4 Impactful Workday® Financials 2020R1 Features

With COVID-19 turning our world upside down you may have missed some of Workday’s 2020R1 features. Here are four Financial Management features we feel have had the most immediate or profound impact.

1. A New Look and Feel for Requisitions

Requisitions finally had a face-lift! ...And they don’t just look better, they also work more intuitively. On the initiation screen “Deliver-To”, “Ship-To” and “Additional Worktags” fields are now displayed upfront and defaulted with the requester’s assigned organizations, consistent with the initiation screen for expense reports. Having default selections upfront speeds up the checkout process.

Speaking of which, gone is the cumbersome step-wise checkout process of old! The new checkout screen is displayed as one page and the work required has been dramatically reduced. While these UI changes are mandatory for all, luckily, requisitions enabled optional field hiding and guided tours, which are great ways to limit the confusion and help your workforce understand the new Workday requisition process.

2. Enhancements for Project Billing Management

Workday 2020R1 also introduced a number of enhancements to billable project functionality, including new labor costing and revenue recognition options. If your organization is using (or has considered using) Workday PSA, definitely check these enhancements out in the What’s New section on Community.

Here we’ll focus on the new Manage Project Billing Transactions task, which brings a welcomed update to the user experience for project managers. The new task first provides a clean summary view which displays transactions by both project and WIP aging category, effectively driving quick filters for the review process. The next screen, a details review page, enhances the old Review Billable Project Transactions task, breaking out results into separate tabs per transaction source and allows for easy filtering. There are a number of other handy features built into this task including saving of progress when moving between tabs, mass transferring of transactions to different projects, and a new confirmation screen.

3. New Payment Category: Miscellaneous Payment Requests

Ad Hoc Payments are a great way for your payment experts to initiate one-time payments for tax remittance, stock buyback, etc. Now, non-treasury users have a way to request one-time payments as well, directly from within Workday, and with less up-front information.

The Miscellaneous Payment Request functionality is meant to be used to initiate payments for one-time payees like guest speakers, charities, honorarium recipients, etc. Setup required for this new feature includes new sequence generators, security configuration, BP routing, and miscellaneous payee/request categories.

It should also be noted that there is a tenant setup option required before this feature can be used - determining whether the transaction should use Cash or Accrual Basis accounting. Please note that this setting cannot be changed unless all miscellaneous payment requests are in canceled or denied status, so it is important to test this out fully before applying these settings to your production tenant.

4. The New Account Certification Dashboard

Workday has continued to enhance it’s account certification functionality as it strengthens the argument for keeping this function inside Workday. With 2020R1, we saw a suite of new standard reports being rolled out which can be run independently or as part of the new Account Certification Dashboard. With these reports you’ll be able to better manage the certification process, armed with key metrics and audit reports. Some setup is required for this new reporting feature, but it is worth giving it a whirl if your organization is considering Workday Account Certification.

Workday releases can be stressful, but they don’t have to be! Approach the event with confidence by being prepared for the coming features. At Makse Group, we find that it is crucially important to set aside time with our clients well in advance of the release, giving us plenty of runway to review the coming changes together and craft a plan for adoption. Roadmap conversations are a great way to determine how new features fit into your company’s operational strategy and will help you get the most out of each Workday release.