Archives: Service News

Historically, the Grant Manager Dashboard was only fully functional for users with the Grant Manager role. While users with the Grant Financial Analyst role have always been able to view the dashboard, the Sponsored Grants, Awards, and Sponsored Grants Staffing tabs would appear blank for these users because they weren’t assigned directly to any grants.

Thanks to a recent enhancement, Grant Financial Analysts can now customize the Sponsored Grants, Awards, and Sponsored Grants Staffing tabs with reports designed specifically for their role.

About the Grant Manager Dashboard

The Grant Manager Dashboard provides Grant Managers (and now Grant Financial Analysts!) with a central place to find grant-related content that is specific to them, splitting data across six tabs—Sponsored Grants, Awards, Stand Alone Grants, Gifts, Sponsored Grant Staffing, and Programs.

For more information, including instructions on how to use this tool, refer to the Grant Manager Dashboard job aid.

Note: If working remote, you must connect to the VPN to access these links. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

Configuring the Dashboard for a Grant Financial Analyst

Grant Financial Analysts can now swap out the default reports on the Sponsored Grants, Awards, and Sponsored Grant Staffing tabs on the Grant Manager Dashboard with new versions tailored for Grant Financial Analysts.

To do this, the Grant Financial Analyst, must follow these high-level steps

1. Access Configuration Settings: Open the Grant Manager Dashboard and click the gear icon to access the Configure Worklets window.
   
2. Replace Default Reports: For the Sponsored Grants, Awards, and Sponsored Grant Staffing tabs, add the Grant Financial Analyst-specific reports (R1564.5, R1565.2, and 1566.2), and remove the default Grant Manager reports.
   
3. Set Report Filters: Edit settings within each tab to apply relevant prompts—such as Company—to tailor the report results to your needs.
   

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Configuring the Dashboard for a Grant Financial Analyst section of the Grant Manager Dashboard job aid.

Note: If working remote, you must connect to the VPN to access these links. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

Questions?

For more information or assistance, please email datagrp@uw.edu with “Grant Manager Dashboard” in the subject line.

New versions of the Grant Manager and Principal Investigator (PI) dashboards are now available. They help users view their PO encumbrances and liquidations, evaluate their current fiscal year program activities, and connect with relevant resources, by business process area.

This article introduces these enhancements and explains how to access them from the dashboards.

About the Grant Manager and PI Dashboards

Both of these dashboards provide Grant Managers and PIs with a central place to find grant-related content that is specific to them, splitting data across six tabs—Sponsored Grants, Awards, Stand Alone Grants, Gifts, Sponsored Grant Staffing, and Programs.

For more information, including instructions on how to use these tools, refer to the following job aids:

• Grant Manager Dashboard
• Principal Investigator Dashboard

Note: If working remote, you must connect to the VPN to access these links. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

About the Enhancements

Additional Resources Tab/Financial Desktop Dashboard

Previous dashboard versions included an “Additional Resources” tab with helpful links for the dashboard’s intended audience (Grant Managers or PIs). To free up space (now used by the new Program tab) and avoid duplication, we’ve moved these links to the Financial Desktop Dashboard, on the Sponsored Grants tab.

The Financial Desktop is a central hub for Workday finance users to discover commonly used reports, tasks, and tools, organized by business process area. For more information, refer to Introducing the Updated Financial Desktop.

Note: You can still easily access these resources from either dashboard. Just click the Financial Desktop – Sponsored Grants link in the Additional Resources banner at the top of the dashboard.

Program Tab

The new Program tab lets Grant Managers and PIs select specific Programs to monitor. It summarizes current fiscal year activity for each selected Program and allows users to drill into additional detail if desired.

 

Purchase Order Encumbrance and Liquidation Summary Report

This new drill-to report is now available in both dashboards and is accessible from the Encumbrance column in the Sponsored Grants and Awards tabs. This report helps users easily view PO encumbrances and liquidations.

To access the report, select the Sponsored Grants or Awards tab, click the down arrow next to a value in the Encumbrance column, and then click the Purchase Order Encumbrance and Liquidation Summary link.

This displays a list of POs with summarized encumbered and liquidated amounts, with the option to drill into additional detail if desired.

Note: No configuration is needed to access the new report—it is already embedded in the dashboards for users with the appropriate security role(s).

Set a Dashboard as your Workday Homepage (Optional)

If desired, you can set the Grant Manager or PI Dashboard as your Homepage in Workday. For more information, refer to Setting a Dashboard as your Homepage in the Customizing Workday job aid.

Questions?

For more information or assistance, please email datagrp@uw.edu with “Grant Manager Dashboard” or “PI Dashboard” in the subject line.

Initially launched during the UW Finance Transformation (UWFT) to help users transition from the legacy MyFD system to Workday, the Financial Desktop primarily served as a crosswalk between MyFD and Workday. Now, with go-live close to two years behind us, it has been updated to better reflect how users work today, serving as a central hub for commonly used reports, tasks, and tools, organized by business process area.

Key Features

Tabs to Organize Resources by Business Process Area

Each tab represents a different Business Process Area—such as Financial Reporting, Sponsored Grants, and Procurement and Supply Chain—and includes curated links to information such as:

• Workday Tools/Resources
• External (non-Workday) Tools/Resources
• Reports
• Tasks

These links are intended as starting points—not exhaustive lists. They help new users orient themselves and experienced users get where they need to go faster.

Quick Tasks Tailored to You

The Quick Tasks section adjusts based on your security roles in Workday, which means that the tasks that display for you may be different than what displays for other users.

