Quick orientation: your grants landscape

• How many active grants does your team manage right now? Options: 1-10, 11-25, 26-50, 51-100, 100+
• In a typical month, how many reporting deadlines land in your inbox? Options: 0-5, 6-15, 16-30, 30+
• Who on your team is primarily responsible for grant reporting and reconciliation? Options: Grants manager, Program director, CFO/finance lead, Shared across roles, Other
• Which grant types do you administer most often? Options: Restricted program grants, General operating grants, Capacity building grants, Scholarships/fellowships, Contracts or government awards, Other
• Describe the tools or spreadsheets you use today to track deadlines, budgets, and reports.
• When was your last external audit or funder compliance review? Options: Within 6 months, 6-12 months ago, 1-2 years ago, More than 2 years, Never

Where the process trips you up

• What single reporting failure in the last 12 months would have cost you funding or at-risk relationships?
• Tell me about the incident, including who noticed it first and how it escalated.
• On average, how long does it take to assemble a complete grant report from your records? Options: Same day, 1-3 days, 4-7 days, More than a week
• Which steps in your current workflow consistently create the most delays or rework? Options: Expense reconciliation, Collecting program narratives, Approvals and signatures, Data entry and coding, Other
• Who else outside your team typically flags data or expense issues, such as finance or program staff? Options: Finance only, Program staff only, Both finance and program, External funder, No one usually
• If that same failure happened tomorrow, what immediate consequence would force you to pause similar submissions?

Compliance alarms and audit readiness

• What compliance requirement keeps you most awake the week before a major report is due? Options: Allowable expenses, Cash match documentation, Program outcomes evidence, Indirect cost allocation, Other
• Share a recent audit finding or funder comment that required corrective action, and how long it took to resolve.
• To what extent is your expense coding consistently mapped to each funder's allowable categories? Options: Always consistent, Mostly consistent, Inconsistent by funder, Not mapped
• Identify the financial controls that are missing or informal, and who would be accountable to put them in place?
• Are your bank statements, expense backups, and grant agreements stored where the finance and program teams can access them for reconciliation? Options: Centralized shared drive, Financial system only, Program folders only, Scattered across email and drives, Not stored centrally
• If an audit requested supporting documents for a random sample of awards, what fraction of files would be complete within 48 hours? Options: All, Most (75%+), About half, Less than half, Almost none

The other paths you're considering

• Name the alternatives you are actively evaluating besides working with an external partner. Options: Keep current process, Hire internal staff, Use another vendor, Build a custom solution, Other
• Have any internal teams proposed a do-it-yourself plan, and who would lead it? Options: Yes, finance, Yes, program team, Yes, IT, No internal proposal, Other
• Under what conditions would staying with your current tools be acceptable? Options: If error rate drops, If additional headcount is hired, If funders relax requirements, Never acceptable, Other
• List the incumbent vendors or platforms you consider in scope, and briefly note one strength and one weakness for each.
• How will you compare an external provider to an internal build, and which acceptance criteria matter most? Options: Cost, Time to value, Compliance coverage, Ease of use, Security and data controls, Other
• Identify who on your leadership team would veto an outside vendor, and what reasons they would give.

If this worked, what changes would you see

• Imagine automated deadlines and reconciliations cut your reporting errors by half, what would that enable your team to do differently?
• Describe the measurable success signals you would use to prove the engagement delivered value. Options: Error rate reduction, On-time reports, Time saved per report, Fewer audit findings, Staff capacity freed, Other
• Name the stakeholders who must see the results to approve ongoing funding or program expansion.
• How soon after go-live would you expect reliable, audit-ready reports on your top 10 awards? Options: Immediately, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, Longer than 90 days
• To what extent would removing manual reconciliation free up staff time for higher-value work like funder strategy or program evaluation? Options: Liberate most time, Free moderate time, Small improvement, No change expected
• Point to the single metric or outcome that would make your team say the project paid for itself within 12 months.

