Workday Finance FAQ
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Find answers to some of our most commonly asked questions here. Use the links below to jump to a particular section.
FAQ
Budget
A. Changes in spending plans, or a purchase that exceeds budget require a budget amendment. A budget amendment is an increase or decrease to the original approved budget, typically to transfer budget from one ledger account to a ledger account in a different ledger account summary (pool). Budget amendments are submitted online. They must be balanced (debits = credits) and approved. Cost Center Managers and Budget Office approve budget amendments. Budget amendments that involve cost centers in different divisions will also require approval of the Division Budget Manager. See job aid for Budget Amendment.
A. Every budget is stored with a Business Unit, Fund, Cost Center ID, and Ledger Account. (Budgets for Gifts, Grants and Capital projects have an additional identifying worktag). Your purchases must use the same combination of worktags as the approved budget or your transaction will trigger a budget error.
Specific child ledger accounts roll up to a larger parent pool, known as a Ledger Account Summary. Budgets are controlled based on the remaining budget in the ledger account summary (pool) that the accounting on a transaction belongs to.
Within each pool are multiple ledger accounts. For example, a purchase of Books will be checked against the remaining budget in the General Operating pool. Clothing expense can be over budget so long as other accounts in the General Operating pool are under budget.
A. Report R002 Operating Budget Variance will display the ledger account summaries (i.e. budget pools) for your Cost Center. Click the arrow next to a pool and the child ledger accounts that belong to that pool will be displayed. Note: The report will only display ledger accounts and ledger accounts summaries for which the particular Cost Center has budgets or transactions.
In addition, when entering requisitions or other transactions, the Spend Category selection will display what budget pool the transaction will be checked against. If you have no budget in that pool, you first need to submit a budget amendment to transfer budget before proceeding with the transaction.
A. No, but there must be adequate remaining budget in the total ledger account summary (parent pool) that the ledger account being used belongs to.
A. Errors are designed to prevent invalid combinations of work tags, or to prevent overspending of a budget. Review the error message to see what type of error it is and what accounting line has the error. A validation error will occur if you use a disallowed combination of worktag, such as the wrong fund with a cost center. A budget error means you have insufficient budget remaining, or you have no budget at all for the combination of worktags you used in your transaction. Submit a budget amendment to transfer budget from an account in a different pool. Or, clear the worktags and enter a Cost Center that has available budget. If you have no budgets from which to transfer, or if the transfer is denied, you may not proceed with the purchase.
A. A requisitioner should be able to run report R002 Operating Budget Variance. That said, you should always be in communication with the Cost Center Manager or other fiscal staff member before making a purchase, to make sure the available budget is in fact available for the purchase you are making.
A. Report R002 allows you to filter, view details, and drill down on transactions, as well as go to the source of a transaction. Drillable numbers are in blue. See job aid for Report R002 Operating Budget Variance for Organization.
A. No, the budget amendment in draft status will not affect any current budget lines.
Expenses
A. Yes, please see the expenses job aid.
A. Yes, you are able to upload receipts and attach them directly to specific line items in the report.
A. You can run the “Find My Team’s Expense Reports" report.
A. No, the mobile application does not allow a spend authorization to be created through it.
A. No, the Workday system will not convert Euros to Dollars.
A. If you print the Google maps page as a PDF, you can attach the file electronically.
A. As the Spend Authorization is still only an estimate of expenses for a specific trip, the Expense Report reflects the actual expenses incurred on behalf of the University. These can be different from the original estimates listed on the Spend Authorization.
A. Yes, lines can be split but will need to be done as separate lines for the singular expense. So if a hotel cost is absorbed by two Cost Centers, then there should be two lines for the hotel cost, each with the corresponding cost center and cost listed.
A. The P-card transactions cannot be brought into expenses. Therefore, if a P-Card is used to pay for a conference registration (or any other expense item), that item should not be included in the Spend Authorization or the Expense Report. The P-Card transaction will need to be processed using the Verify P-Card Transaction functionality within Workday – a separate function outside of expense reimbursements.
A. The domestic meals per diem rate cannot be changed in the system as it set by the GSA.gov site. If a traveler does not use the per diem rate, they can select the “Non-Per Diem Meals” option on the expense line item, indicating if it is for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and enter the actual expense of the meal. Receipts are REQUIRED when choosing any other option than domestic meals per diem, and the expense will only be paid up to the amount of the per diem rate for the specific city.
A. You can cancel a spend authorization/expense report if it has not been fully approved. You can close if it has been approved but has not been attached to a paid expense report or connected to a settlement run. A cancel will unencumber the funds.
General Accounting
A. Please refer to Cash Sales job aid on the Workday Resources.
A. Once a cash sale is approved by the customer deposit specialist, a change cannot be made. A manual accounting journal can be used to correct the revenue category or to change a cost center. If the cash sale has not been approved, then, please contact the Cashier’s Office to Send Back the cash sale so the changes can be made or to Deny to discontinue the process.
A. Run Agency Available Budget for Organization task in Workday.
Grants Accounting
A. Once a new award is completed by the Grant Accountant in Workday, whomever has the role of Award Analyst or Grant Manager/PI in the Business Office will be notified in their Workday notifications. The notification will include a link to the Workday Award which will then identify the active Grant(s) for charging.
A. There are many ways to search in Workday. You can first go to the Grants Management Dashboard.
A. You can go to R002- Operating Variance Report and select “All gifts.”
A. Yes, if there are multiple PIs for a grant, they can all be listed as the PI/Grant Manager in Workday.
A. Yes, we can provide a Supplier payment report that will indicate actual payments.
A. Yes, we can provide a supplier payments report for grants.
A. The P-card expenses will show up in the expense columns as every other expense transaction will.
Procurement
A. Search for and run the Find Suppliers report in Workday. You can search by supplier name or Tax Identification Number.
A. Enter “Create Requisition – Task” into the search bar.
A. A spend category identifies the type of goods or services being purchased. Select the spend category based on what is being purchased.
A. Use the applicable Workday budget report before submitting a requisition. For general budget review, use the R002 Budget Report. For grants, use the R134 Grant Summary by Ledger Account report. If you do not have access to the applicable report, contact your Cost Center Manager or appropriate budget contact.
A. A supplier should not begin work, deliver goods, or provide services until a Purchase Order has been issued, a fully executed contract is in place, an approved change order has been issued, or another approved authorization applies. A requisition alone does not authorize the supplier to proceed.
A. Use the Requisition Lifecycle Report, My Requisitions, or applicable Workday dashboards to track the requisition-to-payment lifecycle, including requisition status, Purchase Order status, receiving, invoice status, and payment information.
Supplier Invoice
A. You will find this under forms on the Finance website. This form should be used ONLY when requesting a payment for a supplier who has not provided an invoice. Payment requests MUST coordinate with one of the Payment Purposes listed in the highlighted field. When completing the Supplier Invoice screen in Workday, use the automated Supplier Invoice Number above for your request. You must save this form to your computer and attach it onto the Supplier Invoice screen in Workday. Include all backup (i.e., receipts, registrations, memberships, etc.) with this form in your attachment in the Supplier Invoice screen in Workday. This may not be used for reimbursement. For reimbursements, please use the Expenses worklet application.
A. Petty Cash Reimbursements will be done through the Supplier Invoice functionality, using a Petty Cash spend category which can then be reallocated if needed.
A. The allowable spend categories are aligned with Procurement and Accounts Payable policies. They can only be changed if the policies change.