Workday words
As we move through Phase 3 of Finance Strategic Transformation, you'll hear Workday Financials terminology with more frequency. Some terms are self-explanatory, but some are unfamiliar, and many will refer to names we have used in current processes and functions. It's important to get used to the "Workday Words" earlier rather than later, so that you understand what's being discussed and even more importantly, so you can easily recognize when the topic is something that affects your work.
We have been gathering up common Workday Financials terms and have collected them in the searchable list below.
You'll find that all of the Workday Words in the list are defined, but not all of them have a "legacy term" that correlates with them, meaning that either there isn't a current term we use for that Workday Word, or we just don't know about it as yet. That's where we'd love your help!
Please let us know:
- Are there current names for processes or functions that don't seem to have a Workday Word?
- If you would suggest any edits/changes to what you see in the document we've put together.
- What other Workday Words besides the ones listed have you heard that you think we need to include?
As always, we want (and need) to hear from you, so please reach out if you have questions or concerns.
Click the term below to view the full definition.
Terminology | Legacy Term | |
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Account Posting Rules | A similar process runs in Oracle when GA transactions move to GL overnight. |
Account posting rules tell the system how to determine what ledger account to post the operational journal to that results from an operational transaction. |
Accounting Adjustment | Most equivalent to GA cost transfers. |
Accounting adjustment is a type of operational journal to reclassify costs on expense reports, P-card transactions, and most supplier invoices if there was an error in the operational transaction. |
Accounting Date | GL Transfer Date |
The GL period when the transaction was recorded in the ledger. When the item posts at the "object“ (subaward, expense etc.) level. |
Accounting Journal and Associated Statuses | Journal Entry Source “UVA Manual”, “UVA Autocopy”, “UVA Recurring”, and “UVA Spreadsheet”. |
Accounting journals are manual journals that may be used to move funds from one account to another in order to correct transactions posted to the wrong account, or for other reasons such as correcting a spend category, revenue category or to record a transaction. Journal Statuses: Create - An initiated but unsubmitted journal that may be saved for later Progress - Journals that have been created and submitted for, but yet to receive approval Posted - A journal that has been completed, approved and posted to a ledger Unposted - Journal status used for a previously posted/approved journal to recall the journal for editing or cancellation due to an error or change Canceled - A terminated journal that will not be reflected on the financial statements *Journals may only be unposted and corrected or canceled if the period has not closed* |
Activity | Similar to how Task was used by many orgs |
Envisioned as managerial reporting tool only, defined at school level; used to assign further granularity to programs and/or projects |
Ad Hoc Bank Transactions and Associated Statuses |
A business process to record after the fact cash deposits or withdrawals, including wire transfers, that appear on the Daily Bank Report sent by the Office of the Treasury. Draft - An initiated but un-submitted Ad Hoc Bank Transaction |
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Ad Hoc Payment | One-time Payment |
Used to make a one-time payment. |
Ad Hoc Payment Template |
Used to make repetitive Ad Hoc payments. This will be utilized in place of webwire and journal entries. |
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Adaptive Insights Pilot | BudgetUVA |
Budgeting solution that integrates with Workday Financials. UVA is currently doing a pilot with several schools and academic and central units |
Allowable Worktag |
When creating a gift, users can select certain worktags to be available options when processing transactions. Options other than the default or allowable worktags will not be available or will fail validation. |
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Asset Book/Book Rules |
Asset books are used to assign accounting treatment and depreciation profiles when registering capital assets. There are two types of asset books: accounting books for journals / reporting and nonaccounting books for reporting purposes only. Asset book rules can be used to populate the accounting treatment and depreciation profile based on combinations of identifiers (worktags, thresholds, etc.). |
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Asset Class | Ownership/Major Category | |
Asset coordinator |
The person who is responsible for a given asset and serves as the custodian of that asset. The asset coordinator is not the same as the equipment coordinator, who is a central contact in a school, an academic or central unit serving as a liaison between their organization and the Fixed Assets Accounting Group within UVAFinance. |
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Asset Identifier | Asset Tag Number | |
Asset Type | Minor Category | |
Assignee |
Allows tracking by individual – for identifying and reporting on financial activity and balances for which the individual is responsible (i.e. faculty, grad students); field open to anyone that has been entered in WD HCM (via WD employee ID) |
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Award | Award |
Award in Workday is similar to Award in Oracle (G=Sponsored Award), but Award numbers in WD will look different than what we see in Oracle. Oracle sponsored awards start with "G" and are followed by another alpha character based on the sponsor (e.g., GA=NSF, GB=NIH, etc.). In WD, Awards will start with "AWD," followed by numbers.