Readiness: data, systems, and people

• Suppose we needed full API access to your grants and finance systems for a 90-day pilot, who would approve that and how quickly would they say yes?
• List the systems we will need to integrate with to automate deadlines, expense codes, and reporting exports. Options: Accounting system, Grants database, CRM for applicants, Document storage, Payroll/time tracking, Other
• Are there legal, data use, or funder confidentiality requirements that would limit the data you can share? Options: Yes, strict restrictions, Some limitations, No major restrictions, Unsure
• Point to the person on your IT or finance team who would own connections and ongoing maintenance, and indicate whether they have capacity. Options: Named owner with capacity, Named owner without capacity, No named owner yet, Shared responsibility
• Estimate how clean and centralized your historical grants data for the last three fiscal years is, and where it lives. Options: Highly centralized and clean, Partially centralized, needs cleanup, Distributed across drives and email, Missing key records
• Do any regulatory approvals or funder signoffs exist that could delay a pilot or full deployment? Select all that apply. Options: Board approval, Legal review, Funder data agreement, Security or privacy review, None
• Estimate if critical data is missing, the fastest route to reconstructing it, and how many staff days that would take. Options: Less than 5 staff days, 5-15 staff days, 15-40 staff days, More than 40 staff days, Cannot be reconstructed

Decision, timing, and budget realities

• Tell me the single obstacle that would stop this deal from moving forward in the next 30 days.
• Select the budget range that has been allocated or approved for third-party support and platform costs for this work. Options: No budget yet, $10k-$25k, $25k-$75k, $75k-$200k, $200k+
• Provide the roles that will sign the engagement, and the roles that must be consulted before a signature.
• Assuming a pilot proves the promised reconciliation rate, what internal steps would accelerate signing a full contract? Options: Fast track approval, Additional reference checks, Security review, Budget approval, Other
• On a scale from 1 to 5, how urgent is this problem for your leadership relative to other funding priorities? Options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Explain which internal metrics or ROI thresholds you will need to see to justify ongoing subscription or retained advisory spend.

Commitments and next steps

• Imagine you were ready to move forward now, what small first milestone would get your finance and program teams comfortable signing on? Options: Pilot on 5 awards, Security review completed, Reference checks done, Budget line approved, Other
• Choose the decision window that best matches your calendar for a pilot and initial contract. Options: Immediately, Within 30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, Not sure
• Select the level of engagement you would prefer for the pilot phase. Options: Platform only, Advisory + platform, Advisory-led with platform enablement, Lightproof of-concept
• Do you need reference calls, a security review, or a technical sandbox before approval? Select all that apply. Options: Reference calls, Security and compliance review, Technical sandbox, Price proposal, None
• Provide the main point of contact for scheduling the next working session and gathering required documentation.

• Engagement Assumptions and Data Intake
• Current-State Workflow Mapping (per portfolio)
• Financial Reconciliation and Reporting Gap Analysis
• Remediation Prioritization and Quick-Action Plan

• Prepare any SOP drafts, report templates, or reconciliation worksheets required to execute agreed quick wins.
• Provide sample award documents, reporting packets, and transaction records referenced during the session.
• List the data sources and system screens used at each handoff for later reconciliation work.
• Recap relevant workflow findings and scope for reconciliation
• A ranked list of reconciliation exceptions with root causes and required evidence is produced.
• A list of reporting misalignments against funder templates with remediation notes is produced.
• Prioritization criteria for remediation is agreed to enable backlog scoring.
• Provide transaction-level exports for all items flagged as exceptions for deeper analysis.
• Share official funder report templates and any recent submitted reports for comparison.
• Deliver a reconciliation workbook that logs each exception, its root cause hypothesis, and required evidence fields.
• Review ranked gaps and prioritization rationale
• A ratified remediation backlog with owners, target dates, and checkpoints is agreed.
• Quick wins are selected, with implementation steps and target completion dates documented.
• Acceptance criteria for completed remediation items and the review cadence are confirmed.
• Publish the prioritized remediation backlog with owner roles, timelines, and acceptance criteria.
• Schedule the first implementation checkpoint meeting for quick wins.
• Confirm scope and success criteria
• Assumptions are validated or updated and captured as the basis for all working sessions.
• A detailed data and artifact inventory with delivery deadlines is agreed.
• A schedule for portfolio-level mapping sessions is confirmed.
• Provide the agreed data extracts and sample artifacts by the confirmed deadlines.
• Share read-only access or exports for accounting and grants systems for the selected sample grants.
• Publish the finalized session schedule and participant list for each portfolio session.
• Confirm portfolio scope and participants
• Deliver a current-state workflow map for the portfolio with named owners and handoffs.
• A list of exceptions and manual workarounds that require further analysis is captured.
• A defined set of follow-up evidence or documents needed to close open questions is agreed.
• Deliver the draft current-state workflow map for asynchronous review within the agreed timeframe.
• Reconcile sample transactions to grant budgets and ledgers
• Propose remediation approaches per top gap
• Validate engagement assumptions
• Walk the end-to-end workflow
• Compare current reports to funder requirements
• Create data and artifact inventory
• Select quick wins and define implementation steps
• Identify decision points and ownership
• Assign owners, timelines, and checkpoints
• Identify root causes and evidence needs
• Agree access and sample selection plan
• Capture exceptions and ad-hoc workarounds
• Validate the workflow map and outstanding questions
• Agree criteria to prioritize remediation items
• Finalize acceptance criteria and next meeting cadence
• Schedule per-portfolio sessions

