Workday Finance FAQ
Find answers to commonly asked questions about Workday Finance.
Send an email to wdfinance@slu.edu. Natasha Seidl, Crystal Santa Cruz and Lisa Zoia monitor this email box.
Resources include the Job Aid and Video Library worklet located in Workday under "Applications" on the home page (see the "Finance" tab), monthly Business Manager training sessions (recordings are available in Skillsoft) and Workday Financials Office Hours.
See the announcements on the Workday home page for upcoming training sessions, Workday Financials Office Hours and Workday support contact information.
Workday security roles are assigned to the employee position, with employees inheriting the roles of their position. Please contact wdfinance@slu.edu if you have questions about your security or need to request additional security.
The FDM is the structure or framework supporting all financial, management, and operational reporting across the University. Its function is to allow users to mark or “tag” transactions and business objects to make them easier to find, make their business purpose clear, and facilitate reports and summaries.
FDM elements are applied to HCM, Payroll, and Financials transactions. The FDM is delivered by Workday to track financial transactions at the line level.
Resources: Crosswalk: Financial Terminology and Financial Accounting: FDM Usage in the Job Aid and Video Library.
Worktags are the individual components of the Foundation Data Model (FDM). They are assigned to transactions and supporting data to make their business purpose clear and establish common relationships through classification.
There are driver worktags, related worktags, and additional worktags in Workday.
When a driver worktag is entered, related worktags auto-populate on the transaction.
Driver worktags include Cost Center, and Grant, Gift, Specialty, Program and Project.
Related worktags include Fund, Function and Cost Center.
When a user enters a Cost Center, the Fund and Function display. When a user enters a Grant, Gift, Specialty, Program or Project, the Cost Center, Fund and Function display.
Resources: Crosswalk: Financial Terminology and Financial Accounting: FDM Usage in the Job Aid and Video Library.
Cost Center is both a Driver and a Related Worktag. Cost Centers generally have a manager, headcount, budget; are required on all transactions; drive reporting and approvals; and roll up to a Cost Center Hierarchy.
Users can run Workday report Data Audit Cost Centers and Cost Center Hierarchies to view a list of SLU Cost Centers and the Cost Center Hierarchy, and security roles Cost Center Approver, Cost Center Financial Manager, and Cost Center Financial Analyst.
Fund is the key worktag in Workday that determines where financial activity falls on the University’s financial statements, i.e., Operating or Designated or Sponsored Programs or SLUCare, etc.
SLU has identified approximately 20 funds in Workday including Operating, Designated Unrestricted, Designated Endowment Income, Sponsored Programs, Clinical Trials, SLUCare, CADE, Student Loans, Endowment, and Annuity. The net asset classification of Unrestricted, Temporarily Restricted, or Permanently Restricted is incorporated into the fund hierarchy. Funds generally correspond to the columns on SLU's financial statements
- Fund 11 Operating – May be associated with a Cost Center, or Program, or Project, or Grant Cost Share
- Fund 21 Designated Endowment Income – Requires a Gift
- Fund 24 Designated Unrestricted – Requires a Gift or Program or Project
- Fund 31 Sponsored Programs – Requires a Grant
- Fund 32 Clinical Trials – Requires a Grant
- Fund 51 Loan Unrestricted – Requires a Grant
- Fund 52 Loan Permanently Restricted – Requires a Gift
- Fund 71 Construction Projects – Requires a Project
- Fund 81 SLUCare Unrestricted – Requires a Specialty or Program, with exceptions for Cost Centers D457, D465, D467, Z460-Z470
- Fund 82 CADE Unrestricted – Used with Cost Centers D179-2,3,4,5 (no other driver tags required)
- Fund 91 Agency – Requires a Program
Resources: Crosswalk: Financial Terminology and Financial Accounting: FDM Usage in the Job Aid and Video Library.
Revenue Category is a worktag required for all revenue transactions. Spend Category is a worktag required for all spend transactions.
Revenue categories include Clinical Services, Tuition, Tuition Fees. Examples of Spend Categories are Office Supplies, Teaching Supplies, Advertising, Salaries.