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Award Amendment Reason | Not in Oracle, but follows Research UVA eSPAR Actions |
Field identifying the purpose of each award amendment, a way to track those actions necessary to show the history of the award. |
Award Attachment Categories | Not in Oracle | |
Award Calendar | Oracle Award, Start, End, and Close Dates |
Workday Period of Performance. |
Award Group |
Award requires investment of funds; CCSG; NSF IUCRC; Program Income; Ryan White; School of Medicine Consulting. |
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Award Lifecycle Status | Award Status (Active, At Risk, On Hold, Closed) |
Identifies status of award and award lines (e.g. active, closed). Can be used in business process definitions and workflow routing. |
Award Line | Represents Projects in Oracle, to include subawards as well as Cost Share Awards |
Award Line contains business rules for billing, collecting, and reporting activities related to an award. There is at least one award line per award. Defines components to be managed during the award. |
Award Line Dates | Project start and end dates |
WD uses this to determine award version active for this EID, then it reviews the To and from dates on the award line to use for this data range, and launches Award Cost Process (ACP), which calculates F&A and Revenue recognition. NOTE: Introduces a new concept of project close date. |
Award Posting Interval | Budget Year | |
Award Purpose Code | Award Types (clinical research, training, org research, etc.) |
Used to explain the purpose or focus of the award. For example: Applied Research, Basic Research, Instruction, Organized Research, and Other Sponsored Activities NOTE: This is an example of when terminology can be confusing. We have the same field in Oracle today which means something totally different |
Award Schedules | Start, end, close, pre-award |
Used to identify project start and end dates as well as periods. |
Award Signed Date | Issue Date for Federal. TBD for Non-Federal |
Used as a reporting field to identify when awards are signed. |
Award Special Condition | Award Reference, Award Terms, and Condition Tabs |
Used to capture terms and conditions as indicated on award. |
Award Task | Currently used by OSP only, through Award Installment Lines and Reporting Tab |
Tracks administrative tasks and deadlines for financial reports, or post-award closeout activities. Tasks have individual statuses called “Award Task Status” Examples: Financial Report – Annual; 90 Day Notice: FSR Memo: Financial Report -- Final. |
Award Task Group | Reporting or other deliverables group | |
Award Task Status | Not in Oracle | |
Balancing Unit |
Generate statement of net position, SCRECNA at a lower level than Company; utilizes Workday optional worktag balancing |
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Bank Account |
Used to make and receive payments, perform bank reconciliation, etc. They also function as worktags on cash journal entries. |
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Bank Routing Rules |
Determine which bank accounts will be used during the settlement process. |
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Banking & Settlement |
This is a Workday functional area that includes functions related to treasury, bank accounts and bank reconciliations, ad hoc bank transactions and bank payment files. |
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Book Codes/Books | The July – June periods in Oracle will be part of the “Common Book” code in Workday. ADJ1 is referred to as Year-end Adjustments |
Workday associates all accounting transactions with a book code. Book codes aggregate to books that can be used for financial reporting. The default reporting book will be called the "Reporting Book" and includes the Common Book code and the Year-End Adjustments code. |
Budget Date | Expenditure Item Date (EID) |
The date of the transaction, we refer to this as “date incurred”. |
Building Number, Floor, Room | Location | |
Business Assets | Fixed Assets |
In Workday, an asset is anything you want to track, from tangible capital items like company cars, to intangibles like software licenses, to low-cost high value items like mobile phones. Workday separates asset tracking and accounting activities, this flexibility enables you to track your assets according to business use, and account for them according to your accounting practices. Workday Business Assets combines traditionally separate domains of fixed assets with the emerging importance of managing high-value, low cost items. |
Business Process |
An identifier used to denote the type of financial transaction performed within the Workday system |
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Business Process (BP) | Workflow |
Most accounting transactions follow a specific business process to support better internal controls and leading practices. A business process in Workday is a set of tasks that people initiate, act upon, and complete in order to accomplish a desired business objective. Think of it as a workflow. |
Cash Sale |
Records a sales event and a payment as a single transaction without having a customer invoice. Cash sales are not restricted to cash; you can select any payment type available. |
