Glossary of FDM Worktags | University Controller's Office

This section will cover the following Worktags:

Accounting Worktags
Funding Source Worktags
Unit Managed Worktags
Institutional Worktags
Other FDM Worktags

Accounting Worktags

Worktag

Definition

Overall Functionality

Balancing Worktag

Retained Earnings

Driver Worktag

Payroll Costing Allocation

Hierarchy

Ledger

Ledger Worktags classify accounting activity primarily for financial statement reporting. They also inherently support certain operational and managerial reporting needs, especially for balance sheet activity where detailed Spend and Revenue Categories are not available.

Smart numbering schema: 1=Asset, 2=Liability, 3=Equity, 4=Revenue, 5=Payroll, 6=Other Expenses, 7-8= Non-Operating Revenues and Expenses, 9=Statistics

Revenue Category

An enterprise-wide listing of granular revenue streams that provide support for detailed reporting, generally at the managerial level. These Revenue Categories are associated with Income Statement Ledgers through Workday's Account Posting Rule configurations. Answer the question "What is being sold" or “What is the source of this revenue”

Spend Category

An enterprise-wide listing of granular expenses that provides support for detailed reporting, generally at the managerial level. These Spend Categories are associated with Income Statement Ledgers through Workday's Account Posting Rule configurations. Answer the question "What is being purchased"

Purchase Item

Represents SKU-level detail of purchases used in procurement and operational reports

Object Class

Categorize grant-related expenditures into groupings relevant for sponsored programs reporting & invoicing. These categories drive which expenditures are eligible or ineligible for facilities & administration charges.

Expense Item

Defines items used in expense reports (e.g. airlines, hotels, etc.)

Funding Source Worktags

Worktag	Definition	Overall Functionality
Fund	The Fund worktag is used primarily to report sources and uses of University funds in terms required by GASB and by the State of Washington’s Office of Financial Management (OFM). This is the primary funding source worktag and is used on every transaction in Workday.	X	X		X	X
Resource	The Resource Worktag is used to track sources and uses of University funds from a managerial and local reporting perspective. Each Resource defaults one Fund Worktag, making it a sort of sub-Fund Worktag. This Worktag describes the “color of money” in terms commonly used across campus. E.g. ICR, Operating Funds (GOF), Designated Funds (DOF). This is the secondary funding source worktag and is used on all Income Statement transactions.		X	X	X	X
Sponsored Grant	This worktag identifies funding from a grant sponsor. Sponsored grants are associated with an award line and managed by the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).	X	X	X	X	X
Gift	The Gift worktag is used by enterprise to capture gifts or other voluntary contributions (or aggregate of contributions) of external donor support to the enterprise without any requirement for receipt of any economic or other tangible benefit in return		X	X	X	X
Debt	Represents external debt proceeds					X
Appropriation	Used to track funds appropriated by the State of Washington The Appropriation Worktag is never selected manually, but either defaulted in by a Resource Worktag (capital appropriations) or associated via a Workday allocation (operating appropriations).				X	X
Loan	This worktag supports the tracking of loans issued by the Internal Lending Program

Worktag

Definition

Overall Functionality

Balancing Worktag

Retained Earnings

Driver Worktag

Payroll Costing Allocation

Hierarchy

Fund

The Fund worktag is used primarily to report sources and uses of University funds in terms required by GASB and by the State of Washington’s Office of Financial Management (OFM). This is the primary funding source worktag and is used on every transaction in Workday.

Resource

The Resource Worktag is used to track sources and uses of University funds from a managerial and local reporting perspective. Each Resource defaults one Fund Worktag, making it a sort of sub-Fund Worktag. This Worktag describes the “color of money” in terms commonly used across campus. E.g. ICR, Operating Funds (GOF), Designated Funds (DOF). This is the secondary funding source worktag and is used on all Income Statement transactions.

