About Lupus Research Alliance

Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) is the world’s largest private funder of lupus research, with a mission to free the world from lupus. Senior Finance Manager Joanna Zelkowska supports their CFO in overseeing budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting — ensuring compliance with nonprofit standards while giving leadership and fundraising teams the insights they need to make fast, confident decisions.

The Challenge

LRA’s reporting requirements are inherently complex. Using QuickBooks Online, they rely on nearly 10 classes and multiple locations to meet nonprofit functional expense standards, tracking spend across programs, fundraising, and operations.

Before LiveFlow, preparing monthly and quarterly financials was tedious and risky:

• Exporting static QuickBooks reports

• Copying data into Excel templates

• Maintaining fragile formulas

• Freezing AP/AR entries by the 10th to hit a 15th-of-month deadline

The process was slow, error-prone, and left little time for meaningful analysis.

“One broken formula could throw off an entire report. And if transactions posted after we pulled the data, our numbers were already outdated.” — Joanna Zelkowska

The Solution: LiveFlow

In March 2025, Joanna discovered LiveFlow. By April 2025, LRA was fully live — and within hours, the finance team was producing their first automated reports.

With LiveFlow, they now:

• Consolidate by Class and Location to meet nonprofit compliance without manual work

• Maintain familiar board formats, with QuickBooks data feeding in automatically instead of static exports

• Refresh at any time with a single click — what Joanna calls her “Here you go” button
  Drill into transaction-level details, giving leadership transparency and trust in the numbers
  
  

“Other FP&A tools became projects in themselves. LiveFlow was the solution. In four or five hours, I was running reports by myself.”

Results

• 5 days saved each reporting cycle — no longer starting early just to hit deadlines

• 20+ hours saved monthly by eliminating manual exports and formula fixes

• Accurate, up-to-date reports ready minutes before Board meetings

For the first time, LRA can deliver real-time, trustworthy numbers to every stakeholder:

• Board members receive accurate reports on time, every time

• Fundraising teams can see event revenue in real time, even refreshing reports during live galas or walks

• Program managers can view scenario-based reports tailored to their needs

This shift has transformed the finance function from data prep to decision support.

“Finance isn’t about building reports — it’s about analyzing them. LiveFlow gives us time back to do the work that really matters.”

Ready to streamline your Reporting?

‍Learn more about LiveFlow and see how you can cut time and costs.