700 +
users live on cloud Dynamics 365
50 +
legal entities migrated within hours
100 %
elimination of duplicate master data
< 10 mo
greenfield delivery, Dec 2022 – Sep 2023
- Executive summary
From 100+ disconnected kitchens to one source of truth
A large non-profit organization that serves around two million meals a day through more than 100 kitchens needed a single, transparent system to manage money, materials and production across every legal entity.
DynaTech delivered a greenfield D365 Finance and Supply Chain implementation, extended with Power Automate, Power BI and custom tools designed for the non-profit sector. Dynamics 365 for non-profit organizations now gives leadership real-time visibility of donations, grants, inventory and cost per meal, while kitchen teams approve purchases directly from their email inbox.
The result is standardized recipes, centralized master data, proactive shelf-life alerts and a finance function that can trace every rupee to a kitchen, department or program.
Fragmented data and manual approvals were limiting transparency
The organization ran decentralized operations on a legacy ERP. Master data was created by hand in every legal entity, the same item carried different names in different places, and procurement approvals depended on manual steps and additional licenses just to approve a transaction.
Production costing, recipe control and expiry tracking were largely invisible, and efficiency was monitored in an Excel-based tracker. Leadership could not easily see where donations, payments and government grants were going.
Pain points
Duplicate, inconsistent master data
Creating items and vendors manually in each legal entity was slow, error-prone and made analytics unreliable.
Manual procurement approvals
Approvals slowed decisions and required extra licenses only for approvers.
No recipe or costing control
Without a central recipe (BOM) standard there was no reliable view of production cost.
Expired stock and food wastage
Limited visibility into shelf life made it hard to use stock before it expired.
Opaque donation and grant tracking
Payments, donations and grants were difficult to trace across entities.
Legacy data migration
Moving balances from the old ERP for 50+ legal entities was time-consuming.
Decentralized reporting
No department-, program- or kitchen-wise dashboards and no organization-level budget distribution.
Low IT literacy among users
Adoption had to work for teams with limited prior exposure to enterprise systems.
Target KPIs & goals
- Centralize operations and reporting across every kitchen and legal entity
- Automate workflows for procurement, approvals and inter-kitchen transactions
- Track cost per meal (CPM) efficiently to reduce wastage and optimize resources
- Centralize budget management from organization to legal-entity level
- Reduce wastage caused by food expiry
A D365 Finance and Supply Chain implementation designed for the non-profit sector
DynaTech's D365 Finance and Supply Chain implementation started with a global master data framework built on cross-company functionality. Items, vendors and groups are created once and replicate automatically to every legal entity, which is how master data management across legal entities became a single, governed process.
Around that core, DynaTech added Finance Optimization and Supply Chain Modernization solutions tailored to non-profits: workflow automation, cost-per-meal analytics, centralized recipes and production control, and donation and grant tracking.
What we delivered
01
Central master data
Cross-company item and vendor creation with automatic replication and no duplicate records.
02
Email approvals
Power Automate email approvals let approvers approve, reject or delegate purchase requisitions and orders from Outlook, without a D365 login or extra license.
03
Cost-per-meal tracker
Direct and indirect costs are combined into real-time cost per meal tracking by kitchen and program.
04
Financial dimensions
Kitchen-, department- and program-level cost tracking, with project-wise budget control.
05
Central recipes & production
A cloud-kitchen module standardizes recipes; Production Planning & Control adds batch costing and standard-vs-actual variance analysis.
06
Shelf-life alerts
Custom reports and proactive alerts warn users before raw materials expire — inventory shelf-life management built into daily work.
07
Cauldron planning report
One-click view of vessel utilization, ready and empty capacity for better load planning.
08
Payments, donations & grants
Transparent tracking of grant and non-grant funds, with unique transaction reference tracking for bank payments.
09
Inter-kitchen automation
Automated inter-kitchen purchase and sales orders improve accuracy and speed.
10
Central chart of accounts
One chart of accounts across 100+ kitchens simplifies P&L, cash-flow and balance-sheet reporting.
11
Python migration utility
Opening balances from the legacy ERP were extracted, transformed and loaded for 50+ legal entities within hours — legacy ERP data migration at speed.
12
Power BI dashboards
Real-time financial and operational insight for leadership, replacing the manual efficiency tracker.
Key technologies & integrations
- Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management
- Power Automate
- Power BI
- Microsoft Azure
- Azure Data Lake
- Azure DevOps
- Outlook
- SharePoint
- Python migration utility
Cloud ERP at the center, with approvals and analytics around it
Kitchen teams, approvers and leadership work through a single D365 core. Automation handles approvals and data loading, while analytics and storage services turn transactions into insight.
Simplified solution architecture — kitchens, approvers and finance teams on one cloud ERP.
A structured, phased delivery from December 2022 to September 2023
DynaTech ran daily scrum calls with the implementation team and weekly governance meetings with project leadership, and shipped each custom solution through Dev, UAT and Pre-production before production approval.
01
Planning
Scope, timelines and roles defined with stakeholders from both teams.
02
Requirement gathering
Business needs documented with end users and the hierarchy of customized solutions designed.
03
Design & build
System configured with periodic demos so users shaped the solution as it grew.
04
Testing
Multiple test rounds across Dev, UAT and Pre-production, followed by user sign-off.
05
Training & change management
UAT sessions, user manuals with video recordings and quick-reference guides for users with limited IT exposure.
06
Go-live & hypercare
Production go-live with post-launch support tracked through Azure DevOps tickets.
Transparency, standardization and less waste
Dynamics 365 for non-profit organizations changed how this program plans, buys, cooks and accounts. The measurable and qualitative outcomes reported by the team include:
100 %
Master data duplication eliminated
Items and vendors are created once and shared across every legal entity.
50 +
Legal entities migrated in hours
A custom migration utility accelerated go-live and saved consultant time.
700 +
Users on one cloud platform
Role-based access with approvals handled from email.
Real-time
Cost per meal visibility
Direct and indirect costs surfaced by kitchen, department and program.
Tangible Benefits
- Automated workflows reduced manual errors and sped up procurement approvals
- Consolidated reporting across kitchens, departments and programs
- Enhanced transparency in donation and grant tracking
- Standardized production processes across all locations
- Improved costing accuracy with real-time variance tracking
- Lower inventory wastage through proactive expiry alerts
Intangible Benefits
- Better decisions through actionable, centralized insight
- Greater accountability and standardization across kitchens
- Stronger alignment with the mission of tackling classroom hunger at scale
- Significant savings from tighter control over material wastage
Project At a Glance
-
Industry
Non-profit — social impact, education and hunger relief
-
Region
India
-
Scale
100+ kitchens · 5,000+ employees · ~2 million meals served daily
-
Key business area
Mid-day meals, relief meals and early-childhood nutrition programs
-
Solution
Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, Power Automate, Power BI
-
Engagement
Greenfield implementation, December 2022 – September 2023, plus managed services
Ready to bring transparency and efficiency to your non-profit?
Talk to DynaTech about Dynamics 365 for mission-driven organizations — from finance and supply chain to approvals and analytics.