Unit Managed Worktags

Worktag	Definition
Assignee	Represents a person to whom revenues and or expenses can be tracked Distinct from the PI Attribute on the Grant Worktag Format is Last Name, First Name (netID)	X		X	X
Activity	Used to track and report revenue and expense for localized activities that are short-lived, ad-hoc, or annually reoccurring.		X	X	X
Program	Represents activities that require retained earnings but do not meet the criteria for establishing a Cost Center. A Program does not have approval authority. A Program worktag can serve as a sub-category under Gifts (e.g. “sub-gift”), or Cost Centers, providing more granular tracking of ongoing activities. A Program does not need to be tied to a single Cost Center and can be used to track activities across multiple Cost Centers or funding sources, enabling grouping of related activities across departments or projects.	X	X	X	X
Project	A worktag that represents capital projects. Its use is restricted to units that manage capital projects.	X	X	X	X
Stand-Alone Grant	Represents internally funded or non-sponsored activities that require discrete financial tracking and, in some cases, dedicated financial oversight. Broadly, commitments represent a common use-case. Stand-Alone Grants are similar to Program worktags in that they track activities below the level of a Cost Center, but unlike Program worktags, Stand-Alone Grants has a Grant Manager assigned for procurement transaction approvals. Note: In Workday, the Stand-Alone Grant worktag uses the same Grant worktag field as sponsored grants, but is organized within a separate, non-sponsored hierarchy. This distinction allows Stand-Alone Grants to support internal tracking needs without conflicting with sponsored program requirements or reporting structures. The “stand alone” terminology refers to the fact that these Grant Worktags are not associated with an award line.	X	X	X	X
Cost Center	Primary level at which the enterprise consistently budgets and manages revenues and/or controllable expenses. Through the Cost Center Manager role, Cost Centers assign accountability for financial planning and managing actual performance, and ensuring compliance with enterprise financial policies. Cost Centers typically represents ongoing activities with no defined end date. They are not intended to exist solely for purposes such as space planning, differentiating funding types, holding reserves, or identifying individual people. However, they may align with a physical location when that location represents an operational unit with its own budgetary oversight or cost structure (for example, a department operating in a single off-campus facility with its own overhead rate). A cost center will not span multiple Company worktags; any requirements to capture financial activity across companies should be met with other worktags	X	X	X	X

Worktag

Definition

Overall Functionality

Balancing Worktag

Retained Earnings

Driver Worktag

Payroll Costing Allocation

Hierarchy

Assignee

Represents a person to whom revenues and or expenses can be tracked

Distinct from the PI Attribute on the Grant Worktag

Format is Last Name, First Name (netID)

Activity

Used to track and report revenue and expense for localized activities that are short-lived, ad-hoc, or annually reoccurring.

Program

Represents activities that require retained earnings but do not meet the criteria for establishing a Cost Center. A Program does not have approval authority.

A Program worktag can serve as a sub-category under Gifts (e.g. “sub-gift”), or Cost Centers, providing more granular tracking of ongoing activities. A Program does not need to be tied to a single Cost Center and can be used to track activities across multiple Cost Centers or funding sources, enabling grouping of related activities across departments or projects.

Project

A worktag that represents capital projects. Its use is restricted to units that manage capital projects.

Stand-Alone Grant

Represents internally funded or non-sponsored activities that require discrete financial tracking and, in some cases, dedicated financial oversight. Broadly, commitments represent a common use-case. Stand-Alone Grants are similar to Program worktags in that they track activities below the level of a Cost Center, but unlike Program worktags, Stand-Alone Grants has a Grant Manager assigned for procurement transaction approvals.

Note: In Workday, the Stand-Alone Grant worktag uses the same Grant worktag field as sponsored grants, but is organized within a separate, non-sponsored hierarchy. This distinction allows Stand-Alone Grants to support internal tracking needs without conflicting with sponsored program requirements or reporting structures.

The “stand alone” terminology refers to the fact that these Grant Worktags are not associated with an award line.

