Remember that Monday, May 31, 2021, is a holiday (Memorial Day). Medical Center bi-weekly timecard deadlines remain the same, and employees need to submit their timecards no later than 12:00 pm on May 31.
We encourage employees to submit their time early if possible. For example, submit time at the end of your last worked shift of the pay period. This will expedite the process for managers who must have all time approved by 2:00 pm on Monday, May 31, 2021.
Want to listen to this update instead of reading it? Click here to tune into the WFST Broadcast!
No time to read paragraphs? Check out "Five Things to Know about WFST"
Chart of Accounts (FDM)
We are very close to having a finalized FDM! Decision-makers in schools and units are working out their cost center structures for the Workday Financials Chart of Accounts, our FDM. Danielle Hancock on the training team has put together seven things to consider as you develop your cost centers – check it out here. If you’re looking for more updates on the FDM, we recommend checking out a prior blog piece on recommended worktag changes. An important thing to note when you take a look at these worktag changes is that “Program” as a worktag, is not going away; it is just not going to be a driver worktag.
Training Update
Patty Marbury lays out the timeline for our training between now and go-live of Workday financials in July of 2022, and then after go live. Read more here.
Customer Confirmation Sessions, Round 2
This June will see the next round of customer confirmation sessions. We have a shiny new second version of UVA’s tenant of Workday Financials that’s been modified based on our stakeholders’ feedback from the first round of Customer Confirmation sessions at the tail end of last year, and the team is eager to answer the questions folks had from those first sessions, to show off the new version of the tenant, and to have good discussions with folks on what needs to happen next as we move forward.
Reporting & Analytics Update
The Reporting & Analytics team is hard at work to make sure that on day one of Workday Financials at UVA, you have all the reports you need. You might be shocked to know how many required operational reports there are out there, that the Reporting and Analytics team has to ensure are ready on day one. Make your guess and then find the answer here.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can check out our latest round of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions from the deepening engagement sessions that were held by our Change Leaders after the first round of customer confirmation sessions. This week, we share info about UBI, expense receipts, and what’s going on so far with RECON@.
Chart of Accounts (FDM)
We are very close to having a finalized FDM! Decision-makers in schools and units are working out their cost center structures for the Workday Financials Chart of Accounts, our FDM. Danielle Hancock on the training team has put together seven things to consider as you develop your cost centers – check it out here. If you’re looking for more updates on the FDM, we recommend checking out a prior blog piece on recommended worktag changes. An important thing to note when you take a look at these worktag changes is that “Program” as a worktag, is not going away; it is just not going to be a driver worktag.
Training Update
Patty Marbury lays out the timeline for our training between now and go-live of Workday financials in July of 2022, and then after go live. Read more here.
Customer Confirmation Sessions, Round 2
This June will see the next round of customer confirmation sessions. We have a shiny new second version of UVA’s tenant of Workday Financials that’s been modified based on our stakeholders’ feedback from the first round of Customer Confirmation sessions at the tail end of last year, and the team is eager to answer the questions folks had from those first sessions, to show off the new version of the tenant, and to have good discussions with folks on what needs to happen next as we move forward.
Reporting & Analytics Update
The Reporting & Analytics team is hard at work to make sure that on day one of Workday Financials at UVA, you have all the reports you need. You might be shocked to know how many required operational reports there are out there, that the Reporting and Analytics team has to ensure are ready on day one. Make your guess and then find the answer here.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can check out our latest round of answers to some of the most frequently asked questions from the deepening engagement sessions that were held by our Change Leaders after the first round of customer confirmation sessions. This week, we share info about UBI, expense receipts, and what’s going on so far with RECON@.
1. We are **so close** to a finalized FDM! Schools and units are working out their cost center structures for the Workday Financials chart of accounts (the Foundation Data Model, or FDM). Here are 7 things to consider as you develop your cost centers.
2. Reporting & Analytics is working on 360 operational reports that will be needed on day one when Workday Financials goes live, and they're tackling them all! Read more about their strategy here.
3. There's a timeline in place for the delivery of Workday Financials Training. While delivery of training is set for around 60 days out from go-live, there are lots of steps taking place between now and then (and after, too!). Read more on the blog.
4. RECON@'s place in the future state is still being worked out -- we're trying to move toward real-time approvals on the front end, but we know we need a solution for RECON@'s use as a reporting tool and a month-end check. Read more about this and a few other FAQ's.
5. The second build of UVA's tenant of Workday Financials is ready for Customer Confirmation Sessions Round 2 this June. Read more about what's involved with a tenant build, and remember: go-live is July of 2022!
