60-Day Guide to Launching Your Fund Accounting Extensibility Project
Having a fund accounting system can significantly streamline your finance function. You have automation, workflows, and dashboards immediately after implementation.
But you are ready to take it a step further.
Tools like Power Automate and Power BI can extend your fund accounting and transform your nonprofit accounting software into an even more powerful tool. Leveraging these technologies helps you save even more time and extract even more actionable insights from your data.
Extensibility projects like these can be intimidating to get started. Luckily, low-code and no-code solutions make embarking on these projects more accessible than ever, allowing you to customize your fund accounting software without extensive technical expertise. From automating reports to improving data visualization, this process empowers your team to achieve greater accuracy and efficiency, ultimately driving your mission forward.
This blog post will guide you through a structured 60-day plan to successfully launch your fund accounting extensibility project, enabling you to optimize your operations and make more data-driven decisions.
Week 1: Analyze Your Business Processes
First, understand your current business processes. Spend the first week detailing the key workflows that your organization relies on. Look for areas that involve repetitive manual tasks, bottlenecks, frequent data entry errors, or user frustration.
Visually map these processes to help you identify inefficiencies and opportunities for automation or improvement. Use this process map to pinpoint where enhancements will be most impactful. Involve team members to get practical insights and ensure that the identified areas align with day-to-day operations.
This foundational understanding will guide the development phase, ensuring your project meets your organizational goals. And having this process map will make your next extensibility project go even faster.
Week 1: Plan for Successful Outcomes
While you are analyzing your business processes and understanding the issues, also identify what success will look like. Are you trying to close your books faster, reduce errors, or create better data storytelling?
Spend the first week also verifying you have ways to track these metrics consistently—or setting them up if you don’t—ensuring your project stays aligned with its goals. Regular assessments will help you spot areas needing further improvement and provide tangible evidence of success to stakeholders. This ongoing evaluation not only keeps your project on track but also ensures you can demonstrate its value clearly and convincingly.
Week 2: Source Examples and Templates
In week two, you move from “the what” to “the how” of your extensibility project. Finding relevant examples and templates can significantly accelerate your project’s progress. These resources provide proven frameworks that you can adapt to your organization’s specific needs, saving you the time and effort of starting from scratch.
Look for successful case studies and find ready-made templates so you can understand what works well and avoid common pitfalls. Join communities (like the Microsoft Power Platform) and ask others what’s worked for them. Templates can help standardize your approach, ensuring consistency and reliability throughout the project.
Additionally, many examples come with detailed documentation, offering step-by-step guidance that can clarify complex processes and help you implement best practices. This strategic approach empowers you to build on existing knowledge and create effective solutions tailored to your organization.
Week 2: Collect End-User Input
While you are gathering best practices and templates, also gather input from your team.
Gaining feedback from your end-users is crucial for a successful project. They are the ones interacting with the system daily and can offer practical insights into what works and what doesn’t.
Share your process maps in the format that works best for your audience—a PowerPoint presentation or a Visio diagram, for example—and ask for their input. This collaboration ensures that the enhancements you plan to implement are aligned with actual user needs, reducing the risk of unforeseen issues. Their feedback can highlight potential problems and offer innovative solutions that you may not have considered.
By involving end-users early on, you also foster a sense of ownership and buy-in, which can be critical for the smooth adoption of new processes. Make sure to integrate their suggestions into your planning phase, refining your approach to address the real-world challenges they face. This step not only improves the accuracy of your project but also boosts user satisfaction and engagement.
Weeks 3 and 4: Develop and Test the Initial Version
In weeks three and four you begin putting the pieces together.
Start by building the initial version of your solution, focusing on the most critical features identified during your planning phase. This approach ensures that you address the key pain points first, delivering immediate value to your organization.