Cost Center

Primary level at which the enterprise consistently budgets and manages revenues and/or controllable expenses. Through the Cost Center Manager role, Cost Centers assign accountability for financial planning and managing actual performance, and ensuring compliance with enterprise financial policies.

Cost Centers typically represents ongoing activities with no defined end date. They are not intended to exist solely for purposes such as space planning, differentiating funding types, holding reserves, or identifying individual people. However, they may align with a physical location when that location represents an operational unit with its own budgetary oversight or cost structure (for example, a department operating in a single off-campus facility with its own overhead rate).

A cost center will not span multiple Company worktags; any requirements to capture financial activity across companies should be met with other worktags

Institutional Worktags

Worktag	Definition	Overall Functionality
Balancing Unit	Balancing Unit Worktags represent the lowest organizational level at which assets and liabilities are tracked for balance sheet reporting. Some units, such as Student Life, are tracked with a Balancing Unit and also maintain a separate Balancing Unit for Housing and Food Services (HFS) for specific external reporting needs. Others, such as the College of Engineering, use a single Balancing Unit to record all assets and liabilities they own. A Balancing Unit worktag is required for all UW1861 and SOM transactions.	X	X	X	X
Institutional Initiative	Represents campus-wide initiatives that require the tracking of financial activities across the enterprise Can be used to track activity across different types of driver worktags			X	X
Company	Each legal entity (tax ID) will be represented as a Company to meet primary reporting and security considerations Workday Payroll and Workday Finance use Company to control accounting and reporting functionality Company is considered the primary level at which a legal entity holds a balanced set of books Primary dimension for financial consolidation that requires inter-company elimination	X	X	X	X

Worktag

Definition

Overall Functionality

Balancing Worktag

Retained Earnings

Driver Worktag

Payroll Costing Allocation

Hierarchy

Balancing Unit

Balancing Unit Worktags represent the lowest organizational level at which assets and liabilities are tracked for balance sheet reporting.

Some units, such as Student Life, are tracked with a Balancing Unit and also maintain a separate Balancing Unit for Housing and Food Services (HFS) for specific external reporting needs. Others, such as the College of Engineering, use a single Balancing Unit to record all assets and liabilities they own. A Balancing Unit worktag is required for all UW1861 and SOM transactions.

Institutional Initiative

Represents campus-wide initiatives that require the tracking of financial activities across the enterprise

Can be used to track activity across different types of driver worktags

Company

Each legal entity (tax ID) will be represented as a Company to meet primary reporting and security considerations

Workday Payroll and Workday Finance use Company to control accounting and reporting functionality

Company is considered the primary level at which a legal entity holds a balanced set of books

Primary dimension for financial consolidation that requires inter-company elimination

Other Foundation Data Model (FDM) Worktags or Key Functionality

Worktag

Definition

Overall Functionality

Balancing Worktag

Retained Earnings

Driver Worktag

Payroll Costing Allocation

Hierarchy

Function

Represents NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) functional classifications and used to drive classification of expenses on GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) financial statements.

This is a required worktag on all transactions within the Operating Expense section of the Income Statement.

Journal Source

A Journal Source identifies the origin of a financial transaction within Workday, enabling accurate tracking, reporting, and control.
Journal sources are assigned to all transactions, including those generated by integrations, Workday business processes, and custom entries in the accounting journal business process.

Custom journal sources also support financial reporting requirements and enforce user security permissions.

Custom Validation

Configuration rules that limit, block, or allow specific transactions or worktag combinations based on defined business logic.

Location

Primary used in business assets for asset location and within procurement for shipping, receiving and inventory locations.

Region

A custom worktag used by UW Medicine to identify the location/entity associated with financial activity.

The region worktag is not used by the UW1861 and SOM companies.

Payor

Represents major payor groups associated with clinical revenue and deductions from revenue, also known as payor mix, as well as third party cost share for sponsored research grants

Work Order

Represents authorized work orders to track revenues and/or expenses and may assist in reconciling information from an external non-financial system.