there any agency-specific field-level validations we must apply before export? Options: Yes, No

Migrate Legacy Grant and Financial Data

• List the legacy data sources to migrate such as application records, award letters, payment history, and ledger exports.
• Estimate the total record counts for applicants, awards, and transactions that will be part of the migration. Options: Less than 10k records, 10k-100k, More than 100k
• What is the acceptable migration completeness threshold and data accuracy rate for go-live acceptance?
• Identify which fields require historical preservation versus which may be archived (for example award amendments, payment notes, monitoring findings).
• Who will provide extracts, data dictionaries, and sample files for each legacy source?

Provision User Accounts and Role-Based Access

• How many total users and how many distinct user roles will require provisioning? Options: 1-50, 51-250, 251-1000, 1000+
• Which groups need role-based dashboards and access to financial data? Options: Program staff, Finance, Executive, Subrecipient admins, Other
• Do you require single sign-on using your identity provider and which protocol do you prefer (for example SAML or OpenID Connect)? Options: SAML, OpenID Connect (OIDC), No SSO, Other
• Who will administer user onboarding and offboarding tasks in your IT or security team?
• Are there additional approvals required before provisioning access to sensitive grant financials, for example background checks or executive sign-off? Options: Yes, No

Deliver Administrator and End-User Training

• What audiences require training such as program staff, grants managers, finance teams, and subrecipient administrators? Options: Program staff, Grants managers, Finance, Subrecipient admins, All of the above
• How many training sessions and which delivery modes do you prefer (live workshops, recorded videos, train-the-trainer)? Options: Live workshops, Recorded videos, Train-the-trainer, Hybrid
• What acceptance evidence will validate successful training such as completion certificates, proficiency quizzes, or observed runbooks?
• Who will coordinate scheduling and participant enrollment for training sessions?
• Do you require role-specific user manuals or quick reference guides tailored to your program workflows? Options: Yes, No

Provide Ongoing Support and System Maintenance

• What support model do you expect post-go-live such as standard business hours, extended hours, or a dedicated account engineer? Options: Standard business hours, Extended hours, Dedicated account engineer
• Which support service level agreements (SLAs) are required for incident response and bug fixes? Options: 24x7 critical response, Business hours response, Next-business-day, Custom SLA
• How should software updates and maintenance windows be scheduled relative to your fiscal reporting periods or audit cycles?
• Who will be the primary contact for support escalation and change requests?
• Are there systems or periods where we must avoid changes such as quarterly or annual closeouts? Options: Yes, No

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Subscription Order Form
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Implementation Milestones & Acceptance Schedule
• Change Order Agreement
• Procurement & Security Rider (public‑sector only)

• Go-live Health Check
• First Measurement Review
• Acceptance Gate Review
• Quarterly Success Review

• Update training materials and the user FAQ to address the top recurring user errors identified this quarter.
• Schedule the acceptance gate meeting and circulate the required evidence package to reviewers.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Formally record pass or fail for each acceptance criterion recorded in Solution Scope and capture the named signatory for the acceptance decision.
• Document remediation tasks and firm resolution dates for any conditional or failed criteria.
• Confirm the legacy system is decommissioned or retained read-only and archive actions are scheduled or complete.
• Publish the acceptance decision and the evidence package to the shared workspace.
• Create a remediation tracker for any failed or conditional criteria with resolution dates and progress checkpoints.
• Complete legacy system archiving or read-only configuration and publish the archive verification report.
• Review current dashboard and trends versus targets
• Confirm the percent of awards with automated federal compliance checks and hours-per-week-on-manual-reporting remain on track with targets recorded in Solution Scope.
• Reduce the top recurring incidents and assign delivery windows for at least the top three enhancement requests.
• Validate audit reporting readiness and close or schedule remediation for any outstanding exceptions.
• Publish the prioritized enhancement backlog with expected delivery windows and estimated impact on named metrics.
• Close or assign resolution dates for the top five open incidents and circulate the updated incident burn-down report.
• Re-confirm acceptance criteria and owner list
• Confirm the deployment and data migration are functionally complete against the deliverables recorded in Solution Scope.
• Document the top 5 early issues with remediation timelines and accountable parties.
• Agree the verification steps and date for confirming remediation completion.
• Publish the go-live exception log with remediation owners and target dates.
• Complete and circulate the data migration completeness report showing percent complete and known gaps.
• Collect user access and licensing anomalies and reconcile against the trained-user roster.
• Present first measurement data
• Establish whether the user adoption rate and hours-per-week-on-manual-reporting are trending toward the targets recorded in Solution Scope.
• Agree a prioritized set of corrective actions with dates to close the largest gaps.
• Confirm the evidence checklist and submission timeline needed for the acceptance gate.
• Produce a short remediation plan that maps each corrective action to the metric it will move and the target date for re-measurement.
• Publish an updated adoption dashboard that includes weekly active users, hours per week on manual reporting, and data migration completeness percent.
• Present outcome evidence against each criterion
• Surface persistent operational issues and incident review
• Deployment and migration validation
• Diagnose variance and root causes
• Document pass/fail per criterion and record decision
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Enhancement requests and prioritization
• Agree corrective actions and timelines
• Blockers and open issues triage
• Confirm acceptance gate evidence plan
• Verify compliance reporting and audit readiness
• Agree remediation items and resolution timeline
• Immediate remediation actions and next steps
• Incumbent system wind-down confirmation
• Agree next quarter checkpoints