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Workday Finance Newsletter
August 2, 2016

Happy August!

It's hard to believe that we are more than halfway through summer, and less than a year from implementation! The team, along with a dedicated group of key stakeholders, has been working hard to make the implementation of Workday Finance a success.

A lot was accomplished in July. The team continued building the P2 (Prototype 2) tenant, began preliminary tenant testing, developed and tested new administrative roles, reviewed the preliminary data conversion, and more. The P2 tenant includes more than P1: more data, more validation rules, more robust account posting rules, etc. This tenant will be used for “end to end” testing of business processes as well as validation of data conversion.

One of the key factors of success for this project is collaboration. The team has been working with a number of University offices, including the Controller’s Office, the Budget Office, Medical Finance, the Office of Research Administration, the College of Engineering, and other key stakeholders to fine tune the FDM (Financial Data Model) as well as the defining the requirements for integrations with other systems.

We are also working on the design and configuration of SciQuest (see later article). As part of that effort, we held two supplier onboarding workshops in July. Central offices, P2P council members, and other volunteers participated in this workshop to determine the workflow and process for onboarding new suppliers.

The team is moving incredibly fast, and is excited to bring you Workday Finance in 2017. Stay tuned every month to learn more about the progress of this project.

-Theresa


Update on Finance Advisory Councils

The FACs (Finance Advisory Councils) resumed their regular meetings in late June and are currently developing testing scenarios for the project team to use in P2. They are helping plan P2 playback sessions, providing input on training and communications, and assisting with the ongoing development of the FDM.

In addition, the FAC members are reviewing standard reports in Workday to determine which best fit our needs. This exercise helps the team by focusing development resources on more complex custom reports that are required.


News from HCM

HRIS made the following changes in June:

  • A to-do was created for employees to provide proof of citizenship status documentation when a citizenship change is submitted.
  • New alerts for payment election changes have been implemented. Employees will receive two alerts when a change is made. The first will occur at the time of the change and the second will occur the morning following the change.
  • Rehires with a break in service of less than one year are not required to complete a new I-9 unless the existing form has expired.
  • To-do’s for one-time payments are now sent to the initiator of a termination process instead of Central HR. • MSOM (Miller School of Medicine) faculty vacation payout configuration was aligned with the policy.
  • New tip sheets were created for Business Process Notification Preferences and Security Roles.

Meet your New FDM (Financial Data Model)!

Every month, the Workday Finance Update features an element of the FDM. This month, let’s revisit Company. You were introduced to Company (and the new company structure) in our first Workday Finance Update. This is a very important part of Workday Finance, so it is important to keep it front and center.

Workday HCM currently has one company, University of Miami. In Workday Finance, there will be seven companies, which can be found here. Company supports the preparation of GAAP-based financial statements including consolidations at higher levels. This supports the three hospitals’ needs to issue separate financial statements, which are ultimately rolled into the University’s financial statements.

In addition to supporting reporting, Company is a required organizational element for every position. As part of implementing Finance, we will assign every position to one of the companies. This will be part of the data conversion process and will be reviewed and validated by the project team, key stakeholders, and departmental personnel. Company is also required on business processes – for example, purchase requisitions – in conjunction with other costing elements of the FDM.


Tips & Tricks
Do you have a tip or trick to share with readers of this Update? If so, please send it to Theresa. If we publish your suggestion, we’ll send you a Workday token in appreciation.

Meet the Team

Each month, the Workday Finance Team would like to introduce you to two different members of the team. This month, meet Marvin Katz and Sean McNichols.

Marvin Katz is a member of the Workday Finance project team focusing on Accounting and Budget. Marvin joined the U seven years ago, has been a CPA for over 28 years, and has held various CFO positions across different industries in South Florida. Marvin’s family loves the U as much as he does - his son Nick is a current student who will be a junior this fall. Although he is happy his son is a Hurricane, he and his wife miss having him at home, but enjoy spending their time with their rescue greyhound and two rescue cats.

Sean McNichols is our Deloitte functional lead supporting FDM, Financial Accounting, and Customer Accounts. He is a college football fan and a graduate of Notre Dame and MIT. He lives in Chicago and enjoys running, boxing and reading. How does he survive Midwestern winters? Consulting projects in Texas, SoCal, Hawaii, and now sunny Miami!


Role-Based Security

As mentioned in previous issues, one of the benefits of Workday’s security model is that roles are generally assigned to positions and not to people. This simplifies matters when there is turnover; you no longer have to complete new security request forms for people to use Workday.

Last month, you learned about a security enhancement that allows employees and their managers to view the roles assigned to their positions. This is done by using related actions in Workday.

Finance roles currently include CCM (Cost Center Manager), FR (Finance Reviewer), FBPI (Finance Business Process Initiator, and SBO (Senior Business Officer). More information can be found here.

These roles are assigned to cost centers or cost center hierarchies. Each cost center must have one CCM as an approver in certain business processes. Each area can choose to have an additional CCM, if desired. Many CCMs are assigned to cost center hierarchies, meaning their role inherits to all cost centers in that hierarchy. When there is only one CCM, and that individual vacates their position, a second CCM must be identified in order for business processes to complete properly. The Workday system administrator monitors for vacant role assignments. The team will reach out to any areas where a vacancy is identified, requesting a new CCM.


What is SciQuest?

As part of the Workday Finance implementation, we will also be implementing SciQuest to support Workday’s procurement functionality. Together, the systems will replace what is currently provided by Ariba. This graphic was shared recently with the ERP Executive Steering Committee to explain how the two systems will interact.

Beginning June 2017, you would begin the procurement process in Workday and then “punch-out” to SciQuest to shop and build a cart of goods and services from UM-approved suppliers. You will be able to compare items, shop for complex scientific items, and assign carts to others. Carts will be returned to Workday via a click – at which point the requisition will have costing information added and route through various approvers. The team is currently configuring both SciQuest and Workday and will be able to showcase some of this functionality in the coming months.


New Report!
A new report was published to Workday called HCM-FIN-Workers Compensation in Default Orgs with and without Costing Allocations. CCM’s and FR’s can run this report for Cost Centers and Supervisory Organizations they have access to. It returns employees assigned to those organizations with default organizational assignments and costing allocations, if applicable. Like all reports, it can be downloaded into Excel for further analysis.

Help!!

Need assistance? The Workday Project team has you covered! Tip sheets and training are regularly updated and can be found here.

Still need help? Questions regarding costing allocations, costing overrides (e.g. Activity Pay), payroll accounting adjustments, legacy values, Workday-to- FRS integration, finance roles, and commitment accounting can be sent to the following team members:

Questions regarding Workday Finance implementation can also be sent to Theresa Ashman. 

Workday HCM questions can be directed to: workday@miami.edu.

Technical problems and requests for security roles can be sent to: itsupportcenter@miami.edu

Important Links

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