There is another worktag, Sales Item, that is a more granular version of revenue category. For example, Chemistry lab fees, Clinical Inpatient Fees, Vending Machine Income.
Ledger Accounts are classified as assets, liabilities, equities, revenue, and expenditures; users select revenue categories (or sales items) or spend categories and WD posts the transaction to the appropriate ledger account. An example of a Ledger Account is Supplies. Spend category Office Supplies is entered on a purchase requisition and then WD posts the transaction to Ledger Account Supplies based on Account Posting Rules.
Ledger Accounts default from Revenue Category or Spend Category for Operational Transactions including purchase requisition, Supplier Invoice Requests, and Internal Service Delivery.
The Ledger Account must be entered for Accounting Journals. The Crosswalk: Account and Activity Codes in the Job Aid & Video Library in Workday is a useful reference when preparing an Accounting Journal.
Resources: Workday reports Data Audit Revenue Categories and Revenue Category Hierarchies, Data Audit Spend Categories and Spend Category Hierarchies, Data Audit Sales Items, and Data Audit Ledger Account and Ledger Account Summaries.
An encumbrance is a commitment to pay. Salaries and Purchase Orders are encumbered in Workday.
Other terms for encumbrance that users may see on reports are Obligation and Commitments and Pre-Encumbrance.
Run the CR FIN Statement of Account report with desired parameters, including Repeat By: Program and Worktags Fund: 11 Operating Fund. The results will include a Report Total page, results for each Operating Program, and a ‘Blank’ page representing results for your selected Organization that do not have the Program worktag.
Resource: Workday Reporting for Business Managers – Finance recording in Skillsoft
Run the CR FIN Fund Balance report for your selected Organization. All Ending Balances should be positive.
Resource: Workday Reporting for Business Managers – Finance recording in Skillsoft
Users can run the CR FIN Income Statement Trend by Org to see Actuals for their Grants and then click on the Award to see the budget.
You can also run the CR FIN Report of Transactions – Grants Management to view transactions by Award and the CR FIN Billable Transactions Summary by Object Class to view billable transactions by Award and Object Class.
Run the Award Reports List report to see a list of Grants reports.
Contact grants@slu.edu with any questions.
There is a Crosswalk: Financial Reports in the Workday Job Aid and Video Library. Users can also search on key words such as Purchase Order or Requisition in the Workday search bar.
Book is associated with capital assets, with values Department and GAAP. Run a report for Department book to see items expensed when the invoice posts, or run by GAAP book to see depreciated assets.
You can run report CR FIN Find Supplier Payment Status. This report has columns for Supplier Invoice, Supplier’s Invoice Number, Supplier, Document Payment Status, Payment Type, Last Invoice Payment Date, All Supplier Invoice Payments, Non Canceled Supplier Payment Transaction Reference.
From the Search Results page, select the ‘All of Workday’ option in the Categories column.
Set this as your default by clicking on your Profile (photo) in Workday, My Account, Change Preferences, and then Search Preferences. Change Preferred Search Category to ‘All of Workday’. Click OK.
Users can run the CR FIN Internal Service Delivery by Org report. Results include the ISD number, Cost Center, Document Date, Internal Service Provider, and Status.
When a cardholder clicks on or opens a P card transaction in Workday to review or verify it but does not submit the verification for whatever reason, the transaction is no longer visible to the cardholder as an unverified transaction and it is now in "Draft" status. To verify the transaction, run the My Procurement Card Transaction Verifications report, click the related actions (twinkie) next to the magnifying glass for the transaction you wish to edit, select Procurement Card Transaction, and then Edit. Edit/verify the transaction and then click Submit. These instructions are also in the Workday Job Aid & Video Library under Supplier Accounts: Verify Procurement Card Transactions in Draft Status.
Users can run the Find Requisition Lines and Line Splits for Organization report. Results include the Requisition number, Company, Item, Item Description, Spend Category, Extended Amount, Currency, Supplier, and Status.
Users can run the CR FIN Find Purchase Orders – Open Encumbrances report to see the Purchase Order Lines, Status, and Obligation Amount Remaining.
Type Create Request in Workday, select Request Type New Gift / Project / Program / Specialty, complete the form, attach relevant documentation, and submit.