Introducing our inaugural quarterly Workday Finance update, brought to you by Finance, Planning, and Budgeting (FPB), the Office of Research, and Workday Coordination Services (WCS). We will be using this space to provide important Workday Finance updates to the community in one location.
Q3 2024 Updates
Updates from Finance, Planning, and Budgeting
FPB Blog
FPB is committed to keeping you informed about the latest developments within the FPB team through our weekly blog post. This includes updates on new content we create, and any stabilization efforts as needed.
Procurement Training
Starting in July, Procurement shifted their weekly office hours to monthly Procurement Deep Dives. Each session is structured and focused on specific training themes, a transition that you can expect in many of our disciplines supported by FPB. Monthly Procurement Deep Dives will address common issues and trends identified from the UW Connect data, ensuring that our time together is productive and targeted.
Sign up for Procurement Deep Dives
Our goal with this change is to better equip the community with the necessary skills to utilize Workday for Procure to Pay processes effectively and to “flip the classroom” such that the community engages in the work and specialized training where it is complementary to a growing skillset within our shared environments.
New Support Resources in the UW Connect Finance Portal
⇒ The Workday Company & Worktags job aid reviews the basics of Workday worktags and company, including defining what they are, how to use them, how driver worktags function, what company codes are, and how to find worktags and company codes for your department or unit.
⇒ The Workday Fundamentals for Grant Managers video demonstration and quick guide offer grant managers an introduction to using Workday, featuring strategies to enhance efficiency in performing tasks. The video demonstration is a live recording from the CORE Works-in-Progress series, where grant managers’ questions are answered by Stephanie McConnel, a Grant Manager.
Shared Environment FDM Bootcamp
With the completion of the Shared Environment (SE) Accounting Forum, the shift is now to an FDM Mini Bootcamp Series. The content is focused on FDM related topics and needs from a central office and SE perspective, geared for Shared Environment accounting staff. As we know others are interested in joining, we are keeping the audience restricted but will be sharing the recordings and slide deck on the FPB website.
Draft Series Topics:
- Series #1 – Accounting Fundamentals
- Series #2 – Deep Dive into UW Specific Setups
- Series #3 – Net Position
- Series #4 – Reporting
The mini-series begins September 10th; contact uwfinance@uw.edu with questions.
Updates on Workday for Research
The Office of Research Central (ORC), the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), the Office of Research Information Services (ORIS), and Grant & Contract Accounting (GCA) are committed to collaborating to serve the needs of our users.
SAGE Updates
- The System to Administer Grants Electronically (SAGE) team recently released an integration between SAGE Budget and Workday that has reduced manual data entry in Workday for GCA and resulted in more efficient processing of Award Setup Requests.
- An additional integration planned for August will send full award setup details to Workday when an award in Advance Spend status already exists, which will further reduce data entry required by GCA.
- In early FY25, there will be efforts focused on improving OSP’s flow of work.
Research Reports
- For Workday users, GCA has assembled a list of recommended reports to aid in grant management.
- The newly released Grant Manager Dashboard centralizes grant information for a given user. This new dashboard comes in addition to the Grant Planning and Forecasting Tool, Post Award Dashboard, and Principal Investigator Dashboard, as the suite of available reporting tools continues to grow.
- ORIS provides monthly volume reports on proposals, and Award Setup and Modification Requests, including those returned to campus, until self-service is available.
Contact grantrpt@uw.edu with special research report requests.
Training
- To assist campus users, the Tips for Success – Award Setup (ASR) and Modification (MOD) Requests in SAGE are frequently updated with the latest information.
- The CORE team hosts CORE for Workday Works-in-Progress demos of new job aids to gain input from campus users before publishing.
Upcoming Resources
- GCA is hosting Information Sessions for Campus biweekly, providing space to learn about GCA processes and opportunity for live Q&A.
- Due to high demand, additional subawards resources are in development, following on previously released using SAGE budget with subawards job aids.
Updates from WCS
Workday Coordination Services (WCS) is working on a simplified request process where Workday Business Owner Representatives will soon be able to use a single form to submit requests to WCS. Once available, the form will be used for change requests, new projects, and break-fix submissions that involve Workday Finance, Workday HCM, or platform-wide functionality alike.