How nonprofits can improve procurement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Procurement is not just about buying office supplies. Every purchase represents donor dollars, grant funding or operating resources that need to be managed responsibly. 

Yet for many nonprofits, procurement still happens through emails, spreadsheets, paper forms, and verbal approvals. A purchase request gets buried in someone’s inbox. A manager forgets to approve an expense. Finance discovers a budget issue only after an invoice arrives. 

These disconnected processes create unnecessary delays, make audits more difficult, and leave organizations with limited visibility into where money is actually being committed. 

During a Sikich webinar, attendees identified scattered purchase requests as their biggest procurement challenge. That isn’t surprising. As organizations grow, manual procurement processes become increasingly difficult to manage. 

The better approach for nonprofits is to centralize procurement in one connected system that provides visibility from the initial request through approvals, purchasing, reporting, and payment.

Watch the webinar 

In this session from our “Less chaos, more clarity” webinar series, Sikich and Sylogist demonstrate how nonprofit organizations can streamline procurement using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Sylogist Mission ERP. 

Watch the full recording to see how nonprofits can centralize purchase requests, automate approval workflows, track commitments and encumbrances, enforce budget controls and improve reporting without relying on disconnected systems. 

Procurement is about more than purchasing 

Procurement touches nearly every part of a nonprofit. 

Program teams need supplies and services to deliver on their mission. Department leaders need visibility into spending. Finance teams must maintain budgets, satisfy auditors and demonstrate accountability to donors and funders. 

When procurement processes are disconnected, organizations often experience: 

• Delayed approvals  

• Purchases that exceed available budgets  

• Limited visibility into pending spending  

• Incomplete documentation for audits  

• Duplicate purchases  

• Staff spending time chasing approvals instead of supporting the mission  

For many nonprofits, the challenge is not a lack of process. It is that the process depends on emails, spreadsheets and institutional knowledge instead of a connected system. 

Give every purchase a clear starting point 

A strong procurement process begins before a purchase order is ever created. 

Instead of emailing requests or completing paper forms, staff can submit standardized purchase requests that include the information finance and managers need to review the purchase. 

Supporting documents, vendor quotes and business justification can all be attached to the request, creating a complete record from the beginning. 

This provides a single source of truth instead of multiple conversations spread across inboxes and shared drives. 

Build approvals around your organization’s policies 

Approval workflows should support governance without slowing people down. 

Different purchases often require different approval paths depending on the department, grant, fund, program or dollar amount. 

With configurable workflows, organizations can automatically route requests to the appropriate managers while enforcing purchasing policies behind the scenes. 

Rather than relying on someone remembering who should approve an expense, the system guides each request through the correct process. 

The result is greater consistency, stronger internal controls and fewer approval bottlenecks. 

Know what has been committed before invoices arrive  

One of the biggest challenges in nonprofit finance is understanding future spending—not just expenses that have already been posted. 

Many organizations only see costs after invoices are processed. By then, it may be too late to avoid exceeding a budget. 

A modern procurement solution gives finance teams visibility into: 

• Purchase requests awaiting approval  

• Approved commitments  

• Purchase orders (encumbrances)  

• Posted expenses  

Seeing the full picture allows organizations to make better budgeting decisions and identify potential issues before money is spent. 

Strengthen compliance and audit readiness 

Donors, grantors and auditors increasingly expect clear documentation for every financial transaction. 

When procurement records are scattered across email threads and shared folders, finding supporting documentation during an audit becomes time-consuming and stressful. 

Centralizing procurement creates a digital audit trail that records: 

• Who submitted the request  

• Who approved it  

• Supporting documents and vendor quotes  

• Budget validation  

• Purchase history  

Instead of reconstructing events months later, organizations have documentation readily available whenever it is needed. 

Turn procurement data into better decisions  

Procurement information should do more than support day-to-day purchasing. 

When purchasing activity is centralized, nonprofit leaders gain better insight into spending trends, vendor activity and budget performance. 

Dashboards and reports help finance teams identify opportunities to improve purchasing, monitor expenditures and make more informed decisions about limited financial resources. 

The result is better stewardship of donor and grant funding while giving leadership greater confidence in financial planning. 

Still using Microsoft Dynamics GP? Start with our free assessment. 

If your nonprofit is still running Microsoft Dynamics GP, now is a good time to evaluate how procurement fits into your future ERP strategy. 

Many organizations using GP still rely on manual purchasing processes, disconnected approvals or third-party tools that create extra work for finance teams. 

Sikich is one of a select group of Microsoft partners with access to a GP to Business Central Assessment Tool that helps organizations understand their current environment before planning a move to Business Central. 

Our free assessment can help identify: 

• Current GP setup and configuration  

• Modules, ISVs and integrations in use  

• Customizations that may require attention  

• Data quality considerations  

• Potential issues that could affect your move to Business Central  

• Recommended next steps for planning your transition  

The goal is to provide practical insight before making technology decisions so your organization can move forward with confidence. 

Start your free GP to Business Central Migration Assessment

Plan your move with certainty, not guesswork.

Migration Assessment Tool

Sikich helps nonprofits improve financial operations—not just implement software 

Technology alone will not solve procurement challenges. 

The greatest value comes from designing processes that support your organization’s governance, financial controls and operational goals. 

Sikich works with nonprofit organizations to evaluate current procurement processes, identify opportunities for improvement and implement solutions that help finance teams operate more efficiently while strengthening accountability. 

From planning through implementation and ongoing optimization, our goal is to help nonprofits spend less time managing paperwork and more time supporting their mission. 

Is Business Central right for you?

If Business Central is the right fit, we’ll help you get there. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.

Talk with a Sikich ERP advisor

More from our “Less chaos, more clarity” series 

Part 1: How nonprofits can close month-end books with confidence – Sikich 

Part 2: How nonprofits can eliminate Excel workarounds with D365 Business Central finance reporting – Sikich 

Part 3: How can nonprofits simplify grant tracking from proposal to reporting?  

Part 4: How nonprofits can improve procurement with Dynamics 365 Business Central (You’re here) 

Part 5: How nonprofits can build budgets without the back and forth in Dynamics 365 Business Central (Coming soon) 

Part 6: How nonprofits can bring fundraising and finance together in Dynamics 365 Business Central (Coming soon)