FT Stabilization ( Archived )

4/11 UW community message from CFO, Sarah Norris Hall - Updates on Workday Finance stabilization

Dear UW community,

Since stepping into the position of Senior Vice President and CFO in January after the merger of UW Finance and the Office of Planning & Budgeting, our new team continues to learn, respond to emergent issues, and build capacity to achieve the benefits of Workday Finance. At this stage, I want to convey several important messages to our community, especially faculty and staff:

Week of 4/10 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

New Workday Dashboard for Shared Environment

  • We're pleased to announce the launch of the Shared Environment Dashboard, now accessible within Workday.

Week of 3/20 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

Financial Accounting Stabilization Update

  • Beginning balance reconciliation, or the transfer of certain financial balances from multiple legacy systems to Workday with an increased level of detail, is a high priority item for the central office teams involved in this work. Three hour long daily working sessions to complete the reconciliation are scheduled throughout the latter part of March with the goal of completing this critical to fiscal year close work by the end of April.

Week of 4/3 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

Post Award Grant Administration Stabilization Update

  • The Award Setup backlog has been trending down for several weeks and has declined 41% since early January. In response to the high volume of Award Setup Requests (ASRs), training efforts have been focused on creating capacity for experienced team members who can review and process ASRs.
  • Three FTE have been trained on the final federal report process. Two additional FTE will be hired later this month for a total of 12 FTE.

Week of 3/7 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

Financial Accounting Stabilization Update

  • Foundation Data Model (FDM) (aka “chart of accounts”) modification request backlog, peaking at approximately 250 requests, each containing multiple, often complex requests has been fully remediated as of late February.

Week of 3/14 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

Procurement Stabilization Update

Significant progress has been made in stabilizing Workday within procurement. Since go-live the University of Washington – inclusive of the medical centers -- has paid over $1.9 billion in goods and services. Our backlog is down to 2% and we have successfully paid 98% of our invoices due. We continue to focus efforts on system stability and improving user satisfaction.

Week of 3/27 Workday Finance Stabilization Update

Procurement Stabilization Update

Through Procurement Services’ oversight in managing the Workday Location Customer Account Number (“LCAN”), a crucial data element determining delivery locations for the University, the efficiency of transmitting purchase orders from Workday to our suppliers has vastly improved. From a peak of 1,083 order failures on August 2, 2023, we have seen a remarkable reduction, with just 23 failures reported as of March 9 of this year. This marks an impressive 98% decrease in the rate of purchase order failures.