After the first round of Customer Confirmation sessions, Change Leaders from across Grounds hosted "sneak peek" sessions in their areas so that more people could get a glimpse of the first build of UVA's Workday Financials tenant.
The result was lots of great questions (244 to be exact). Many of those questions could be answered during the sneak peek sessions, but about 35% are still yet to be addressed. The Change Management Team is working on getting answers to those and on sharing answers to the most commonly-asked questions.
This week, we answer three more of these questions. Check out the first round of questions and answers from the last blog digest.
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What will happen to UBI?
UBI will still be around! Even though Workday Financials will be your new main source for day-to-day financial reporting and transactions, UBI will still be used for student finance and records, as a repository for large volume data sets, etc. Read more on UBI's future use here and here.
Is RECON@ going away?
You've probably heard that the project team has been focused on building in real-time approvals on the front end, and reducing the need for detailed month-end reconciliations. In that sense, yes, we're trying to move away from RECON@. At the same time, we realize that RECON@ also functions for many as a reporting tool and a way to check in a month-end. We're also trying to provide the kind of reports and processes that will give people what they need for certification and monitoring transactions for compliance. So, in short, we're not looking into just getting rid of RECON@, but also at providing the back end internal controls that are needed.
What will it be like to work with receipts in Workday Expenses?
People had lots of questions about how Workday Expenses would function when it comes to receipts, compared to Chrome River. Here's the latest on the top questions asked about this:
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Do you schedule a lot of virtual meetings? (Who doesn't do a lot of virtual meetings these days?!) Then you need to see Danielle Hancock's CI tip about using the Zoom add-in for Outlook so you can handle the virtual part with a click of a button!
Check out her instructions in the Continuous Improvement space of the Online Community (she also kindly provided a video walkthrough). Remember, if you have any trouble accessing the Community, a quick email to bv8h@virginia.edu should get you sorted out!
Contributed by Jamie Wilson
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As you may or may not know, Salesforce is UVAFinance’s newest superpower. Though each team or group might leverage the software differently, each enjoys the general benefits to daily work described below.
I use Salesforce primarily with the Admin Services Team for onboarding and offboarding FST team members and scheduling meetings.
Communication Consolidation – Tasks, workflows, and projects often involve cooperation among team members. Salesforce tracks – in a single location – internal and external communication regarding such work and notifies team members actually involved in a given effort when additional communication is sent. Users not involved in the effort, but who are on the team, can also see the communication and activity for a particular effort.
Visibility – Every team member can see what’s “in the pipeline,” so to speak, and can chime in with assistance or questions. The ability to do so ensures that work won’t fall through the cracks. We can see what “cases,” “tasks,” and “opportunities,” (Salesforce lingo) are open, thereby easily monitoring progress.
Efficiency – Because Salesforce tracks activity and communication in a single location, team members avoid finding themselves digging through various emails, Teams chats, and notes to determine what has been done, when, and by whom. Salesforce is definitely a LEAN initiative!
Customer Service – When work doesn’t fall through the crack and when our customers (in my case – other admins and FST team members) aren’t receiving multiple communications for the same information or having to reach out multiple times for information or transactions they need, everyone wins! Salesforce enables our team to provide high customer service because with it, we see what our customer needs, we take ownership of the request or need, and we minimize the time and effort required to get ‘er done!
Transferability – Salesforce ensures that work does not become lost in a black hole. Work will continue if a team member is out of office unexpectedly because it can be reassigned. This benefit goes hand-in-hand with visibility; we can see what is “open” and take action if the “owner” or “assignee” is no longer available. And, of course, that ties right into customer service!
See more Continuous Improvement content on the blog.
Read more about the implementation of Salesforce in UVAFinance.
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In addition to working on the FDM, finalizing plans for the second round of Customer Confirmation sessions, as well as several other important tasks involved in finance transformation, the FST Team is still diligently collecting input from stakeholders and using that input to make final decisions.
Earlier this month, they announced quite a few decisions that are awaiting final signature. These decisions include Discontinuing WebWire, Requisition User Access, OCR Vendor Selection, and Future State Non-Catalog Requisition Process Flow.
Also, the decision regarding Receiving in Workday (formerly Invoice Matching Redesign) received its final sign-off. The team determined that receiving acknowledgment will only be required for invoices greater than $10,000. Receiving acknowledgment will be indicated by approval of an invoice, and users will have the ability to add receiving documentation at the time of approval.
For more info on decisions, check out the Decision Log on the FST website.
With the second round of Customer Confirmation Sessions coming up next month, now is the perfect time for a refresher on tenant builds.
