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October 2025 Newsletter Content Overview
- General
- Updated approval requirements for expenses on grants
- Help Team
- Form feedback and issues
- What is AST up to? Check out our workflows!
- Accounting and Grants
- Accounting: Four ISDs from July with errors and next steps
- Grants: Effort reporting cycle update
- Payments and Procurement
- R1131 boosted to help identify pending invoices in Workday
- Important changes to the Card Suspension/Closure Policy
- Need office supplies? Try ordering through the Workday catalog!
- International travel registration reminder
- Personnel Services
- Academic Personnel End of Year Cleanup
- HR/Payroll
- Update on 8/1-8/15 PAA issue
- Winter 2026 Roster Reports
- 2025 Overpayment Deadline Approaching
- Autumn I-9s were a success!
- Foreign National Services
- USCIS will no longer accept paper checks
GENERAL
Updated approval requirements for expenses on grants
As of October 15, 2025, requests for one-time expenditures on grants do not require chair or director approval, regardless of whether it is on a research or standalone grant. If an expenditure is funded by a grant (GR######), specific Workday comments regarding documented justification for the research expenditure are also no longer required. This change applies to one-time expenditures including UW Reimbursements, UW Travel Reimbursements, UW Advances, and Guest Payments and Reimbursements. Divisional Dean approval is still required for longer-term initiative spending.
Please visit our Approval Requirements page for the latest information on financial risk mitigation strategies, including blanket approvals for HR/Payroll transactions.
HELP TEAM
Form feedback and issues
On September 23, we released a broad set of form updates to standardize the language, look, and feel of our forms. AST has been working hard to resolve the handful of issues that have cropped up since then to ensure a smooth ticketing experience on the user’s end. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through these errors during this stabilization period.
If you have any feedback or encounter any errors when submitting a form, please report them to us either via our General Inquiry Form or by emailing teamcas@uw.edu.
What is AST up to? Check out our workflows!
It’s no secret that our services have evolved since AST launched in 2011 to include increasingly more complex business processes. But it is not always clear where work happens or who does what. To help create more transparency, we have created workflows to illustrate which individual or office is responsible for completing each task, decision, or approval during the course of a business process.
Visit our Workflow Catalog for the complete list of AST’s workflows.
ACCOUNTING AND GRANTS
Accounting: Four ISDs from July with errors and next steps
An error to four July ISDs is causing accounting reporting issues when research grant worktags were charged. The following ISDs are impacted:
- ISD-00108330: UWIT Zoom licensing
- ISD-00108331: UWIT Adobe Creative Cloud
- ISD-00108332: UWIT Adobe Acrobat
- ISD-00108344: UWIT Adobe, SAS and other supported licenses
Non-award grant worktags are not impacted. However, until a fix is implemented, AST is unable to process any correcting journal entries on these ISDs at this time. We have identified correcting journal entries made to these ISDs prior to the communication of error and will track for any additional steps once a solution is in place.
If you need a correcting entry for any of these ISDs, send in your request and we will hold them until the underlying issue has been resolved. For additional information, please see the September 29, 2025, MRAM announcement.
Grants: Effort reporting cycle update
We are coming to the end of the June 2025 period of effort certification. We’re aiming to have all statements pre-reviewed and certified by October 31, 2025. Please prioritize this task to be completed by month end. If AST is your effort coordinators, please return your CAS Effort and Project Statements report spreadsheet to us as soon as possible.
Here is the status of effort and project reporting as of October 21, 2025:
|
|
Effort |
Project |
|---|---|---|
|
Pre Review |
76 |
344 |
|
With PI for Certification |
22 |
82 |
|
Certified – great job! |
126 |
570 |
|
Total |
224 |
996 |
Need help?
- For ECC access, visit the ECC System Access page to get started.
- For questions regarding this process, please use our Grants Inquiry form to contact our Accounting and Grants team.
PAYMENTS AND PROCUREMENT
R1131 boosted to help identify pending invoices in Workday
Identifying outstanding Supplier Invoices and the next steps to pay these invoices can be confusing. Katie Seidel from our Pay/Pro team has been working on a project to use the R1131 Workday report and merge it with additional data to give you and your department a pick list. This is a huge step forward and we are proud to share Version 1 of Katie’s Supplier Invoice report! We will post it weekly to the CAS Finance & Administrations Microsoft Teams channel and will soon have instructions on how to run the excel template yourself. This report includes the following:
- Identify Supplier Invoices by age
- Identify invoices needing review and approval
- Identify invoices needing a receipt created in Workday
- Identify POs which need some TLC for the invoice to pay out
- Allow users to identify their most pressing invoices and to prioritize their daily work
We are still working out some finals tweaks but invite you to check out the latest October 21 version once posted this afternoon. Simply filter by your department and go!
We would also love your feedback! Please fill out our General Inquiry Form or email teamcas@uw.edu.
Important changes to the Card Suspension/Closure Policy
The ProCard Office recently announced some important changes to the Card Suspension/Closure Policy:
- Starting October 1, 2025, four card suspensions within a year will lead to the closure of the card (Procard, Ghost, and/or CTA). The 12-month period starts from the date of the first suspension.
- If the card undergoes a second or third suspension within the 12-month period, the cardholder will need to complete a verification assessment to lift the suspension (in addition to fully approving all aged transactions and notifying procard@uw.edu).
