Workday TouchPoints: A look at how finance, HR, grants, and payroll connect 

What is a TouchPoint?

A TouchPoint can be defined as somewhere that systems, processes, people, and data connect, or impact one another. Within Workday, a TouchPoint is an element used in multiple functions across Workday that when changed, impacts the data and associated eligibility rules within all the places it is used.

Think of TouchPoints as events or information that have a Butterfly Effect across the university: wherein a minute, localized change within a complex system has broad impacts elsewhere. For example, something as simple as an employees’ personal information in Workday (or absence thereof) can impact a broad variety of processes, as well as university reporting to state and federal agencies.

In this article, we’ll provide in-depth information and resources to help Workday users understand the many TouchPoints they work with in Workday, and how finance, HR, grants, and payroll processes are all connected.

Why are TouchPoints so important?

TouchPoints aren’t new to WSU: we’ve always had them. However, since the launch of Workday, many TouchPoints and their impacts have become more transparent and visible within our systems.

At WSU, many TouchPoints rely upon each other for accuracy and success. It’s likely that most WSU staff who perform finance, HR, payroll, or grants administration tasks interact with TouchPoints in Workday often.

Because Workday is our system of record, it’s critical that the information within Workday is up-to-date and accurate, and that care is taken to perform business processes carefully and correctly. Understanding Workday TouchPoints is key to maintaining efficient and accurate business operations.

TouchPoints can impact:

  • Data availability and accuracy for financial, grant, HR, and compliance reporting
  • The timely flow of business processes and approvals
  • Employee payroll, benefits, taxes, and more

Types of TouchPoints in Workday

Those performing finance, HR, payroll, and grants processes in Workday may encounter two kinds of TouchPoints: those which connect to other processes and data in Workday, and those which connect to systems and processes outside of Workday, such as in myWSU.

Examples of TouchPoints within Workday include:

  • TouchPoint: Hire Process.
    • Information related to Cost Center, Fund, Function, and Region assigned during the Hire process impact many Payroll, finance, and grants functions downstream.
    • Employee Actions such as Time, Leave, & Absence Management are determined by Job Family (ex. Faculty vs. Civil Service), Position Term, assigned FTE, overtime eligibility, and Pay Rate Type assigned during the Hire process.
    • Benefits eligibility is also impacted by the selected Position Term.
  • TouchPoint: Default Cost Center.
    • On a position, the default Cost Center impacts expense report funding.
    • If the Payroll Costing Allocation is not set up or isn’t there for the dates Payroll is running, the employee’s pay gets charged to their default organizations (Cost Center, Fund, and Function)
  • TouchPoint: Employee address. This information has an impact on:
    • Where an expense report check or tax form gets mailed to.
    • An employee’s tax jurisdiction.
    • Eligibility for some Benefits plans or elections.

TouchPoints that occur outside of Workday may include:

  • Two-way feeds with myWSU , MyResearch, and other systems used for university reporting, such as:
    • WSU’s Compliance and Civil Rights department uses employee Personal Information to show WSU is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Equal Opportunity Employment.
    • Reporting and research conducted by the Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis (OSPA), which provides official data to university leadership for the purpose of: planning and the evaluation of WSU’s progress toward its strategic initiatives and accreditation needs

Learn more about the importance of accurate employee personal information in this previous TouchPoints series post.

These are just a handful of the dozens of TouchPoints that connect finance, HCM, payroll, and grants functions within Workday and across WSU.

Understanding your own TouchPoints

To help WSU employees learn about and understand the TouchPoints for the processes they perform and data they interact with in Workday, we’ve developed several comprehensive, interactive resources:

  • “Workday TouchPoints and Examples” reference guide
    • This reference guide features a comprehensive list of Workday TouchPoints across finance, grants, HR, and payroll.
    • Interactive diagrams provided for each functional area demonstrate how TouchPoints connect with one another across processes and data.
    • This reference guide also features an example scenario that covers a wide array of TouchPoints beginning with the hire of a new faculty member, through common events such as payroll, time off requests, equipment purchases, and expense reporting.
    • Helpful links to related resources are provided throughout the guide to make finding associated information easier.
  • Elevating Cougs session “Workday TouchPoints: How Finance, HCM, & Payroll are Connected”
    • This hour-long presentation from the 2024 Elevating Cougs conference, led by members of the Modernization team, explains what TouchPoints are and walks the audience through a sample scenario featuring TouchPoints across all functional areas.
    • Helpful timestamps in the recording include:
      • 04:13 – What are TouchPoints?
      • 14:02 – “All roads lead to Payroll”: Important TouchPoints from Job Requisition, to Hire, to Payroll for a faculty member.
      • 37:03 – Start Up Package: Important TouchPoints for the purchase of equipment and reporting on a grant.
      • 47:30 – Walk through of the new Workday TouchPoints and Examples reference guide.

All WSU employees who perform tasks related to finance, HR, payroll, and grants administration are encouraged to review these resources.

Looking for more information about Workday TouchPoints?

Moving into 2025, we’ll continue to explore Workday TouchPoints, diving deeper into specific ways information, people, and processes are interconnected at WSU. This includes the continuation of the Workday TouchPoints blog series, featured in the Workday Digest. Explore previously published Workday TouchPoints posts here.

If you’d like to learn more about TouchPoints, or have questions or concerns related to TouchPoints you or your area commonly encounter, reach out to Paul Fleming-McCullagh.