Financial Management System FAQs

At what level is Workday controlling Operating budgets?

In Workday, operating budgets are controlled at the total spend level for each Cost Center AND Program or Gift driver combination. However, at ASU, to fulfill budget reporting requirements and to give units better analytical data, we require budget data be input at a more detailed spend category level. We upload the budget data to Workday at that same level of detail, so that Workday can report and track at a more granular level, but the control is placed higher for ease of use.

Grants and Projects are not included in the Operating Budget structure due to these being multi-year in nature, and in different Workday modules. Each individual grant/project has its own structure and budget. Grants are budget checked at Grant/Ledger accounts. Projects are budget checked at Project/Total Spend.

Current financial policy (FIN 102-01) prohibits budget amendments that move General Operating Funds from Employee Related Expense to Personal Services or Operations.  Further, any General Operating ERE funds that remain unspent at year-end as compared to the Original Budget must be returned to the central university. Workday budget controls, since they are at the total spend level, will not prohibit a unit from expending their entire General Operating Budget. However, a unit will still be expected to return any ERE amount in excess of the Original Budget.  Therefore, it’s incumbent upon the Workday financial user to enforce this policy on their own; the policy is still in place and they will need to ensure that those dollars aren’t spent incorrectly.

What are the rules around making budget amendments?

The budget amendment process is now more streamlined and efficient than it was in Advantage. The use of “Contextual Amendments” in Workday means the elimination of sending Excel spreadsheets via email to Financial Services. Rather, when processing an amendment to an existing budget all of the contextual information (e.g. current budget, current expenditures, requested change, etc.) for whichever Cost Center/Program (or Gift) selected is displayed with the Budget Amendment task allowing a user to easily complete the entire Budget Amendment task within Workday.

Workday also automatically requires General Operating amendments to balance and applies business rules to the task in order to ensure compliance with university policies.

In general, university polices regarding budget amendments remain unchanged. All routing for amendments is within Workday. For example, any changes impacting net revenue/spend dollars continue to require Dean/VP approval (done from within Workday).  

Finally, there are changes that can be made that don’t impact dollars and do not require formal approvals. Just as budgeting in STAR for the Advantage structure did not include sub-orgs, budgeting in STAR for Workday currently does not include optional worktags (Department Roll, Department Reporting Roll, etc.). However, once budgets are loaded in to Workday, the account manager (or appropriate designee) can enter a change request to record any of the optional Worktags the department would like to be able to report on. That data will be brought back in to STAR in daily updates and will be able to be seen in the Current Budget Category reporting in STAR.

If a unit has a large number of budget amendments to be made at one time, they can contact their accountant in Financial Services to set up a bulk load process.

You can find the Budget Amendment Work Instructions in the Financial Accounting section of the Financial Management System Training course on Blackboard.

How will my FY19 Budget get into Workday?

FY19 data was budgeted into STAR using the Advantage account and revenue/spend structure. The plan for the FY19 transition into Workday is as follows (dates are subject to change):

• Input budgets into STAR (using the Advantage account and revenue/spend structure) -- Feb – May 2018
• Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) personnel, along with Senior Fiscal Administrators (SFAs) of Colleges and VP areas review and approve the budget in the Advantage structure -- June 2018
• After approval, OPB and Financial Services will work to convert the FY19 budget from an Advantage structure into a Workday structure using the account crosswalk information available at the FMS website and in the FMS FAQ -- July/August 2018
• The STAR budgets with Advantage revenue and expenditure values will be converted to Workday at hierarchy revenue and spend levels similar to the Advantage four-digit Object Codes, in most cases. Any All Other Operating budgeted at the Other Operating Expenses (Appropriation Unit ‘A’ level) will be converted to the Miscellaneous spend hierarchy in Workday. Any All Other Operating budgeted at the six-digit expenditure code level will be converted to the hierarchy level in Workday similar to the current Advantage four-digit Object Codes.
• The converted Workday budget will then be reviewed and approved by OPB and SFA personnel -- July/August 2018
• The budget data will then be uploaded into Workday -- July/August 2018

How will we budget in the future?