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Centrally-sourced |
When a requisition is routed to a central department for approval and/or sourcing. |
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Commitments | Commitments / Planned Expenses / Encumbrances Note: Vacant positions were not encumbered in Oracle |
Accounting related to funds for future known or expected spending. The commitments ledger will be utilized to track journal entries for requisitions and payroll for unfilled positions. |
Commitments | Commitment/Pre-encumbrance Note: Vacant Positions were not encumbered in Oracle |
Accounting related to funds for future known or expected spending. In context of Payroll, this is pay information pertaining to vacant positions. |
Company | Entity |
The primary organization type used by Workday Finance. Represents the legal and non-legal entities at UVA. Each division represented in Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) schedules of financial reports; Payroll and Financials use Company to control accounting and reporting functionality; Company is considered the primary level at which one holds a balanced set of books |
Configuration and Prototype | ||
Configuration Workbook |
The configuration workbook is used to document customer configuration |
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Contract Request Requisition | Buyer Assist |
Select this requisition type when, regardless of dollar amount, Spend Category Buyer review is needed. |
Cost Center | Organization |
Area that owns a subset of revenues and/or expenses to support management decision making or accountability; reports funds available and area where cross-funding is identified / delivered; manages multiple sources of funds |
Cost Center Hierarchy | Oracle Org Hierarchy | |
Costing Allocation | Labor Distribution (LD) |
The process of identifying and assigning payroll-related costs to specific FDM values and worktags. This process does not determine whether or how much an employee will be paid. |
Credit & Rebill |
A task that allows you to credit an original invoice and then create a new rebill invoice all in a single step. |
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Current Capital Cost | Current Cost | |
Customer | Customer |
Type of business entity which may be referenced on journals and operational transactions, such as customer invoices. In Workday, Customers are separate objects from Sponsors. |
Customer Accounts | Accounts Receivable (AR) |
This is a Workday functional area that includes functions related to the billing of external customers and sponsors, and receipt of payments. |
Customer Category |
A required categorization for any customer. UVA will be utilizing this field to drive AR state reporting requirements (Individual, Business, Government/Education, Interagency, Other). |
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Customer Confirmation Sessions (CCS) |
The Customer Confirmation Sessions are an opportunity to share design progress with key resources early in the stage to confirm the overall direction meets UVA's needs. |
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Customer Group |
An optional categorization to enhance a customer’s attributes. UVA will be utilizing this field to break down the Customer Categories into lower-level groups. |
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Customer Portal |
Enables your customer to view and print their Customer Documents (i.e., Customer Statements and Customer Invoices). |
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Default Worktag |
When creating a gift, users can select certain worktags as default options when processing transactions. |
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Deliver-to | Delivery Location Code (DLC) |
The location of the worker who ordered goods/services (building name) |
Department-sourced/Auto-sourced | Auto-create |
When a requisition is sourced by the department – does not route to Central Procurement for sourcing. |
Depreciation Life | Useful Life (Periods) | |
Designated | Project/Award |
Represents funding other than gifts and grants such as discretionary, startup, state appropriations, ETF, including earned revenue such as tuition and Facilities & Administrative (F&A). |
Designated |
Funds not subject to external restrictions such as discretionary, startup, non-sponsored studies that have carryforward; can be internally allocated or designated |
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Document ID | Gov’t Document Number for Federal LOC |
Field to store the government document number for federal LOC awards. |
Driver Worktag |
One of four FDM worktags (Grant, Gift, Project and Program) used to derive certain associated worktag values (i.e. Cost Center, Fund) within Workday |
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Encumbrance | ||
Expenditure Function Code |
Function codes are a mechanism by which activities, services and |
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Expense Group |
Expense item groups help workers search for and select expense items. You can also use groups for reporting. |
