How to Bridge the Gap Between Grant Approvals and Payments (By Leveraging the Value of Integrations)

How to Streamline Grant Payments Without Adding More Tools

Grant approvals are only half the battle. For many teams, disbursements are delayed by disconnected systems, manual workarounds, and unclear payment status that slow down impact when it matters most.

Sometimes the slowdown is visible: a missing invoice, a last-minute change, or a finance team waiting on final approval. But more often, it’s subtle. Quiet friction builds between systems that don’t talk to each other. Manual entry becomes the norm. Teams start to rely on workarounds to keep things moving.

Over time, that friction adds up.

Whether you manage ten grants or ten thousand, integrating your grantmaking and finance systems can eliminate repetitive tasks, speed up disbursements, and help everyone stay on the same page.

Here’s what that actually means in practice and why more funders are starting to make the switch.

Where Most Grant Payment Bottlenecks Begin

Most grantmaking teams use one system for approvals and tracking (a GMS like Fluxx), and another for the financial side as they process bills, send payments, and reconcile transactions.

That division makes sense, but when those two tools aren’t integrated, it often creates a gap.

Here are some common signs:

• Vendor data has to be entered twice, once in your GMS, once in your financial system
• Payment approvals are tracked in one place, but processed in another
• Program and finance teams are often asking each other: “Is this paid yet?” or “Is this ready to go?”
• Audits take longer, because documentation is split between systems

These aren't signs of a broken process, they’re just signs of a system doing more work than it needs to. Luckily there’s a fix that can be found in financial integrations.

What Financial Integrations Actually Do

Connecting your financial system to your GMS doesn’t mean replacing tools or rebuilding workflows. When you start utilizing financial integrations it allows your tools and systems to pass the right information back and forth so you don’t have to.

Here’s what a typical integration can support:

You’re not replacing your finance system. Financial integrations don’t mean that you’re replacing your financial systems,they just give both finance and program teams better data and fewer reasons to chase down answers.

Where Financial Integration Might Fit Into Your Process

You don’t have to be a large foundation or government agency to benefit from integration! In fact, we often see mid-sized teams gain the most from even a simple connection.

You might be ready to explore this if:

• Your team enters vendor or payment data in two places
• You're reconciling payments at month-end using spreadsheets or emails
• You’ve added new finance staff or software in the past year
• Audit prep is getting more complex
• You're spending more time coordinating payment status than approving payments

In each case, integration can help reduce rework, improve visibility, and restore confidence in the data.

Want to Learn More About What’s Possible?

Fluxx offers integrations with leading financial systems, including:

• BILL
• QuickBooks Online
• Sage Intacct
• Oracle
• SAP Concur
• NetSuite

If you use any of these tools, we’d be happy to share more information about what integration could look like for your team. Feel free to fill out the short form below to let us know what system you’re using and someone from our team will follow.