As a reminder, it is best practice for cardholders and approvers to verify and approve charges on a weekly basis (or monthly at minimum). Transactions that are not processed by month-end not only increase risk to the university for fraud but also do not align with accounting practices (resulting in audit risk).
Check out the following resources, including a list of Workday reports to identify pending transactions:
- AST’s guide for Workday inbox support and FAQs: ProCard Management in Workday
- ProCard Office’s resources: ProCard Transaction Verification
Need office supplies? Try ordering through the Workday Catalog!
Speaking of ProCards… want to avoid using your ProCard but need to order office supplies? Consider making a catalog purchase through Workday instead! Catalog purchases are considered the fastest order method and are the recommended order method for purchasing goods at the UW.
If you have the “Requisition Requester” security role, you can order office supplies (e.g., bluebooks, kitchen supplies, etc.) in Workday by entering a requisition via the catalog workflow. Two popular catalog options for office supplies are Office Depot and Guy Brown.
For additional information and support, check out the following resources:
- AST’s security role form: Security Role Management and Delegation Request
- Procurement job aid and resources: Catalog Purchases
International travel registration reminder
When travelling internationally on official UW business, it is highly recommended that you register your travel. This ensures that the UW can account for and support its global travelers’ safety and wellbeing in the event of an emergency while also staying in compliance with new federal research security guidelines. For additional details, review the APS 75.1 Official International Travel policy.
Please be aware that all students, including graduate students, are required to register their travel and secure the necessary insurance coverage.
PERSONNEL SERVICES
Academic Personnel End of Year Cleanup
As discussed in the October 14, 2025, HCM Community of Practice meeting, there are a number of academic data issues that need to be corrected before October 31, 2025. Please run the following audit reports in Workday and process any necessary changes:
- Academic Personnel Census Academic Appointment Audit R0716.1: This report identifies issues related to end dates (invalid or expired), roster values, appointing units, missing primary appointments, and missing positions.
- Academic Personnel Census Position Issues R0716.2: This report identifies issues related to end dates (invalid or expired), missing academic appointments, or discrepancies between the job profile and primary academic rank.
- Review for your Supervisory Organizations and use report columns to identify required fixes.
If you have any questions on how to properly correct some of these items, please reach out to Susan Miller (susanh82@uw.edu) or Ivy Mason-Sharrah (ivym@uw.edu) for guidance.
AST HR/Payroll-supported units: It is your responsibility to run the above-mentioned reports, identify any issues, and make decisions regarding next steps. Once those next steps have been identified, please submit the appropriate ticket(s) to AST so that we can enter these requests in Workday.
HR/PAYROLL
Update on 8/1-8/15 PAA issue
The PAA freeze for the 8/1-8/15 payroll period is still in place. The Fringe Benefit fix team and Payroll are running some final tests on the issue, and a communication will be sent out once the freeze is lifted.
Winter 2026 Roster Reports
The Winter 2026 Roster Report was sent out on October 15 to departments using AST HR/Payroll services. Completed reports are due back to AST on November 17, 2025.
Additionally, AST HR/Payroll-supported units received an invitation for an online information session to discuss the Winter 2026 Roster Report. Please drop by with any questions you have about your department’s roster report.
- Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
- Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
- Zoom link: https://washington.zoom.us/my/jballew
Contact Jim Ballew (jballew@uw.edu) for more information.
2025 Overpayment Deadlines Approaching
Now is the time to check your records to determine if there are any outstanding overpayment requests in your unit that need to be submitted and processed in advance of the calendar year-end.
Overpayment requests for the 2025 calendar year and all required documentation must be received in the Payroll Office by early December (note: final year-end payroll and tax deadlines have not yet been released by Employee Workday Help, but AST will communicate deadlines as soon as they are published). This will ensure that overpayments are processed at the correct tax rate. Forms not received on time may be subject to higher federal taxes per IRS Federal Tax regulations.
Keep in mind that any Workday actions (e.g., FTE changes, timesheet adjustments, etc.) necessitating the overpayment request must be completed in Workday before the overpayment request can be submitted. Here is a step-by-step illustration of the overpayment workflow:
For a full overview of the overpayment process, check out our Compensation and Payroll Workflows. Please contact teamcas@uw.edu if you have any questions regarding the overpayment process.
Autumn I-9s were a success!
Thank you to everyone who spread the word about our autumn I-9 drop-in hours or partnered with AST to facilitate I-9 verification sessions during orientations. With your help, our I-9 team verified over 300 Form I-9s—that’s a lot of hires!
Please continue to share AST’s I-9 Appointment Scheduling Link with your incoming hires, and direct any questions or concerns to teamcas-i9@uw.edu.
FOREIGN NATIONAL SERVICES
USCIS will no longer accept paper checks
Effective October 29, 2025, USCIS will no longer accept checks as a payment method for any filing fee (primarily H-1B and Permanent Residence petitions), moving to electronic payment methods instead. Our primary option will be to use a credit card and submit a Form G-1450 with the petition to USCIS. The Foreign National Services team will work with you to complete this form for the relevant cases. We will also be in touch with any cases currently in process that may be affected when this change goes into effect.
As always, please fill out our General Inquiry Form (preferred) or email teamcas@uw.edu if you have any questions or concerns.
Administrative Support Team
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 21, 2025