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Expense Item | Expense Type |
Expense items define the transactions workers use in expense reports. |
Expense Partner | T&E Team |
Reviewer for policy exceptions within PSDS. |
F&A / Indirects |
Facilities & Administration costs not directly linked to sponsored activity, but |
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F&A Cost Basis | F&A Rate Basis (TDC, MTDC, etc.) | |
F&A Cost Location | Part of the IDC schedule name --- - on, off Grounds |
Included in F&A Agreement (Off Grounds, On Grounds, and All Locations). |
F&A Cost Rate Definition Name | IDC Schedule Name |
Org Research, All Programs, Training, Industry Clinical Trial, Instruction, OSA. |
F&A Rate Agreement | Part of the IDC schedule name --- the actual rate (61.5%, 26%, 38%, etc.) |
Facilities and Administration Rate Agreements (61.5%, 26%, 38%, etc.) |
F&A Rate Types | Not in Oracle (pre-determined) | |
Federal Award ID Number (FAIN) |
Award ID Number as indicated on Federal awards. |
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Financial Accounting | Cost Transfers, GL Journal Entries, Month-End Close |
This is a Workday functional area that includes functions related to Journal Entries, Accounting Adjustments, Allocations, and Period End Close. |
financial institution |
Business entities that provide companies with financial and banking services and hold a company's physical accounts. |
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Foundation Data Model (FDM) | Chart of Accounts (CoA), PTAO |
The Foundation Data Model (FDM) is the basis for accounting and financial reporting in Workday. The FDM replaces UVA's Oracle EBS Chart of Accounts (CoA) in the implementation of Workday. Contains elements known as worktags |
Function | Project Expenditure Function |
Used to categorize activities by mission; supports NACUBO, GASB and state reporting requirements. |
Fund | Fund Source |
High-level source of funds used to support GASB net position categories and State reporting requirements; a balancing worktag (all journal entries to balance within Fund worktag) |
Gift |
Pledges, outright contributions received from private sources, or activities supported by an external party (i.e., donor) for which no goods or services are expected, implied or forthcoming to the donor, and in which no proprietary interests are to be retained by the donor; may requires donor reporting on spend; contributions may be consolidated for same purpose into single gift |
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Gift Attributes | Imagine more expansive fields on a project create |
With each gift record in Workday, you can select attributes to help define the gift for reporting purposes. These attributes generally do not define the accounting for a gift and should be static over the life of a gift. |
Gift Classification |
One of the gift attributes. Gifts will be classified as either Non-Pooled Investments or Spendable. In most cases, endowment investments will be classified as “Non-Pooled Investments” and spendable gifts as “Spendable”. |
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Gift Origination |
One of the gift attributes. Allows users the ability to separate gifts into various sources that are useful in donor or other management reporting. Examples include donor gifts, foundation transfers, and internal transfers. |
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Gift Purpose | Expenditure function; however is not tied to transactions. |
One of the gift attributes. Allows reporting by up to 2 purposes on a gift (Primary and Alternate). All purposes are grouped into Gift Purpose Hierarchies. |
Gift Type | Less granular fund source |
One of the gift attributes. Separates gifts into categories that can be used for reporting purposes, such as true endowments, quasi endowments, and unrestricted gifts. |
Grant | Grant |
Grant in Workday is similar to G&C Project in Oracle. Oracle project numbers are six digits; WD Grant numbers will start with "GR" followed by numbers. In WD, the Grant/s are linked to an award and spending occurs at the Grant level. |
HCM Remediation |
HCM stands for “Human Capital Management.” The Ufirst project |
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Individual Payee | Non-supplier |
Individuals receiving payment from the University for non-procurement related transactions. |
Institutional ID |
Where we will store the legacy award number information for reference. |
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Internal Service Provider |
A UVA department /unit providing services to internal customers such as |
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Investment Pool |
Endowment accounting in Workday provides a unitized investment pool, in which an endowment’s share of the pool is accounted for in units. UVIMCO cannot change the way it reduces the number of shares for management fees; therefore the Investment Pool functionality will not be available. Fundriver will continue to support this purpose. |
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Invoice Adjustment | Debit Memo/Credit Memo |
