The short answer
Many international NGOs run fundraising and proposals in Salesforce. Once an opportunity is won, the work moves to grant execution and fund accounting. GrantFlow 365 on Business Central takes the proposed budget from Salesforce, converts it into the grant contract, and runs control and reporting from there through closeout.
For many INGOs, Salesforce is the system of engagement for fundraising, major donors and opportunity tracking. Business development teams use it to build institutional relationships and follow a proposal from concept note to award negotiation.
Once an opportunity is won, the work changes. Post-award execution needs restricted fund control, commitment accounting, indirect cost handling, multi-currency reconciliation and donor reporting, and that is what a non-profit ERP is built for. Without a bridge, finance re-keys the award into spreadsheets or separate accounting software.
It compares Dynamics 365 vs Salesforce for NGOs and shows a Salesforce grant management integration with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 NGO ERP.
The as-is state: two systems and a manual handoff
Double data entry
Budget lines and currency terms entered in Salesforce are created again in finance.
Proposal and spend disconnected
Programme managers cannot see live spend against the budget that was proposed.
Audit gaps
Pledges in the CRM and cash recognised in the ledger can drift apart, with no shared record.
The to-be state: Salesforce in front, Business Central behind
Salesforce stays the front-office master for opportunities and proposals. Business Central with GrantFlow 365 becomes the master for grant execution, fund accounting and compliance.
Salesforce owns
The relationship and the proposal.
- Leads, accounts, proposals and opportunities
- Pipeline stages and probabilities
- The proposed budget on the opportunity
Business Central and GrantFlow 365 own
The grant from award to closeout.
- The opportunity budget received from Salesforce
- The grant contract converted from it, used for reporting and control through closeout
- Commitment control, fund accounting and donor reporting
One direction, kept deliberately simple
The sync is a proposal feed.
- Salesforce feeds the proposed budget into Business Central
- The contract is not written back over the proposal in Salesforce
How the proposal sync works
- IngestProposed budget lines arrive from Salesforce: project, category and amount.
- ValidateThe project, category and amount are checked.
- MatchEach line is matched on the Salesforce Id.
- UpsertThe line is created or updated on the opportunity budget in Business Central.
- ConvertWhen the opportunity is won, the proposal converts into the grant contract.
- ExecuteSpending is controlled against the contract, through closeout.
GrantFlow 365 publishes write APIs for opportunity budget lines and financial-year lines, so a Salesforce flow can create and update them. Which Salesforce event triggers the feed, and the tool that carries it, are decided in an integration blueprint session.
As-is against to-be
| Capability | As-is: Salesforce plus separate accounting | To-be: Salesforce with GrantFlow 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunity management | In Salesforce | Still in Salesforce |
| Budget in the ERP | Re-keyed from emails and contracts | Fed from the proposal, matched on the Salesforce Id |
| Contract and control | A spreadsheet beside the ledger | A grant contract in Business Central, with commitment control |
| Pipeline against spend | Reports from separate systems | Grant data published through APIs for Power BI |
| Audit lineage | A broken link between proposal and invoice | Opportunity budget, contract and ledger entries in one system |
Sending live grant status and balances back to Salesforce is not part of the standard sync. GrantFlow 365 publishes grant award, budget line and disbursement data through read APIs, so a feedback loop can be scoped for your Salesforce instance.
Using Dynamics 365 Sales instead
If your pipeline runs in Dynamics 365 Sales, Business Central connects to it through Microsoft's standard, out-of-the-box integration, so no custom bridge is needed for the shared customer and order data. How a Sales opportunity relates to a GrantFlow 365 opportunity is agreed in design.
What changes for your teams
No re-keying of the budget
Proposed lines arrive in Business Central instead of being typed again.
A clean handover
The proposal becomes the grant contract, and the contract drives control.
Control after the award
Spending is checked against the contract through closeout, with hard stop, approval or warning handling.
To scope a Salesforce integration, book a GrantFlow 365 blueprint session or read the GrantFlow 365 product page.
Keep reading
The grant lifecycle
From opportunity to closeout in one record. Read the guide
The Microsoft cloud for NGOs
Power BI, the Power Platform and Entra ID around the ledger. Read the guide
Business Central for NGOs
The core guide to fund accounting, grants and multi-currency control. Read the guide
Frequently asked questions
Can Salesforce opportunities feed GrantFlow 365?
Yes. Proposed budget lines from Salesforce are validated, matched on the Salesforce Id and upserted onto the opportunity budget in Business Central. When the opportunity is won, the proposal converts into the grant contract.
Does GrantFlow 365 write data back to Salesforce?
The standard sync is one-directional and does not write the contract back over the proposal. Grant data is published through read APIs, so a feedback loop can be scoped for your Salesforce instance.
Can we use Dynamics 365 Sales instead of Salesforce?
Yes. Business Central connects to Dynamics 365 Sales through Microsoft's standard integration. How a Sales opportunity relates to a GrantFlow 365 opportunity is agreed in design.