Worktags are the foundation of Workday financial reporting and business processes. They define how data is entered, routed, and reported, and ultimately how the University of Washington makes informed decisions.
How FDM Worktags Impact Reporting in Workday
Every financial transaction in Workday must be tagged with the appropriate FDM (Foundation Data Model) elements. These worktags allow us to:
- Separate data by activity or funding source.
- Group similar transactions together for analysis.
- Produce reliable reports that support both operational and financial decision-making.
Choosing the right worktag is critical. Avoid generic or catch-all worktags like “Miscellaneous” or “Other,” which create data quality issues and make it difficult to produce meaningful reports. See the Standards for Structuring and Naming Foundation Data Model (FDM) Values page for more information. Accurate worktagging ensures transparency, audit readiness, and useful reporting across all levels of the university.
Balancing and Reconciliation Expectations
Reconciliation is more than just confirming totals match between systems. It means confirming that the right amounts are posted to the right worktags and that those values match across all systems.
If you are new to financial reconciliation, keep the following in mind:
- Reconciliation must happen at the detailed worktag level, not just at summary totals.
- Use Workday reports that show transactions by individual worktags (such as Cost Center, Program, Grant, etc.).
- Check that each transaction in your external system has a corresponding, correctly tagged transaction in Workday.
- Discrepancies should be investigated and resolved, not ignored if totals happen to align.
If you’re unsure how to do this, reach out to your Shared Environment for support.
Workday FDM Workag Value Reports
This section provides a comprehensive list of Workday reports designed to extract current Foundation Data Model (FDM) worktag values used at the University of Washington. These reports allow users to view and filter individual worktag values, including associated hierarchies, related worktags, and status indicators (e.g., inactive, retired). These extracts are particularly useful for reviewing available values when creating or editing Workday transactions or hierarchies.
For some types of FDM worktags, there are corresponding Knowledge Articles that help users better understand the purpose, definition, and appropriate use of each worktag value. While the Knowledge Articles provide helpful descriptions, they are updated on a quarterly basis, and so for the most accurate and up-to-date values, always refer to the Workday reports.
For broader operational reporting, including dashboards, visualizations, and reports that combine financial and non-financial data, please visit the Business Intelligence (BI) Portal. There you’ll find curated reporting resources by role and subject area, including training guides and data definitions.