DynaTech’s D365 APIs & Tax Integration for Non-profit Educational Organization

Revolutionizing Membership Management and Financial Operations for a Global Educational Network

Established in 1924, the client is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to fostering confidence and imparting public speaking skills globally. Operating through a vast network of online and in-person clubs, members engage in speech preparation, impromptu responses, and constructive feedback exchanges in a supportive community or corporate setting. With headquarters in Englewood, Colorado, the client boasts approximately 270,000 members spread across more than 14,200 clubs in 148 countries. 

However, despite its impressive reach and impact, the organization faced several challenges. One such challenge lay in integrating membership data, which operated asynchronously, resulting in an eight-hour processing time for invoices and payments. This elongated processing period extended across the entire membership lifecycle, encompassing initiation, renewal, and educational progress tracking, necessitating the utilization of multiple applications and manual interventions.  

The company has a biannual renewal cycle, during which the creation of millions of orders is essential for payment collection. Similarly, considerable efforts are expended in deleting unpaid orders, further exacerbating operational inefficiencies.  

The reconciliation process from the payment gateway to the bank was manual and time-consuming. As a result, the business performed periodic reconciliations for aggregated amounts. To access the transactional information, manual intervention was required. Moreover, their tax integration system lacked a connector for custom entities and processes. Additionally, the absence of a mechanism to extend special pricing to existing members, distinct from regular pricing, underscored a further operational shortfall. 

DynaTech's D365 APIs and Tax Integration for Non-Profit Industry:

1. Membership Application and Data Integration

DynaTech Systems developed a real-time data integration system via Rest APIs with the Sitecore Membership Portal and E-commerce platform. Additionally, a robust Membership Application was constructed with features including Start a Club, Membership Enrolment, Membership Renewal, Membership Reinstatement, Membership Transfer, Sponsored Membership (Full/Partial), Club Re-alignment, Member Leadership Roles, Prison Clubs, Membership Certificates, and Education Levels.  

2. Redesigning Application Design and Data Structure

Through a comprehensive re-architecture of the application design and data structure, the introduction of the following productive features has been facilitated: 

• Membership payment processing no longer necessitates pre-creating orders within the system. 
• The system permits the retrieval of new membership tenure suggestions from the latest records of existing memberships. 
• Upon successful payment, a new membership record is automatically generated. 

3. End-to-end transaction Tracing System

DynaTech implemented a transaction tracing system that automates matching payment transactions from the Payment gateway to Dynamics and the Bank, leading to automated bank reconciliation. This process is executed automatically on a daily basis, significantly reducing manual efforts and providing valuable insights into transactions in case of discrepancies. 

4. Data Integration and Process Automation

Nearly 54 data entities are aligned through Data Warehouse (DW), orchestrated 16 Power Automate Flows, integrated with 100 APIs, and established an SFTP connection to address various process requirements, including Product and Orders, Membership Process and Financials, Payment Integration, Tax Solutions, Payment Bank Reconciliation, Customer Financials, 3rd Party Logistics, Automated Bank Statement Import, and Address Validation. 

5. Real-time Revenue Journals

We converted the Membership data into real-time Revenue Journals incorporating Accrual data. This transformation enables the business to access real-time transaction information without the need for manual intervention. The revenue journals now capture record-level transactions, eliminating the manual monthly single-line entry process. 

6. Custom Tax Solution

Due to the limitations of Avalara's standard connector in supporting custom entities or processes, DynaTech developed a tax integration solution using APIs to calculate real-time tax for Product Orders and Memberships. This functionality empowers users to execute the following transactions seamlessly: Retrieve tax values from Avalara, commit tax transactions to Avalara, and Confirm/Post-tax transactions to Avalara 

7. Designed Order-type Validation

We designed and implemented various order types with thorough validation and checks, like: 

• Regular orders with Member/Non-Member pricing. 
• Product Engraving - Facilitates the inclusion of personalized text for items like badges or physical certificates. 
• Auto Award Order - Automatically generated upon the completion of an education level. 
• Digital Certificate Order - Allows the organization to auto-create Digital Certificate PDFs and send them via automated email. 
• Gift Certificate Orders—Members can purchase Gift Certificates and redeem them against product orders through the system, eliminating manual maintenance of Gift Certificate emails and redemptions. 
• Automated process for sending shipping information to the 3PL partner. Upon receiving shipping confirmation, the system automates Packing Slip and Invoice creation, capturing payment upon invoice generation.