• Solution Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and its cost to your team
• You confirm the described manual tracking process and agree the quantified costs reflect your reality.
• Run the platform automation on the provided grant scenario and deliver the reconciled audit-ready report plus a discrepancy log before the follow-up decision meeting.
• You confirm the automated deadline workflow eliminates the missed-deadline scenarios shown in the walkthrough.
• Walk through one of your grant scenarios end-to-end
• Provide two representative grant scenarios, including recent transaction exports and the reporting templates your auditors expect, for the live walkthrough.
• Share the acceptance criteria your auditors or funders require for reporting and expense allowability.
• You confirm the reconciliation output and audit-ready report produced from your scenario meet the evidence needs for your auditors and funders.
• Prove automated deadline orchestration with your scenario
• Prove automated expense reconciliation and audit report
• Agreement on what remaining evidence is required and a clear next step to procurement or pilot approval.
• Produce a one-page evidence pack that quantifies projected time saved, reduction in late reports, and estimated avoided disallowed expense exposure based on the walkthrough.
• Validate the future state
• Agree on remaining evidence and next steps toward decision

• Solution Experience Session
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief — Audit-ready Grant Management

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Migrate Historical Grant Records
• Configure Grant Lifecycle Workflows
• Set Up Automated Deadline and Reminder Rules
• Map and Configure Allowable Expense Categories
• Integrate Accounting System and Bank Feeds
• Deploy Award Disbursement and Payment Schedules
• Build Compliance and Audit Trail Logs
• Create Funder Reporting Templates and Exporters
• Write and Submit Grant Proposals
• Prepare Post-Award Reporting Packages
• Perform Financial Reconciliation for Award Budgets
• Implement Role-Based Permissions and Approvals
• Configure Automated Grant Closeout Procedures
• Train Staff on Platform and Compliance Workflows

Migrate Historical Grant Records

• Provide the primary file formats of your historical grant records (e.g., CSV award exports, PDF award agreements, spreadsheets). Options: CSV, XLSX, PDF, Accounting export (GL), Other
• List the three key identifiers you use to reconcile awards to your ledger (e.g., award ID, internal project code, funder grant number).
• Identify the fiscal years and award cycles that must be included in migration (for example: FY2018-FY2025). Options: Last 2 fiscal years, Last 3-5 fiscal years, All records since inception, Custom range
• Describe the folder or folder+metadata conventions you currently use to store award agreements and supporting documents.
• Estimate the count of award-level records and total attachments to migrate. Options: Less than 500 awards, 500-2,000 awards, 2,000-10,000 awards, More than 10,000 awards
• What migration completeness percentage will confirm the historical grant migration is accepted? Options: 95%, 97%, 98%, 99%

Configure Grant Lifecycle Workflows

• Specify the standard stages your award lifecycle must reflect (for example: Application Received, Awarded, Active, Reporting Due, Closed).
• Detail the routing rules for moving an award between stages (for example: automated stage change on signed agreement upload).
• Indicate the triggers that should create tasks or assignments (for example: a disbursement release, report due date, budget variance).
• Assign the owner roles for each lifecycle stage (examples: program officer, grants manager, finance reviewer). Options: Program Officer, Grants Manager, Finance Reviewer, Executive Director, Other
• Provide the expected SLA or turnaround times for stage-level actions (for example: acknowledge application within 3 business days). Options: 24 hours, 3 business days, 1 week, Custom
• Are there conditional workflows tied to funder terms (for example: restricted funds requiring additional approvals)? Options: Yes, No