Engage your team in the testing process to use diverse perspectives and ensure comprehensive coverage. Address bugs and performance issues early on to save time and resources in the long run. By iteratively refining the solution, you can ensure its stability and effectiveness before moving on to broader implementation. This hands-on development and testing phase is crucial for creating a reliable, high-quality product that meets your organization’s needs.
Week 5: Engage with Community and User Networks
Plan on spending week five working out the kinks.
When you encounter obstacles, reaching out to community forums and user networks can provide invaluable support and practical solutions. These networks consist of individuals who have faced similar challenges and can offer advice based on their experiences. Using these resources helps you quickly resolve issues that might otherwise delay your project.
User groups and forums dedicated to your fund accounting system and Microsoft Power Platform are particularly useful. They often feature discussions on best practices, troubleshooting tips, and innovative ways to use the software. By participating in these conversations, you gain access to collective knowledge that can enhance your project’s success.
Asking questions and seeking advice from seasoned users can provide new perspectives that you might not have considered. These interactions can lead to discovering tools and techniques that simplify complex tasks, making your project more efficient. Additionally, contributing your own insights and solutions helps build your reputation within the community and fosters collaborative relationships.
Engage with these networks regularly to stay updated on the latest trends and developments, ensuring that your project incorporates current best practices. It also creates opportunities to network with peers, which can lead to future collaborations and support. Leverage the collective wisdom of community and user networks to overcome hurdles and drive your project forward successfully.
Week 6: Test Your Project on a Small Scale
In week six, test your project on a small scale. This approach minimizes risk and ensures that any adjustments can be made without disrupting your entire organization.
Start by selecting a specific department or group to pilot the project. Monitor the performance closely, paying attention to user feedback and system behavior. This real-world testing phase provides valuable insights into how the solution performs under actual conditions.
Gather detailed feedback from the pilot users to understand their experience and identify any additional improvements needed. Use your preferred survey tool—like Microsoft or Google forms—so you can easily analyze the feedback. This targeted approach enables you to refine the solution, ensuring that when it’s deployed on a larger scale, it meets user expectations and performs reliably.
Conducting a small-scale test not only boosts confidence in the new system but also enhances overall user satisfaction by addressing any issues early on.
Weeks 7 and 8: Use Feedback to Improve Version 2
Plan to spend the last two weeks refining your solution. Analyze the feedback carefully to identify common themes and specific issues that need addressing. Prioritize changes that will have the most significant impact on user experience and operational efficiency. This ensures that your adjustments are both meaningful and practical.
Incorporating user feedback not only enhances the solution but also boosts user satisfaction and adoption rates. By addressing their concerns and suggestions, you create a system that truly meets their needs. It’s essential to communicate the changes made based on their input, reinforcing their value in the process.
As you implement these refinements, maintain an iterative approach. Develop the improved version in stages, allowing for continuous testing and feedback. This cycle of improvement helps catch any new issues early and ensures the solution remains aligned with user requirements.
Ultimately, integrating user feedback into Version 2 transforms your project from a basic implementation to a tailored solution. This approach not only meets current needs but also positions your organization to adapt to future challenges.
Build on the Momentum
Your successful implementation of your fund accounting extensibility project has streamlined operations and enhanced data accuracy. These improvements translate to increased efficiency and user satisfaction, contributing to the overall productivity of your organization.
As you move forward, maintain the momentum by continuously assessing the performance of your newly implemented system. Regular evaluations will help identify areas for further enhancement and ensure the system evolves with your organization’s needs. Engaging with the community remains crucial; these interactions provide ongoing support and access to new ideas and best practices.
There are always new features in your fund accounting and other systems that can further optimize your processes. Give your team an hour or two a month to experiment and learn both new functionality and potential other extensibility projects. Keep an eye on technological advancements and emerging trends that could offer new opportunities for improvement.
Ready to learn more about how Blackbaud customers are using the Microsoft Power Platform to extend the functionality of their products? Join the Power Platform community and start asking questions!
Heather McLean, Principal Product Manager for Innovation at Blackbaud, provided foundational expertise for this article.