Workday is developing an integrated budget module, and the plan is to move to that tool once it contains all of the necessary features. Since the Workday Planning product is not fully developed at this time, we expect to budget in STAR/EPM (the STAR version that matches the Workday Financial Data Model) until the new tool contains all of our required functionality. At this point, we expect that to be in approximately two budget cycles, although that could change if Workday makes a material change to their development plan.

Will I need to make any changes for STAR when Workday goes live in July, 2018?

Yes. All STAR users will need to update their data model connections to include the new EPMWorkday environment in STAR.

There is now an additional database environment in STAR that’s arranged in the same structure as Workday data called EPMWorkday. The new structure reflects the Workday Financial Data Model elements, such as Cost Center, the Program, Project, Gift, and Grant Worktags, which have been combined into a single element called Drivers, as well as Revenue and Spend categories (called Rev_Spend), and other optional worktags (DepartmentRoll, etc.)

The EPMWorkday database environment has the same four data models as the previous environment: Financial, Planning, Salary, and Transfers.

Historic data of budget, actuals, adjusted budget and forecast will be mapped and loaded from the STARAppset environment into the EPMWorkday environment in STAR by STAR Admin. This will happen gradually during the FY19 fiscal year. Priority will be given to most recent years with additional history being added as time permits (at least two years of history is planned).

Starting in July 2018, STAR’s EPMWorkday environment will begin pulling in actuals data from Workday each day (just as it had previously done in STARAppset with Advantage). The process by which STAR data is updated daily and by which we input forecasts and budgets into STAR won’t change. The structure will be different and correspond to Workday, but the process will be the same.

STAR Admin will also convert existing STAR reports and input templates into the Workday structure. The way these reports and input templates work will be the same but will reflect the Workday worktags rather than Advantage structure components.

While many things will stay the same, it should be noted that all STAR users will need to make one technical change – they need to make data model connections to the new STAR EPM Workday environment’s four data models. See the following question for more specific instructions.

How do I update my connections to the New STAR EPMWorkday Database Environment?

Over the course of this last year, STAR Admin established a new way of creating STAR data model connections through copying over two EPM Connections files (these are .xml type files) from the STAR Add-in dropbox folder into a STAR user’s computer. If you do not have access to the STAR Add-in Dropbox folder, you can send an email to STARAdmin@asu.edu requesting access.

Beginning in July 2018, in order to access the STAR EPMWorkday database environment and its data, all STAR users will need these files replaced in their computers. This can be done by area desktop support staff, or it can be done by the STAR user if they have rights on their computers. 

Instructions are as follows (this information can also be found in the "How to create Connections to the data models" section of this Knowledge Base article.

• Click here to download the Connections.XML file.
• Click here to download the EPMXLClientPreference.XML file.
• Copy those two .XML files from your downloads folder (or wherever you may have saved them) into the local machine’s EPM folder here: 
                                C:\Users\<YourAsuriteID>\AppData\Local\EPMOfficeClient
  Note: The AppData folder is a folder normally hidden by Windows. You may need to look up instructions for showing hidden folders in Windows Explorer.

Testing/ Confirmation: After installing the Add-in and copying/pasting the data model .xml connection files, open Excel and log-in to STAR. The log-in will default to the EPMWorkday Financial Data Model (to change to the prior STARAppset environment, click the ‘…’ button at log-on and select that different model). If things aren’t working as expected, contact STARAdmin@asu.edu for troubleshooting.

Last Updated: June 27, 2018

Will there still be web reports?

These will be pulled into Workday.

Where can I find crosswalk materials related to accounting journal and budget amendment ledgers, and how they crosswalk into the new FMS?

Visit the Reference Materials page to access spreadsheets detailing how accounting journal and budget amendment ledgers crosswalk into the new system.

How do I find out how my agency/org in Advantage translates to the Workday accounting structure?

If you have Financial Data Warehouse access, you can access the FDM Mapping Application to see how current financial information will translate to the new FMS.