Set Up Automated Deadline and Reminder Rules

• Indicate the types of deadlines to automate (examples: interim reports, final reports, budget revisions). Options: Interim reports, Final reports, Budget revisions, Audit responses, Other
• Provide the reminder cadence you prefer for report deadlines (examples: 30/14/3 days before due date). Options: 30/14/3 days, 14/7/1 week, Custom schedule, Daily until complete
• Name the channels your team uses for reminders (examples: email, in-platform notification, Slack/workspace). Options: Email, In-platform notification, Shared inbox, Other
• Specify whether reminders should escalate to supervisors after missed deadlines and at what threshold. Options: Yes, escalate after 3 days, Yes, escalate after 7 days, No escalation, Custom
• Detail any exceptions to automated reminders (for example: funder grace periods, approved extensions).
• Confirm who will be authorized to create or override deadline rules in the system. Options: System Admins only, Grants Manager + Admins, Program Officers + Admins, Custom role list

Map and Configure Allowable Expense Categories

• Identify the expense categories required by your major funders (examples: personnel, travel, indirect costs, equipment). Options: Personnel, Travel, Equipment, Supplies, Indirect/Overhead, Other
• Specify any funder-specific restrictions or caps per category (for example: travel capped at 10% of award).
• Describe how your chart of accounts maps to award budget line items and whether a one-to-one mapping exists. Options: One-to-one mapping, Many-to-one mapping, No existing mapping, Custom mapping required
• Provide examples of disallowed expenses your organization has encountered in audits or funder guidance.
• State the tolerance threshold for expense reclassification before a reconciliation exception is raised (for example: $500 or 5% of line). Options: $100, $500, 1% of line, 5% of line, Custom
• Are there expense categories that require supporting documentation at submission (examples: invoices, timesheets, receipts)? Options: Yes, No

Integrate Accounting System and Bank Feeds

• Provide the name of your primary accounting system export type (for example: general ledger export, CSV trial balance).
• List the bank account types and number of bank feeds required (for example: operating, restricted fund, custody accounts).
• Identify your expected mapping between bank feed transactions and award-level ledger entries.
• Confirm the cadence for financial syncs you require (examples: daily, nightly, weekly). Options: Daily, Nightly, Weekly, Monthly
• At what data accuracy threshold (for example: 99%) will you validate accounting integration as successful? Options: 95%, 97%, 99%
• Are there any bank feeds or account types that are out of scope for this integration? Options: Payroll accounts, Petty cash, Investment accounts, All in scope

Deploy Award Disbursement and Payment Schedules

• Detail the typical disbursement cadence you use for awards (for example: lump sum, quarterly, milestone-based). Options: Lump sum, Quarterly, Monthly, Milestone-based
• Indicate required approval steps before releasing funds (examples: finance sign-off, program officer approval, executive sign-off).
• Specify payment methods supported for disbursements (for example: ACH, check, wire) and any restrictions. Options: ACH, Check, Wire, Other
• Provide examples of milestone deliverables that must be met before a disbursement is issued.
• Who is responsible for reconciling disbursement records to the award ledger and at what frequency? Options: Grants Manager monthly, Finance monthly, Grants Manager weekly, Custom
• Specify any vendor or payee validation steps required prior to first-time disbursements.

Build Compliance and Audit Trail Logs

• Identify the types of events that must be captured in the audit trail (examples: edits to budgets, acceptance of reports, user approvals). Options: Budget edits, Report submissions, User approvals, Data exports, Other
• Detail the retention period required for audit logs to meet your funder or regulatory obligations. Options: 3 years, 6 years, 7 years, Custom
• Describe the tamper-evidence or immutability requirements for audit records (for example: write-once timestamps, cryptographic hashing).
• Provide the list of user actions that should require an approval workflow and be recorded in the audit log.
• What evidence will validate audit-readiness for your compliance and audit trail logs (for example: export of time-stamped receipts, user-signed approvals)?
• Are internal audit or external auditor access requirements (for example: read-only export endpoints) needed for your reviewers? Options: Yes, No

Create Funder Reporting Templates and Exporters

• List the funder report templates you must produce regularly (examples: interim narrative, expense schedule, KPI dashboard).
• Specify the export formats required by funders (for example: PDF, Excel schedule, CSV data extract). Options: PDF, Excel, CSV, Custom XML/JSON
• Identify funder-specific field mappings for financial tables (for example: funder budget line to your chart of accounts).
• Provide the reporting cadence and submission deadlines for each funder template.
• Specify whether exports must include supporting attachments (for example: invoices or receipts) and in what format. Options: Yes, include attachments, No attachments, Attachments on request
• Are there automated checks you want before report exports (examples: budget-to-ledger reconciliation, missing receipt blocking)? Options: Yes, No

