Workday Frequently Asked Questions

Workday is the leader in cloud-based, enterprise applications that combine a lower cost of ownership with an innovative approach for global businesses. Workday was selected based on functionality, usability and ability to meet Saint Louis University’s business requirements.

Arizona State, Penn State, Iowa State, Cornell, Georgetown, Yale, Washington University in St. Louis and others have either implemented Workday or are in the process of implementing Workday.

•  Workday enables 24/7 access to information over a secure network, supporting SLU's goal to become an increasingly global campus.
• Workday's SaaS/cloud delivery model allows services to reach customers with a minimal number of servers, reducing energy needs.
• Workday functionality offers employee and manager self-service, enabling faculty, staff and student workers to update or access their information privately from any computer or mobile device with internet access.

The Workday Student module has been licensed for 2021. The current plan is to implement the Workday Student module during 2021 or 2022. Requirements for Student processes are being considered in the design decisions made for the Workday HCM and Finance module implementations.

• Roles in WD are security based, and you have to be in one of the roles to see reports. Since Business Managers would be included in the “Cost Center Manager” role, they would have access to budgets.
• Furthermore, access to reports depends on security access to the Cost Center.  Therefore someone in the “Cost Center Approver $200k” role (likely the Dean or VP) would also have access to budgets.

Employees who currently have access to process departmental deposits and banking transactions will have the same access they have in Workday. 

Yes, there will be crosswalks for Banner funds, account codes, and activity codes to the Workday values.

Yes, there are security roles including Cost Center Approver and Cost Center Financial Analyst, Project Financial Analyst for users who need to view their specific Start Up or Indirect Cost Recovery Projects, Program Financial Analyst, Fund Financial Analyst for CTO staff to see all Fund 32 Clinical Trials, etc.

$5K, $25K, $50K, $100K, $200K, $2M

In order to track cost share, the expected amount of cost share is built into the award budget totals at the Award Header level. Then, two separate Award Lines are created. The first Award Line is for expenses to be put on the Grant. The second Award Line and corresponding Grant are to track cost share. There are specific Grant Worktags for cost share to ensure the cost share expenses are being charged correctly to the Cost Center and not to the primary Award and corresponding Grant. This is the short answer. When the time comes, training will be provided on this topic and an example will help individuals see how this setup will work.

Yes, you will be able to run reports and view summary/detail by activity code. We are currently working with our implementation partner, Collaborative Solutions, to convert this and other BUSFM Cognos reports to Workday.

FY19 ending balances and FY20 monthly balances will be loaded to Workday. As noted above, we are currently working with our implementation partner, Collaborative Solutions, to convert key reports to Workday and identify useful Workday reports. Cognos and WebFocus Dashboard will be available at least through the Workday Student implementation. In addition, the University has purchased Workday Prism as the tool that will help bring in historical Banner data that can be included in standard Workday reports.

For receipt of funds outside of Customer accounts, an Ad Hoc Bank Transaction will be processed in Workday similar to a departmental deposit in Touchnet. 

Per our implementation partner Collaborative Solutions, you will not be able to create an invoice in Customer Accounts for an IDO (Internal Service Delivery in Workday).  Invoices will need to continue to be created outside of Workday for IDOs.

For receipt of funds outside of Customer accounts, an Ad Hoc Bank Transaction will be processed in Workday similar to a departmental deposit in Touchnet. 

Yes. Employees with the Departmental Accountant role will have access to create accounting journals in Workday. They will also have access to an EIB (Enterprise Interface Builder) journal entry template. This security group will include users who are currently submitting transaction corrections in Banner 9 or via the paper form, and users who currently submit the Excel journal entry template or Generic eSeeIDOs. 

Yes. Departments will prepare deposits through Workday via an ad hoc bank transaction. Departments will no longer use Touchnet for deposits.

The Supplier Invoice Request (SINR) is Employee as Self but of course we expect that the staff processing financial transactions currently would continue to be the people submitting SINR’s. We do not encourage or expect that departments would open that up to all, except possibly in specific circumstances.

• All SLU employees can create purchase requisitions in Workday
• Requisitions will be initiated in Workday - users can “punch out” to Billiken Buy to shop in catalogs – all punchout catalogs that we have now will continue to be available
• Employees no longer need to request access to Billiken Buy
• Competitive bid documentation will be submitted in Workday
• Approvals will be completed in Workday
• Blanket orders will be created in Workday
• Retrofit orders will be completed in Workday
• Receiving of goods/services will be completed in Workday
• Purchasing reports will be available through Workday
• PI Approval in Workday will be required for grant purchases exceeding $500. When the PI is the initiator of the purchase requisition, this approval step will not be required.
• The Buyer role will be called a “sourcing buyer” and will allow the initiator of a requisition to include an ad hoc user to review/edit the requisition prior to it routing through the approval process
• Delivery locations down to the floor and room number will be available in Workday
• While all employees will have the ability to initiate these transactions, we believe that some departments may limit these duties to designated employees in their area.

Existing vendors in Billiken Buy and in Banner currently will be added to Workday. Departments will not need to request that existing vendors be transferred.

Training will begin mid-June. We are analyzing all new Workday business processes to determine the best training experience for each. At this time all training will be done remotely.

Workday has a very simple process to allow people managers to delegate time approval tasks. The delegation can be for a single payroll or can be for all future payrolls. Also, when a manager position is vacant, Workday automatically assigns the time approval task to the next higher level of management until the vacant position is filled.

Time correction will be made within Workday. Retro pay processes within Workday will handle pay corrections.

Yes. Tuition remission and Fachex processes will be performed in Workday. Federal Work Study will also be processed in Workday. There may be some transitional time for the six months between the implementation of the HCM module and the Finance module. Student Financial Services is involved in the planning.

An internal job applicant site is available in Workday. All open positions will be posted to the internal job site making it easier for current SLU employees to learn about and apply for other career development opportunities at the University.