I charged the wrong program for a transaction. How do I correct this?

If the correction is needed on a paid supplier invoice or expense report, perform an Accounting Adjustment. For a correction on all other transactions, perform an Accounting Journal, which allows you to create a journal for transfers in and out for departmental corrections.

If a department has originally budgeted at the All Other Operating level, will they be able to split this to more granular Spend and Revenue Category Hierarchies in a Budget Amendment in Workday or will they be restricted by the balanced amendment validation?

The department will still be able to amend the budget to any Spend Category Hierarchy in the budget structure. For general operating budgets,  the department will be able to ensure it is balanced. If a department used All Other Operating in STAR, it will convert to Miscellaneous in Workday. This can be broken down into more granular Spend Category Hierarchies as desired by the unit.

Is the budget loaded with actuals or the beginning balance? Will departments still do a Budget Amendment to use the beginning balance amount?

The process for the prior year general operating budget being added to the current year budget will be the same process as it is today.

Can inventory and non-inventory items be included on the same requisition?

No. Catalog and non-catalog items can be included on the same requisition. However, catalog and/or non-catalog items cannot be included on the same requisition as inventory stock items. An inventory requisition does not create a Purchase Order. Inventory requisitions route directly to Materials Management after approval; the order is filled and delivered upon receipt. After approval, catalog and non-catalog requisitions become Purchase Orders which route to a supplier. 

Inventory and supplier items are processed differently, therefore the requisitions must be done separately so a supplier does not receive an inventory stock item on their Purchase Order.

Last Updated: June 27, 2018

Do either the Internal Memo or Memo fields show up on a packing slip? Do these go to the Supplier?

The Internal Memo field is for internal use only, and only appears on the Requisition/Purchase Order. The external Memo field will go to the Supplier. The packing slip information is dependent on the Supplier and how they handle external comments on a Purchase Order.

Does the Requested Delivery Date field go to the Supplier?

For non-catalog orders, the Requested Delivery Date field will show up on the Purchase Order sent to the Supplier. Catalog orders will transmit the Requested Delivery Date to suppliers, if provided on the PO by the end user, with the exception of the following suppliers:

• Atmosphere Commercial Interiors
• Bio-Rad Laboratories
• CDW Government
• Chemglass Life Sciences
• Dell
• Fisher Scientific
• Grainger Lab Supplies
• HD Supply Facilities Maintenance
• Henry Schein Inc.
• Integrated DNA Technologies
• Invitrogen Supply Center
• Life Technologies
• McMaster-Carr Supply
• Newark
• Promega Corporation
• Qiagen Inc.
• Sigma-Aldrich
• Spectrum Laboratory Products
• Staples
• Thomas Scientific
• VWR International
• WW Grainger

How do I set up a new vendor in the FMS? How do I update a vendor if their information is incorrect or missing?

A new vendor will need to register in the Supplier Registration portal. For further information, review the Procurement tab of the System Communications webpage, specifically the Supplier Set-up section.

How do I attach a packing slip to a catalog order?

Suppliers typically attach the packing slip to a shipment. However, you can attach a packing slip to the PO or receiver, though this will not be required for orders under $1,000.

How will items purchased for banquet events from Aramark and the University Club be handled in the FMS?

Items such as food will be handled as direct billing from Catering Services, so departments may either use the P-Card or pay via a Supplier Invoice.

How do I issue a refund for a patron in the FMS?

If you need to refund a patron, such as a community member who signs their child up for fitness camp and has to cancel and receive reimbursement, you must first set up the payee as a supplier in Workday. This is akin to setting up payees in Advantage for a PVQ. Then, you will need to process an ad hoc invoice to reimburse the patron.

Do I still need to use the wire transfer form to process this kind of transaction?

Yes, the wire transfer form is needed for the initial wire payment method in FMS. If a wire payment has already been made to the supplier in FMS, the wire transfer form is not needed. The payment will be wired based on the saved banking information from the last FMS wire payment.