What to Look for in an Automated Grants Management Solution for NetSuite

By: Mark A. Brousseau | December 13, 2022

ARTICLE — What to look for in an automated grants management solution for NetSuite.

Managing grants has never been easy.

But the sudden shift to remote work arrangements has complicated things, particularly for non-profit organizations that manage their grants using paper forms and folders.  For these organizations, it is harder for staff to lay their hands on the information they need to effectively manage grants.

A time when data volumes are exploding, compliance pressures are mounting, and staff are stretched thin, non-profit organizations can’t afford the inefficiencies and risks of manual grants management.

That’s the reason more non-profit organizations are automating the way they manage grants.  But choosing the right grants management solution can overwhelm even tech-savvy grant managers.

Here is a checklist of four critical features to look for in an automated grant management solution:

  1. Full grants management and accounting. Manual grant processes bog staff down. Some automated solutions offer grant tracking, a step in the right direction. But deploying a grants management solution that integrates seamlessly with the NetSuite ERP enables non-profit organizations to manage the entire grant process from beginning to end. Grants managers can easily access grant information from a single platform – a single source of truth. Full grant management and accounting eliminates inefficiencies (e.g., no more compiling of data) and improves visibility and control (e.g., real-time insights into grant expenses and revenue).
  2. Automated direct and indirect cost calculations. Many non-profit organizations are managing more grants and awards with fewer staff. In many cases, staff time is consumed by tasks such as manually calculating donor expenses. Automated grants managment solutions that integrate seamlessly with NetSuite calculate indirect costs for donor chargebacks, freeing staff to focus on higher value activities that can help the organization achieve its mission.
  3. Full Matching of grants with other funding sources. Every non-profit organization wants to do more with less these days. Grants management solutions help non-profit organizations accomplish this, in part, by matching dollar-for-dollar grants with other grants.
  4. Pass-through/subaward grant tracking. Some non-profit organizations are a pass-through entity that provides funding to sub-recipients. But many non-profit organizations cannot effectively manage subrecipients. One reason for this is that many grant management systems only track inbound grant revenue. Look for an automated grants management solution that can generate outbound subaward grants and track pass-through subaward grants.

Non-profit organizations face more challenges in managing grants. With an automated solution that has the four capabilities listed above, organizations can address the challenges of managing grants.

Does your organization want to streamline its grants management?

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