Write and Submit Grant Proposals

• Describe the proposal components you expect us to produce (examples: narrative, budget, logic model, attachments).
• Provide the standard proposal templates or funder question sets you require us to use.
• State the timelines for draft review cycles you prefer (for example: initial draft within 2 weeks, two review rounds). Options: Initial draft 1 week, Initial draft 2 weeks, Custom
• Identify internal approvers and their turnaround expectations for proposal sign-off.
• Clarify any budget approval limits or thresholds that change who must authorize a submission. Options: Up to $10k authorizes manager, Above $10k requires director, Other
• Specify out-of-scope items for proposal services (examples: long-term fundraising strategy retainers, full-time staffing, custom integrations beyond standard templates).

Prepare Post-Award Reporting Packages

• Identify required post-award report elements for your funders (examples: narrative progress, expense schedule, beneficiary data).
• Provide the supporting documentation that must accompany post-award reports (examples: signed timesheets, invoices, receipts).
• Specify the internal review steps and sign-offs required before report submission.
• Indicate how often post-award reports are required per award (examples: quarterly, semiannual, annual). Options: Quarterly, Semiannual, Annual, Other
• Describe any beneficiary-level data or outcome measures that must be exported with reports.
• Do you require automated reminders and pre-populated drafts for recurring post-award reports? Options: Yes, No

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Commercial Terms & Payment Schedule
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
• Data Access & Security Authorization
• Governance Cadence & Reporting Annex
• Acceptance Criteria & Sign-Off Checklist
• Change Order Agreement
• Notice to Proceed (Work Start Authorization)

• Go-live health check
• First outcomes measurement and incumbent wind-down
• Quarterly operational review
• Annual outcomes review and continuous improvement planning

• Document and publish the issue and enhancement request channel procedure and triage SLA.
• Provide a blocker closure plan with milestones for any items flagged as preventing target attainment.
• Outcomes recap and trend review
• Quarterly trends for on-time report submission rate and audit findings count are documented with agreed corrective actions where targets are not met.
• All persistent blockers are prioritized and assigned a closure plan in the operational backlog.
• Enhancement requests are triaged and a next-step decision is recorded for each high-priority request.
• Update the operational backlog with prioritized enhancement requests and publish estimated timelines for high-priority items.
• Deliver an audit-evidence checklist that maps system reports to each compliance requirement for operational owners.
• Annual performance versus targets
• Annual metric outcomes for number of disallowed expenses per quarter and hours per week on manual reporting are validated against Engagement Scope targets.
• A prioritized 12-month improvement roadmap is agreed with expected impact on the named metrics and completion milestones.
• A maintained channel and SLA for issue reporting and enhancement requests is confirmed for operational continuity.
• Publish the annual performance report with comparison to Engagement Scope targets and recommended roadmap items.
• Produce the prioritized improvement roadmap with milestones, verification criteria, and dates for delivery.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• All critical deployment validations confirmed or have a named remediation owner and resolution date.
• Early adoption issues are captured and prioritized with agreed next steps.
• Stakeholders confirm the first measurement meeting date and required data sources.
• Produce and circulate a short deployment validation log with open issues and resolution dates.
• Provide access details and sample report exports required for measurement purposes.
• Present first-period outcomes
• Measured values for on-time report submission rate and hours per week spent on manual reporting are reviewed and documented against Engagement Scope targets.
• A clear remediation plan addressing top root causes is agreed with dates for completion.
• Legacy spreadsheet and email workflows are assigned a retirement status with a date or an approved read-only retention plan.
• Publish the first-period KPI report showing on-time report submission rate and hours spent on manual reporting versus targets recorded in Engagement Scope.
• Deliver a remediation plan for the top three root causes with resolution dates and verification criteria.
• Execute the agreed archival or decommissioning steps for legacy spreadsheets and email, and confirm completion in the next checkpoint.
• Root cause diagnosis for gaps
• Deployment and data migration validation
• Open issues and blocker burn-down
• Audit-readiness and compliance posture
• Enhancement and support request triage
• Early adoption and usage signals
• Improvement roadmap and prioritization
• Incumbent wind-down status
• Compliance process operationalization check
• Blockers and immediate remediation actions
• Agree corrective actions and timelines
• Ongoing support and issue channel maintenance
• Confirm next checkpoints
• Confirm data and evidence for ongoing measurement