A new transaction with its own document number that is separate from, but linked to, the original invoice and is used to decrease or increase the amount owed by a customer. |
Invoice Number | Voucher Number |
An auto-generated unique identifier for supplier invoices. |
Journal Sequence ID | Document Number in the GL |
Journal ID sequencing automatically creates journal IDs based on predefined format. All accounting journals will follow the sequence formatting of "JE-Sequence Number.” |
Ledger | General Ledger (GL). Grants Management concept does not apply to Workday. |
A ledger is used to store accounting results from journal entries. Workday has an Actuals Ledger, a Commitment Ledger, and an Obligation Ledger based on the type of activity. |
Ledger Account | Object Code |
Natural accounts where debits and credits are recorded in the ledger. Ledger accounts will be summarized into hierarchies/summaries for financial reporting |
Location |
Represents physical locations to track assets and workers. The location may be owned, rented or leased by the institution. All locations are sourced from the institution’s space management system |
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Memo | GA/GL Comment |
The Memo field is a description field available at the overall journal summary and journal line level. It is used to describe the primary purpose of the journal. Memo fields can also be found at each individual transaction line |
NACUBO Function | Project EFC Code | |
Non-PO Invoice | Payment Voucher |
An invoice that is created without an original purchase order. |
Object Class | ||
Obligations | Commitments / Planned Expenses --- Payroll: Encumbrances |
Accounting related to funds that represent obligations to pay. In context of Payroll, this is pay information pertaining to filled positions. |
One-time Payment (OTP) |
A type of compensation that can be setup to pay employees for a single payment, such as a bonus. Costing Overrides can be entered at the time of entry and do not require setup of a separate Costing Allocation schedule at the pay component-level. |
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Operational Transactions/Operational Journal | GA transaction such as a customer payment. |
An operational transaction is a task in Workday that end users complete to interact with the system to complete a financial activity. The layout of the operational transaction has fields which are specific to the type of transaction. When approved, the these automatically create an operational journal. |
Parent Asset | Related Assets | |
Passenger | Companion |
Refers to a dependent, domestic partner, other family members, guest or any other individual accompanying an employee or authorized person who is conducting business on behalf of the University. |
Pay Component | Element (for costing purposes) |
The Workday term for earnings and deductions that are used in calculating an employee's gross-to-net pay. |
Payment Types | Payment Types |
Check, Direct Deposit, ACH, EFT etc. – used to pay suppliers, payroll, and other institutions. |
Payroll Accounting Adjustment (PAA) | Labor Distribution Adjustment (LDA) |
The process that allows you to correct payroll journal entries after payroll has been completed by making a net-zero adjustment by adjusting costing worktags or other FDM values. PAAs post in the next open ledger period. If fringe was originally calculated on the entry, Workday creates reversal fringe benefit journals to reverse the original fringe, recalculates and creates new fringe benefit journals. |
Period Activity Pay (PAP) | Goal Payments |
A type of compensation that can be setup to pay employees for activities they perform during a fixed period. Costing allocations for this type of pay are managed through the various PAP assignments an individual may have through Costing Overrides at the time of entry and do not require setup of a separate Costing Allocation schedule. These assignments are all managed under a single Position ID. |
Playback |
Playback refers to the visual review of the tenant by our stakeholders. In |
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Position ID | Assignment Number |
The ID given in Workday for an employee's Position which begin with the letter P and are 6 digits in length. (P123456). The Position contains pertinent job information such as Employee Type, Job Title, Time Type, Pay Rate Type, Default Weekly Hours, FTE, and Organization Assignments. |
Prime Sponsor | Juice Originating Sponsor, Oracle DFF |
Originating source of award funding. |
Program |
Captures broad, programmatic activities or initiatives (no defined start or end date) that are generally consistent over time and may span across multiple organizations, funding sources, and projects. Top levels of the Program hierarchy are used for University-level management or VP/School Dean-level management |
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Project |
Activity that has a defined start and end date, e.g., capital or IT project, multiple funding sources and hierarchy; Project – Capital: Accumulates costs for activities that will be capitalized and amortized. Project – Operating: Activities identified by a cost center or small selection of cost centers that is valuable for internal |
