August 2021
Managers
Workday Monthly Newsletter: Manager Edition
Budget Management
Cost Center Managers will now have greater visibility of budget report displays with Workday, improving budget management efficiency. Currently, Colleague does not feature live data monitoring; it only provides a snapshot of the data. Now, with Workday, reports will contain real-time data and still feature the option to export to Excel. Cost Center Managers will be able to instantly monitor their budgets versus actuals. They will also be able to see what funds have been committed, obligated, and spent already. 

With Workday, Cost Center Managers can now perform their own budget amendments for reallocations, rather than using the budget transfer Google form. The budget approval process will also no longer be driven by emails. Instead, Workday will introduce a seamless budget approval business process that won’t require moving between different systems. Any transfers requiring Vice President (VP) approval will be automatically done through notifications within the system. Workday has streamlined processes by eliminating manual data entry and the need to email back and forth.
New Terminology & Tools
Dashboards
& Reporting
Cost Center Managers will be able to customize their dashboards in Workday. This includes the ability to incorporate a link that goes directly to their budget reporting, a link to Adaptive for yearly budget planning, or to have graphical displays for budget monitoring in their dashboard. Currently, Cost Center Managers over multiple accounts view all of their accounts one by one. With Workday, they will have visibility to all accounts they manage and that roll up to their reporting level. 

Workday dashboards will replace the use of reports that Cost Center managers may be familiar with in Colleague. For example, XS19, which features a static view of budget data, will be replaced with real-time updated data in Workday. ACBL (General Ledger Account Balance) reports will also be replaced by Workday. These are currently used to view the details of a budget line item, and require individual reporting in Colleague for each object code. Now, Cost Center Managers can drill directly into this data from their reports and dashboards in Workday. There is no need to run new reports for each object code. Security roles will play a role in how deep Cost Center Managers will be able to drill down into these reports.
Budget Authorities:
->Cost Center Managers
It’s important to note that Budget Authorities will now be referred to as Cost Center Managers in Workday. This is a title change only and will not change any duties performed by the role itself. Cost Center Managers will still have responsibilities monitoring and maintaining their budgets and approving requisitions in the system. A reference list of legacy account numbers crosswalked to the new Cost Center accounts will be provided to all Cost Center Managers. 

Administrative assistants supporting Cost Center Managers will be assigned the role of Procure to Pay (P2P) Business Partners in Workday. The role of P2P Business Partners enables administrative assistants to continue to initiate requisitions for Cost Center Managers.
Object Codes: -> Spend Categories
Object codes will be replaced with spend categories in Workday. Spend categories will feature different numbers than previously established object codes.

When setting up expense and purchase items, Cost Center Managers will assign a spend category. This is a classification in procurement and budget management that provides a logical grouping to search and report on acquired items and services.

For budget planning purposes, Cost Center Managers budget funds in the spend categories to match anticipated expenses for the upcoming fiscal year.
Object Codes -> Spend Categories: A Visual Example
Projects
Workday will introduce changes for Projects, too. The most notable change is that Projects will no longer be tracked through Excel spreadsheets. There will now be six-core Project Cost Centers: Buildings & Maintenance Projects, Facilities & Construction Projects, Safety & Environmental Management Projects, Information Technology Projects, and Campus Ops Projects.  

The current Project email approval process will also change. Instead of relying on emails, the Project Cost Center will initiate the project in Workday. The Budget Department will receive notification for approval, budget allocation, and activation in the system. Currently, every project is created with an entirely new general ledger (GL) account with different project departments given access to that account, depending on the type of project. When planning the scope of a new project, it is important to note that Project Cost Center Managers will now need to estimate their budgets by spend categories since budget pooling will no longer be an option.
Terms to Know
The following terms will be new to the College with the implementation of Workday, and some will replace terms already commonly used by many employees.

To ease the transition to the new system, start adopting this new terminology with your fellow employees and encourage them to use and understand it. Adopting new terminology will aid in upcoming training and the launch of Workday in the Fall.

  • Budget Amendments – Formerly called Budget Transfers; type: reallocation.
  • Cost Center – The department’s budgeting unit.
  • Cost Center Manager – Formerly known as Budget Authority. The person responsible for managing the budget planning, budget maintenance, and approving expenses to their cost centers.
  • Hierarchy - The cost center structure is a hierarchy in which financial transactions post to lower-level management areas and then roll up to higher levels. Example: Academic Department -> Dean -> Academic AVP -> VP of Instruction -> Provost
  • Ledger Account – A collection of accounts in which account transactions are recorded. In Workday, these have an associated collection of Spend Categories.
  • P2P Business Partners – P2P (Procure to Pay) Business Partners is the Workday role assigned to administrative assistants who help Cost Center Managers with submitting requisitions. 
  • Spend Categories – Formerly called object codes. These will have different numbers, but it is important to note that Workday also provides the ability to type in the text name of the Spend Category, so memorizing the associated numbers will not be necessary. When setting up expense and purchase items, Cost Center Managers assign a spend category. It is a classification in procurement and budget management that provides a logical grouping to search and report on acquired items and services. For budget planning purposes, Cost Center Managers budget funds in the Spend Categories to match anticipated expenses for the upcoming fiscal year. 
  • Reallocation – Moving funds between Spend Categories to meet expense needs that arise during the fiscal year. Budget reallocations must be within the same Cost Center or hierarchy of accounts managed. VPs and AVPs, for example, have the ability to reallocate funds among the Cost Centers that roll up to their level. Reallocations are balanced budget adjustments, where the increase of one Spend Category must equal the decrease of another, resulting in a net-zero change of the budgetary funds total within that Cost Center or hierarchy.
Training
Workday training is under development. Training materials will include job aids, instructional videos, presentations, and instructor-led training. For updates on what training is available, refer to this section of the newsletter each month and the Training and Resources section of the ACC Workday Website. 
Help & Support
Along the journey to Workday's launch in the Fall and even beyond the go-live, support systems will be available to help if you run into any questions. First, consult the Workday website; if you can't find what you're looking for, reach out to one of the Change Champions

The Change Champion Network is a grassroots effort to communicate, advocate for, and support organizational change, specifically the implementation of Workday. Members of the Change Network (referred to as Change Champions) meet monthly to review materials to share with their colleagues. 

If the website doesn’t cover your question or a Change Champion isn’t available, send your questions regarding specific process changes or other issues to Workday@austincc.edu. Support is always available to all ACC employees.