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Washington State University Monthly Update

Changes in Workday to support travel reimbursement deadlines

Beginning in February 2022, expense reports submitted past the deadline of 60 days will include a new step requiring the employee/traveler to acknowledge the travel being reimbursed will impact their taxable income.

The 60-day deadline is an IRS requirement, and WSU’s Business Policies and Procedures Manual (BPPM) section 95.20 states that “Employees who do not meet this deadline are reimbursed under a nonaccountable plan and the total expenses are reported as additional income with applicable payroll tax withholdings.” This means employees can expect to see an increase in taxes withheld and a decrease to their net paycheck.

For questions, please contact the Payments Team.

Update to Effort Certification business process routing

We have a review step in the Effort Certification business process (BP) for the Effort Certification Reviewer security role that is not functioning correctly when an employee is working on Grants tied to multiple Cost Centers. We are changing the first step in the business process from a review step to an approval step. The change should remove confusion and significantly streamline business process workflow for Effort Certifications. One Effort Certification Reviewer per Cost Center will approve the Effort Certification after reviewing it.

Visit the Feature Release Hub to learn about other enhancements coming with the latest Workday update.

Improvement to reporting cost share on subcontracts

As of December 1, 2021, the business process for reporting subcontract cost share for grant management was updated so that when Sponsored Programs Services (SPS) creates a subcontract supplier invoice, they also create a journal for the subcontractor’s reported cost share at the same time. This enhancement will help to ensure the information is reported on the sponsor invoice in a timely manner.

The Create Request process in Workday is still an option for reporting subcontract cost share, if you prefer it. A link to the reference guide can be found here: Request 3rd Party or Subcontract Cost Share.

If subcontract cost share reported on an invoice was missed prior to December 1, 2021, please use the Create Request process in Workday to communicate this information to SPS so they can do a manual journal.

Update to non-core budget to actual reports

Beginning in January 2022, multiple reports will be updated to post the non-core initial fiscal year budget in the Initial Budget column, instead of the Available Budget Amendments column. Here are the affected reports:

  • CR FIN Non-Core Budget to Actuals with Encumbrances Summary
  • CR FIN Non-Core Budget to Actuals Summary

Learn more about the difference between core and non-core budgets.

This is part of the January 2022 Monthly Update. See other major changes on the Monthly Workday Updates Schedule, or read about detailed updates.

Adding notifications for budget amendment business process

Currently in Workday, users do not receive notifications if a budget amendment is denied or canceled. To help increase efficiency and awareness, we are adding new system notifications for budget amendment events anytime the transaction is denied or canceled. These notifications will go to the individuals involved in the business process.

This is part of the January 2022 Monthly Update. See other major changes on the Monthly Workday Updates Schedule, or read about detailed updates.

Removing encumbrances associated with hourly employees

Currently, many departments manually adjust encumbrances in Workday for hourly employees to make these commitments appear more accurate. These adjustments are necessary because of the constant change to the number of hours worked.

We are currently working on a change that will remove all encumbrances associated with hourly employees from Workday, to ensure that commitments are accurate.

See other major changes on the Monthly Workday Updates Schedule, or read about detailed updates.

 

Updates to core budget and core/non-core financial reports

Reports for core budget to actuals are being updated to exclude benefit commitments and obligations.

Currently for core budget to actual and other core/non-core financial reports, benefits projections appear as negative (show as a deficit) until the Budget Office funds those benefits. We heard from the community that many people are exporting these reports and manually correcting them in Excel before providing data to their leadership. The Reporting Workgroup has discussed the best way to address this. This update will filter out benefit commitments and obligations on these reports to reduce manual work and provide a more accurate picture of budgets.

Here are the affected reports:

  • CR FIN Core Budget to Actuals with Encumbrances Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Alt Reporting Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Assignee Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Cost Center Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Extension Reporting Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Function Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Fund Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Program Financial Position Summary
  • CR FIN Core/Non-Core Region Financial Position Summary

Learn more about the difference between core and non-core budgets.

This is part of the January 2022 Monthly Update. See other major changes on the Monthly Workday Updates Schedule, or read about detailed updates.

Expense Report printing to become available

When Workday launched, expense reports could not be printed due to a configuration setup issue.

We have addressed the issue and will activate the Print feature of Expense Reports. With this enhancement, the ability to print will now be available to users in Workday if a paper copy of an expense report is required for records.

 

Special characters to be removed from Supplier Invoice Request

Certain special characters, including en (–) and em (—) dashes, prevent settlement of payments through the banking systems if present in the Supplier’s invoice number.

Note: the en dash differs from a hyphen (-), which can be used.

A new system validation will prevent these special characters from being used when creating supplier invoice requests.

Learn more about what special characters can be used by visiting the updated Supplier Invoice Request reference guide. 

 

Fix for registered assets not impacting revenue or F&A

You may have noticed when running reports (such as Award Budget to Actuals) that when an asset is registered in Workday, it looks like an expense is removed and then reposted. This is because when the Supplier Invoice to acquire the asset is approved, it creates an expense on the grant, which appears in reports. When the Controller’s Office registers the asset, it creates what’s called an allocation, which also shows up in reports. » More …