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Purchase Justification/Missing Receipt Justification | Justification |
Required reasoning for an event or a missing document. |
Requisition Line Splits | Distribution Lines |
Requisitions have individual line items that capture the item (with quantities and amounts) being requested, we call these Requisition Lines. A Requisition Line can be ‘split’ so that its costs are distributed across various Worktags (such as Cost Center), these are called Requisition Line Splits. |
Responsible Organization | Award or revenue project owning org |
One of the gift attributes. Associates an organization worktag to a gift for business process routing and organizational reporting. Enables you to view, approve, and report on gifts that you own based on the organization that you belong to. |
Revenue/Spend Category | Object Code/Expenditure Type |
A more granular view of revenue or expenses incurred at the University; end-user entry point on operational transactions |
Sales Item | Invoice Line Item |
Goods and services that you sell to customers and used for customer invoices. |
Security Groups | Oracle responsibilities |
A security group is a collection of system users used to grant access to Workday. |
Settlement Filter | Payment Process Template |
Configured Criteria used to select available open items for settlement. |
Settlement Run | Payment Run |
The business process by which Workday runs and settles payments. You can create, edit, preview, and process settlement runs to settle unpaid open items and pending payments |
Ship-to | Delivery Location Code (DLC) |
The address where suppliers will ship goods. |
Source Lines | Asset Source/Source Document Line | |
Sourcing a Requisition | Processing a Requisition |
Source requisition lines to new purchase orders or existing purchase orders. |
Spend Category Buyer | Central Buyer |
A buyer in Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services that sources requisitions from departments. |
Spend Restriction | Allowed Cost Schedule |
(Related to Grants) A defined listing of the types of expenses that can be charged to an award. |
Sponsor | Juice Immediate Sponsor, Oracle funding source short name |
Organization from which UVA directly receives an award. |
Sponsor Award Reference Number | Funding Source Award Number |
Sponsor Award Identification Number as indicated on Award. |
Sponsor Award Types | Many of these in Oracle Award Types (grant-clinical trial, contract-clinical trial, cooperative agreement-clinical trial etc.) |
Grant, Contract, Cooperative Agreement, Program Income. |
Sponsor Types | Sponsor Classification |
Federal, State, Local Government, Foundation, etc. |
Standard Requisition | Requisition |
Select this requisition type when you do not need review from a Spend Category Buyer. |
Supplier Accounts | Accounts Payable, Vendors/Suppliers, Contracts |
This is a Workday functional area that includes functions related to accounts payable, suppliers, supplier payments and supplier contracts. |
Supplier ID | Supplier Number |
A unique identifier for suppliers. |
Supplier Invoices | AP Invoices | |
Tenant |
A Workday tenant is an instance of the Workday software, including data that exists independently of other tenants. There are many types of deployment and production tenants, each intended for a specific use. |
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Total Asset Cost | Original Cost | |
Trackable Spend Category | Capital Expenditure Type |
Spend category functionality that allows for use of Asset Book rules and Business Assets module in WD. |
User Stories |
User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature in the system told from |
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Workday Expenses | Chrome River |
Workday's functionality to manage expenses and expense reports |
Workday Roles | Oracle responsibilities |
In Workday, users are assigned roles in order to view and perform certain tasks within the system. Once a business process is initiated, Workday routes the tasks to the responsible roles who can complete tasks based on their membership in security groups. |
Worker Earning Costing Allocation | Element-Level LD Schedule |
Type of Costing Allocation for a specific worker based on a given Pay Component (e.g., salary pay, hourly wages, allowances, period activity pays, etc.) that can determine percentage based costing across a set of FDM values and worktags. |
Worker Position Costing Allocation | Assignment-Level LD Schedule |
Type of Costing Allocation that distributes all earnings for a worker's position by a percentage based on the FDM values and worktags specified. |
Worklet |
A compact report displayed as a "tile" on the My Workday page, providing easy access to tasks and information staff will use on a regular basis. |
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Worktag | Chart element, e.g. Project, Task, or Award |
An FDM dimension that is used to facilitate Workday transactions and create financial reports; Worktags are a categorization of the business transaction that provides the ability to support financial and statistical reporting. |