A tenant build, as it relates to FST, is a prototype or example of how UVA's Workday Financials will look. To complete a build, the team must enable functional areas, configure UVA specific values and business processes, load and assign security, and convert transactional and master data. Also, since this is the second build, the team made adjustments based on feedback collected from the first round of Customer Confirmation Sessions.
Creating a tenant build is a complicated process involving lots of coordination. Everything must be completed in a specific order between the Functional, Integrations, Conversions, and Reporting teams. Since these teams must work so closely, a delay in one area may create delays in the other areas. However, these teams try to stay on top of any issues with daily and weekly check-ins to discuss progress.
The FST team recently finished the second tenant build. During the Customer Confirmation Sessions, representatives from departments and units across the University will have a chance to ask questions and provide feedback on this second build.
If you would like to know who from your department/unit is attending these sessions, you can contact your Change Leader/Advisory Group Member. If you aren't sure who your Change Leader is, you can find out here.
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This week, VP for Finance Melody Bianchetto, VP and Chief Information Officer Virginia Evans, and Interim Chief Human Resources Officer John Kosky participated in a retreat to continue high-level discussions of the future Workday support model UVA will adopt when Workday is in use for both human resources and finance. These ongoing conversations are part of the Finance Strategic Transformation (FST) project and are facilitated by Jim Kemp from Deloitte, the project consulting partner, and FST Managing Director James Gorman.
These retreats’ main objective is for the participants to agree on a conceptual organizational structure for the cross-platform support (CPS) model. This means that participants discuss what the approach could be in the future to support users across the different Workday platforms at the university, as well as what the roles and responsibilities will be of the different groups providing support. At this point, the parties involved are still in the information gathering stage. Earlier this year, FST team members completed interviews with peer organizations about their experience with support model implementations. Now, in the retreat sessions, leaders are delving into UVA’s current practices—what’s happening and who’s doing what.
Here are the key topics being discussed:
Another retreat with the same participants will take place near the end of May to refine the high-level strategy. A workshop involving key leaders from Finance, HR, and ITS will then meet in early June to explore these topics in more detail. From there, predetermined workgroups will collaborate to create the support model that has been conceptualized.
The current goal is to have a prototype version of the support model actualized in advance of the Workday Financials go-live on July 1, 2022, so there will be a period when it is run as a pilot to test it and assess its effectiveness prior to full-scale implementation at go-live.
Contributed by Patrick Wood
Would you like to be part of something bigger than yourself?
Do you care deeply about UVA?
Do you have an interest in strengthening and making a difference in our community?
Would you like your voice to be heard?
IF SO, JOIN THE UVA STAFF SENATE!
WHAT IS THE STAFF SENATE?
The Staff Senate is a relatively new organization consisting of approximately 62 members representing over 6,900 staff at UVA. We serve as a collective voice for staff, helping to shape programs and policies. The Staff Senate communicates directly with senior leadership at UVA. We also research and create resources to provide staff the tools they need.
WHAT WOULD I DO?
Senators attend monthly Staff Senate meetings and are encouraged to serve in Staff Senate leadership, as Staff Senate coordinators or on a working group.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
For more details about joining the Senate, please feel free to email me or call me. I’m happy to talk about my own experiences in the Senate. You can also contact other Senate representatives in our organizational unit.
Please also visit our Join the Senate webpage for more details about serving on the Senate.
READY TO JOIN? HERE’S HOW:
The Senate will be holding elections in June, and we are looking for 2 to represent UVAFinance. If elected, you will serve as the voice for our organizational unit, and you will have the opportunity to make a difference, not only for staff in our area but for staff across grounds. If interested, respond to this email no later than Friday, May 21, 2021, to indicate that you would like to run for a seat on the Senate. You can also nominate coworkers who you think would be solid representatives for our unit.
Billy Mak has joined the Office of Financial Planning & Analysis as a Senior Business Analyst. Mak, who comes to UVA most recently from George Mason University, has considerable higher education experience in budgeting, working with data, and process improvement.
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| Click for a larger view (photo by Billy Mak) |
Mak comes to UVA during a time of abundant change, both due to the pandemic and the implementation of a new financial system, and he himself is no stranger to upheaval. In 2017, he left his role at the University of California, Davis, to relocate to Virginia, where he and his family helped plant a church.
As if a coast-to-coast transition weren’t enough, Mak has also had a leading role in several change initiatives both at Davis and Mason, including the implementation of Adaptive Insight and automating direct revenue reports.
“I say that I’m lazy,” jokes Mak, when speaking of his approach to data analysis. “I’m passionate about data, but I like to simplify and automate the work where I can.”
