Follow the Funder's Lines: Map Grant Templates Directly to Sage Intacct

Mapping the Mission: Follow the Funder’s Lines is an advanced CPE session focused on helping nonprofit finance teams get control of funder reporting, without relying on copy-paste or one-off spreadsheets.

Building on the earlier Budgeting 101 and Grant Reporting Without the Grind sessions, Jim Norton, CPA shows how to translate complex, funder-defined formats into live, repeatable, and automated reporting models using Velixo, Excel, and Sage Intacct.

In this session, you will learn how to:
Map detailed funder budget line items to your GL accounts and dimensions using controlled, reusable mapping tables
Let non-finance stakeholders work in “funder language” while Velixo handles all GL and dimension coding in the background
Turn rigid funder Excel forms into live, refreshable templates that pull budgets and actuals directly from Sage Intacct
Use Velixo query functions and Query Builder to bring in non-financial data (project managers, addresses, award IDs, custom fields) exactly where the funder’s form requires it
Align reporting periods dynamically to project or grant start and end dates so reports automatically adapt when you switch projects
Decide when to use financial functions such as SI.TURNOVER and SI.BUDGETTURNOVER versus query-based functions that read directly from subledgers like AR and Order Entry
Handle situations where funders want actuals based on billed amounts instead of GL activity by querying and summarizing subledger data
Automate indirect cost calculations, including limits, and write journals or budgets back to Sage Intacct from Excel

Jim walks through three increasingly advanced nonprofit use cases:
An internal mapping model with dropdown-driven line selection for non-finance users, including budget writeback and quick budget versus actual checks
A real-life funder Excel financial form made fully live, including non-financial fields pulled via Query Builder and funder layouts preserved exactly
A rolling grant forecast where actuals are driven by billed documents from AR or Order Entry instead of the GL, with dynamic reporting periods and optional indirect cost journals written back to Intacct

You will also see how to use Smart Links in Sage Intacct so users can open Velixo reports directly from Intacct, automatically passing context such as the budget ID into Excel and refreshing on open.

This session is designed for nonprofit finance leaders and power users who need to satisfy diverse funder formats, use Sage Intacct and Excel as their core reporting stack, and want tighter control and more automation around grant and funder reporting.

Instructor: Jim Norton, CPA, is a former nonprofit Controller and CFO who now helps nonprofit organizations modernize planning, forecasting, and reporting with Sage Intacct and Velixo.