Workday Finance FAQs

With the launch of Workday Finance, UW moved to a chart of accounts, called the Foundation Data Model (FDM), that uses alphanumeric accounting worktags to show where money is coming from, where it is going, what it is being used for, and who it is associated with. Worktags take the place of the legacy financial accounting system (FAS) 6-digit budget numbers and Project Cost Accounting (PCA) codes. To look up your unit’s budget number mappings to Workday FDM values, use the FDM Translator tool (UW NetID login required). Remember the translator tool should only be used to identify budget numbers already established as of June 2023.

Refer to Workday report R1349 Cost Center and related FDM Worktags. There you will input a specific Cost Center or a Level of the Cost Center Hierarchy.

A driver worktag is an identifying value that auto populates values for the associated related worktag(s). For example, using a program worktag as the accounting detail for a transaction will auto populate the balancing unit, cost center, function, fund, gift, grant, and resource worktags if they have been associated with that program value. The most common driver worktags for CAS units include program, gift, grant, and cost center. 

For more information about the defaults associated with driver worktags, see the FDM Driver Worktag Matrix.

For more information on what is a worktag? Please refer to the UW Connect Finance Workday Company & Worktags job aid.

UW Finance has updated the excel template for requesting new Worktags. Sub gifts now have a series of questions that must be answered. Please download the excel template from the UW Connect Finance Worktag Template job aid and email the completed template to Robert Young at ryng@uw.edu for review. Once he has verified that all the required information is included, he will submit the Foundation Data Model (FDM) Data Element Management Request. 

Emailing the Worktag Template file directly to Robert is the fastest way to get your new tags requested, please DO NOT create your own FDM Data Element Request. 

Until your new worktags are created, we recommend that you use the cost center and resource tags that work for the transaction, then note the name of the not-yet-available worktag in the memo field. This will make it easier to find the operational journal line to initiate a reclass when your worktag becomes available.

Spend categories can be found on the Workday Spend Category Guidance job aid. It is embedded on the page but is available to be downloaded for further exploration/ ease of use. Spend categories can also be extracted from Workday using report R1324 Extract FDM - Spend Categories, particularly useful when referring to taxability. 

UW1861 is the company code for College of Arts and Sciences units.

There is! With the help of Mike Kummer, Linda Nelson and Robert Young created a two (2) page cheat sheet for Workday Finance reports. Please note it represents reports that either Robert, Mike, or Linda have found helpful. It is not inclusive or exhaustive, but it is hopefully a good start.

In addition, we recommend visiting UW Finance's Finance Reporting section (UW NetID log in required). 

The BI Portal report catalog (UW NetID log in required) include Workday Finance reports, providing a one-stop shop for users.

To learn more about the BI Portal and Workday finance, check out the following UW IT blog post: Reimagining Reporting.

The Financial Desktop landing page is available to help bridge the transition from the legacy MyFD system to like resources in the new Workday world. Here is how you can add the Financial Desktop to your apps: 

1. Select the left-hand Workday menu and select the Add Apps button at the bottom 
2. In the Find Apps search bar, type in Financial Desktop then select plus (+) button. This will add Financial Desktop to the top of your customizable Workday Apps menu.  

When you visit the Financial Desktop app, you will find some good resources on reports that are continuing to be built out as more financial data is captured in the Workday system.

You may be looking for R1285 Find Journal Lines Custom - Worktag Breakout, which will give you a list of posted transactions on a specific Cost Center. It is supposed to be akin to the Transaction Summary report in MyFD. To run this report, type R1285 Find Journal Lines Custom - Worktag Breakout in the Workday search bar, then enter the parameters you are searching for and select OK. Now you will see your list of transactions.