Mak and his wife have two boys, ages six and two. As a family, they enjoy spending time outside, whether that’s at Yosemite or in the Shenandoah. Mak also enjoys photography; the photos in this story are his own.
Relating in New Ways to Depression
May 19, 3:30 – 4:30
Presented by FEAP
Effective Strategies for Managing your Emotional Well-Being
May 26, 12 - 1 PM
Hosted by FEAP, Presenters: Jennifer Kim Penberthy, UVA School of Medicine & J. Morgan Penberthy, American Psychological Association
New Hoos Well Portal open for Registration!
If you’ve not created your account yet, take a few minutes and register now. The portal offers many enhancements and new features. Track your steps and healthy habits, earn awards, complete “journeys” plus much, much more! Click HERE to learn more about the portal (hosted by Virgin Pulse) and create your new account. You can earn up to $500 in rewards via the Portal!
Hoos Well UVA Children’s Challenge
Employees and spouses on the UVA or UPG Health Plan are invited to participate in the first ever Hoos Well challenge to benefit UVA Children’s. The challenge starts May 17th. To participate:
Log your daily healthy activity on the Hoos Well portal for a period of 5 weeks beginning May 17.
At the conclusion of the challenge, you can keep or donate any portion of your $50 rewards to support children at the UVA Children’s hospital. Visit the Hoos Well website for more details.
Exercise classes for employees and spouses on a UVA health plan, courtesy of IM-REC.
One complimentary nutrition counseling session and up to (6) annually for those covered by a UVA health plan through the UVA Nutrition Counseling Center.
Wellbeats provides access to hundreds of virtual exercise classes, fitness instruction & nutrition education for employees on the UVA Health Plan. Learn how to schedule a Wellbeats Class and invite a friend.
Suite of virtual resources to help you remain physically & emotionally well during the extraordinary challenges.
Range of quality programs, services & venues that support all dimensions of wellness through sport, fitness & recreation.
Collection of resources to support mental & emotional wellness.
Digital subscriptions and virtual workshops are available at a discounted price. You may also be eligible for 50% reimbursement.
Employees on UVA Health Plan have access to hundreds of on-demand fitness and nutrition classes via the web or mobile app. To create your account, click the "Login" button, type your UVA email address and enter the password HoosWell.
Online mindfulness platform to promote health, happiness, stress management and self- care.
UVA Walking Paths (not virtual)
Interactive walking paths throughout the university. Use the interactive map on your smart phone or print a PDF.
Get Outside: Visit a VA State Park
May is an ideal month to visit a state (or any) park and take in the great outdoors – go for a long walk, hike or bicycle ride, or just enjoy being in nature. We’re fortunate to have plenty of opportunities nearby or a short drive away.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
VA State Parks General Info, Find a park & Hiking Trails
VA State Arboretum
Best Hikes in Charlottesville
Note: Be sure to check any COVID-19 guidelines before your visit.
Contributed by Patty Marbury
I shared some of the basics of the training we're planning for Workday Financials in a recent blog post, and today I have more details for you on what we'll be doing when.
Let's take a look at what the training team will be doing between now and go-live, and then after go-live as well:
Analysis / May, June, and July of 2021: During this time, we'll determine training logistics, produce training development guidelines, prepare trainers and change leaders to deliver training, and determine our end user audience.
Design and Develop / August 2021 - January 2022: This is when we design and create training materials. We'll map business roles to contacts, create the training curriculum, develop training metrics for success, stand up infrastructure like office hours and LMS, create job aids and other training content as needed, and create a feedback loop with our Change Leaders so we're sure to understand gaps and challenges.
Implement / May & June 2022: This is where we actually deliver the training, both in-person and virtual, to end users. We'll start this 60 days prior to go-live (or maybe sooner). We'll also be conducting train the trainer sessions, delivering office hours and updating LMS, and finalizing our success metrics.
Evaluate / July - September 2022: At this point, Workday Financials will be live, and we'll be supporting our users and measuring the effectiveness of our training. We'll continue to work with Change Leaders to understand knowledge gaps, and we'll deliver any additional training or support depending on the feedback we get.
There will be more to come on training as we move forward. Always feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns!
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| Accurate representation of the windows I have open on my computer at the moment |
Hey, all you folks who have about 47 windows open at the same time!
Did you know that if you press the Windows key, along with the D key, you can quickly toggle between your desktop and all of your open windows?
Our friendly neighborhood LSPs shared this tip, and Danielle Hancock of the Continuous Improvement Committee has given the full details in the Online Community. Check it out here.
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Did you know: the Continuous Improvement Space in the Online Community is a great place to get tips on process improvements both small and large. Click here to visit! If you can't access the space, just let Brandi Van Ormer know. She'll get you right in!
