What is Workday?

Workday is an innovative, cloud-based platform for the modern and mobile workforce. Workday is delivered in the cloud and leverages a modern technology platform, which will provide employees at WPI greater information accessibility. Workday provides unified Human Capital Management (HCM), Payroll and Finance applications designed for today’s organization and the way people work.

Please note: The FAQs describing how the tool works -- and even some of our current processes -- will change and evolve as we learn more about Workday.

Project FAQs

  • Does Workday impact everyone at WPI?

    Workday impacts all staff, faculty and student employees during this first phase of the Workday implementation set to go live on October 1, 2018. Workday will give you greater control over personal information through 24/7 access to your information over a secure network. The self-service functionality allows employees to update their personal contact information, view pay stubs, and deductions, view and update benefits and access directory information, etc.

  • Have other institutions of higher education implemented Workday?

    Yes.  Brown, Bowdoin, Carnegie-Mellon, Cornell, Bentley, Babson, Wellesley and Georgetown have implemented Workday. We will join these and others in helping to continue to design the features of Workday for higher education. 

  • I've heard Workday will roll out in phases, what are they?

    Workday HCM, Payroll and Finance: October 1, 2018 
    Workday Student: Rolling phases throughout July 2019 – 2021

  • When will I receive training for Workday?

    For most employees, training will occur in late summer and throughout the Fall term. Stay tuned to this space!

  • What resources are available now?

    Resources and materials are in development and will be available soon. These FAQs are being expanded in early June.

Workday FAQs

  • What are some of the benefits of Workday?

    Workday enables 24/7 access to information over a secure network, supporting WPI’s goals and strategies. Workday’s Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud delivery model allows services to reach customers with Workday functionality, offers employee and manager self-service, enabling employees to update or access their information privately from any computer or mobile device with internet access.

  • Will Workday work with any internet browser?

    Although any browser will work to access Workday (Internet Explorer (IE), Safari, Firefox, etc.), Google Chrome is the preferred browser. If you use a specific configuration for IE, which is a necessary part of your job, you should try using another browser running a more up-to-date version (Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.) for Workday access.

  • What devices can I use to access Workday?

    Workday can be accessed from a PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone (Apple or Android devices) with a secure internet connection. Instructions for adding the mobile app will be sent prior to Go-Live.

  • Can I change my password from Workday?

    No.

  • How can I create an attachment for Workday?

    Some receipts are already electronic -- you may receive an attachment in an email or as the email itself. Save the email message or the attached file in the email to your desktop. Workday allows a range of document formats; it doesn't have to be a PDF. 

    If you don't have an electronic receipt, you can either scan the document, or if the resulting quality is legible, take a photo of it with your phone or tablet and email it to yourself. The Worday mobile app can take photos of your receipts for expense reports, simplifying the process.

HR and Payroll FAQs

  • Is there a proxy feature in Workday?

    You can "delegate" to someone who is on the same level as you are in the org chart, or higher. The delegate can then take action on items in your Workday Inbox, for example, approving timesheets. You can choose a specific task to delegate, or all tasks. Delegations are usually time-based, for example, while you're on vacation.

  • Tell me about time off requests...

    You can make a request for time off well in advance of when you plan to take it (vacation, doctor's visits) or enter time off already taken after it occurs (sick time). Before a request is approved you can cancel it ("oops, I picked the wrong day") or after it's approved, you can update it ("that doctor's appointment was quicker than I thought"). In all cases, an item will appear in your supervisor's Workday Inbox to approve.

    Balances are always up-to-date, and you can use the calendar in the "Request" screen to see what your balances will be in the future.

Finance FAQs

  • How do I reconcile my Pcard in Workday?

    When you create an expense report, you include the Pcard transactions you want to reconcile from a list. You then indicate where they should be charged, add a brief description of the expense, and upload a receipt. You may already have an emailing electronic receipt, if not, you can take a photo with your phone or through the Workday mobile app, or you can scan the receipt.

  • Where can I find data from previous fiscal years?

    In Banner. The upgrade to Banner 9 is happening after Workday goes live. Banner will continue to be used for student information as Workday Student is rolled out in 2019-2021.

  • What should I use as a receipt for mileage?

    Mileage is calculated in Workday, and you can save a screenshot or PDF of a Google map that shows your trip, minus your usual commuting distance.

  • Do I need to break out alcohol when expensing a meal?

    Yes. Workday has an Itemize feature that allows you to split a single expense into 2 (or more) lines with different descriptions, amounts, and even where it should be charged.

  • What is approval process for an expense report? Can I review a report if I'm not a manager?

    When someone submits an expense report, it is sent to Accounts Payable, who can change the report, send it back to the submitter with a comment, or approve it.

    Once approved by A/P, the report is sent to the submitter's manager. The manager cannot edit the report, but can send it back to A/P or the person submitting it, or can  Add Approver. The new approver can also approve or send the report back to A/P or the person submitting the expense report.  

    Once the manager approves, if the manager is not the Cost Center manager, the report will go to the Cost Center manager to approve. The Cost Center manager can also send back, approve, or add an approver.

Documentation

The job aids below are intended to help community members get started using Workday and are not meant to provide in-depth training. We provide these early drafts to illustrate processes that are still being refined. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Create an expense report (draft)
Enter time off (coming soon)
Enter time worked (coming soon)
View your budget (coming soon)