Eliminate waste, reduce cost, improve quality, and increase speed – what do these all have in common? They’re the four goals of Lean methodology.
Want to learn more? Join us in the second series of Lean classes for 2021. The preferred class order and prerequisites are listed below.
Class | Date | Time | Prerequisite |
8/26/21 | 9 – 12 p.m. | None | |
9/16/21 | 10:30 - 12 p.m. | None | |
9/29/21 | 10 - 12 p.m. | Lean Fluency | |
11/10/21 | 1 – 2:30 p.m. | Lean Fluency & Lean Projects | |
11/11/21 | 9 – 12 p.m. | Lean Fluency & Lean Projects | |
11/16/21 | 9 – 12 p.m. | Lean Fluency & Lean Projects | |
11/17/21 | 1 – 3 p.m. | Lean Fluency & Lean Projects |
By completing all the classes above, you can earn the UVA Finance Lean Certificate.
All classes will be held virtually. The Zoom link and class handouts will be emailed prior to the training sessions.
Find more information about the certificate program and Lean training on the flyer below and on the Community Hub (if you need access, email bv8h@virginia.edu), or email us at foc-training@virginia.edu.
We look forward to seeing you in class!
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| click the image for a larger view |
Contributed by Danielle Hancock
We’ve reached the stage of the Finance Strategic Transformation (FST) project when decision-makers in schools and units are developing their cost center structures for the Workday Financials Foundation Data Model (FDM), Workday’s version of chart of accounts.
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A cost center (CC) is an area within a school/unit that owns a subset of revenues and/or expenses. They report funds available and manage multiple fund sources. The current Oracle term Organization will most closely translate to Cost Center in Workday Financials terms, but some schools and units are taking advantage of Workday’s increased cost center functionality to break their organizations into smaller sections. Therefore, you may find that one Oracle org will be broken into multiple different cost centers in Workday Financials.
Here are seven things to consider as you develop your cost centers:
Have questions or thoughts? Start a discussion in the Online Community! Danielle has posted this piece there and would love to hear from you.
Contributed by Mark Anderson
As we shared recently, our intent with reporting and analytics is to provide all the day-to-day reports you need to do your job on day one of go-live (read more in this article). So what will the Reporting & Analytics team be doing between now and July of 2022? We'll be assessing user needs, evaluating delivered reporting functionality from Workday, as well as building and testing the reports that you'll need on Day One.
Here's a further breakdown of the team's strategy between now and go-live:
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UVA has extensive reporting requirements. As our team has worked with functional areas to gather up their needed operational reports, we've collected 360 to date. Grants management alone has 74 required reports!
In an upcoming update, I'll share more on the Workday Reporting & Analytics toolset, including dashboards, discovery boards, worksheets, Prism Analytics, and more -- so stay tuned.
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This month's Fiscal Administrators Meeting was full of really great information. Danielle Hancock and Jack Jensen, of the FST Change Management Team, shared a great tip regarding add-ins for Outlook. You can find more about that here.
The featured information of the meeting, however, was all about PaymentWorks. Jonathan Agop, FST's Supplier Accounts Lead, demoed a few different functionalities within the supplier onboarding and management system. The FST Team chose to implement PaymentWorks as a replacement for Jaggaer Total Supplier Management because its fraud protection, tailored user experience, and ability to transition us away from check payments make it the best option for UVA.
After the demo, meeting attendees had some initial concerns that Jonathan quickly addressed. Here are some questions posed and the answers Jonathan provided:
After these questions were answered, attendees had lots of positive things to say about their first look at PaymentWorks:
It's wonderful to see such a great response to PaymentWorks!
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You can view the slides for this meeting, here.
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Shared by Linda Leshowitz
This chocolate pudding pie is so totally delicious; no one will know (or care) that it's free of wheat and dairy! There are a few steps to prepare it, but the resulting pie will be completely worth your effort. The combo of the pretzels with the chocolate and CocoWhip™ tastes amazing! Note, this pie is not guilt-free but a decadent treat!
Tips:
The recipe below is from Erin Collins, Meaningful Eats. Find step-by-step instructions with photos here.
For the Crust:
For the Chocolate Pudding:
For the Ganache:
For the Topping:
Make the Crust:
Make the Pudding:
For the Ganache:
Notes
MAKE-IT NUT-FREE: Use boxed coconut milk in place of the almond milk. (Do not use boxed coconut milk in place of the canned coconut milk.)
Nutrition
Calories: 500kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 443mg | Potassium: 222mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 480IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 88mg | Iron: 3.7mg