Static Resource Links

While the Quick Tasks only reflect tasks that you have access to, the rest of the resources on each tab are static and curated to highlight the “heavy hitters”—the most widely used reports and tools. These include links both inside and outside Workday, such as BI Portal reports, knowledge articles, and other external systems.

Note: If a Workday resource does not include a blue hyperlink, that means that you do not have access to that resource.

Set the Financial Desktop as your Workday Homepage (Optional)

If desired, you can set the Financial Desktop as your Homepage in Workday. For more information, refer to Setting a Dashboard as your Homepage in the Customizing Workday job aid.

Note: If working remote, you must connect to the VPN to access these links. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

Feedback Welcome!

The current list of links is based on input from the development team—but we know that actual users are the real experts. If you have suggestions for resources to add or remove, please send an email to datagrp@uw.edu.

We’re excited to share that a new Cost Center Planning & Forecasting Tool is now available in Workday Drive! This tool allows Cost Center Managers to:

• View totals by cost center using actual Workday data
• Enter manual projections for more accurate forecasting
• Run basic scenario planning—all within a single worksheet

Important Note:

This tool is not intended to replace Adaptive Planning or the formal budget process. Rather, it provides a lightweight and accessible option for Cost Center Managers—particularly those without access to Adaptive—who need to track actuals and plan at the local level.

We encourage you to explore the tool and consider how it may support your operational planning efforts.

Using the Cost Center Planning & Forecasting Tool

You can start using the tool with a few key steps:

1. Download the template from Workday, pull in live data, and set it up for each cost center you manage.

   

2. Add or update projected personnel (optional). This allows you to plan for additional personnel who are not currently associated with your cost centers. Once added, you can include these personnel in your projections.

   

3. Enter projected spend values and calculate totals, specifying the employees and/or ledger accounts you want to include.
   
4. Refresh the data as needed to get updated actuals.

   
   Note: When you refresh Workday data, the actuals in the Cost Center tabs will update automatically. However, projected values will not get updated. You’ll need to review and update these values manually, as needed.

5. Share the workbook if desired.

   Note: Security for this tool (both the template and any workbooks created from the template) is managed via security roles. If you create a workbook and share it with someone who doesn’t have the necessary roles, they will be able to view the workbook but not refresh the data—the data will be static.

For more information, including step-by-step instructions, refer to the W0005 – Cost Center Planning & Forecasting Tool job aid.

Note: If working remote, you must connect to the VPN to access this page. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

Questions?

Email datagrp@uw.edu with “Cost Center Planning & Forecasting Tool” in the subject line.

The Reporting & Analytics team (R&A) and Finance DATAGroup have released the new UW Summarized Cube! This cube provides a multi-year view into actuals and budget¹ data, summarized at the month level for fiscal year 2024 through the present.

What is a Cube?

A data cube is a powerful analysis tool, which allows users to quickly and easily slice and dice data across multiple dimensions, in a single view. For an introduction to cubes, including their benefits over traditional analysis tools such as reports, refer to the What is a Cube introductory video.

Note: If working remote, you’ll need to connect to the VPN to access the links on this page. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

How is the UW Summarized Cube different from the UW Finance Cube?

UW Finance Cube

The UW Finance Cube provides a detailed view of UW finances, by fiscal year, including revenue, expenses, and beginning balances. Users can analyze transactions at various levels using dimensions such as Ledger Account, Cost Center, Fund, Function, and more! However, because this cube drills-down to transaction-level detail, the dataset is large, so each cube is limited to one fiscal year for optimal performance. This cube does not include any budget data and it is refreshed daily.

UW Summarized Cube

The UW Summarized Cube provides a high-level view of UW finances by year, quarter, and month. Because it doesn’t have date-level transactions, users can analyze this summarized data across multiple years, using the same dimensions as the UW Finance Cube. Unlike the Finance Cube, this cube includes budget¹ data and it is refreshed weekly, on Sundays.

How will the UW Summarized Cube help me?

1. Summarized Financial Insights: View summarized financial data across multiple years and dimensions. Whether it’s analyzing trends in research expenditures, gift revenue, or procurement expenses, you can gain a holistic view of your financial landscape.
2. Budget¹ vs. Actuals Data: Compare budget¹ data with actuals from Workday, broken down by year, quarter, and month.
3. Preferred Analysis Tool: Connect to the cube via your preferred analysis tool (for example, Excel, Power BI, or Tableau) for seamless integration.
4. User-Friendly Pivot Tables: If using Excel, connect to the cube and effortlessly create pivot tables by dropping prepopulated measures and dimensions into place.

How do I get started?

Refer to UW Finance Cube Resources – Workday Data to download the base workbook and get connected to the new cube!

Note: This page includes base workbooks for each cube in the suite of Finance Cubes, including one for the UW Summarized Cube.

Questions?

Please contact help@uw.edu with “UW Summarized Cube” in the subject line.

¹ Budget data in this cube comes from Workday Adaptive Planning, which does not include grant budgets. Grant budgets are managed separately in SAGE and are not included in this cube.

A new version of the Grant Manager Dashboard is now available, which improves visibility into outstanding invoices for grants in Closeout in Progress or Expired status. These enhancements highlight invoices that require attention and help Grant Managers take timely action, ensuring compliance and preventing delays.

This article introduces these enhancements and explains how to access them within the Grant Manager Dashboard.

About the Grant Manager Dashboard

The Grant Manager Dashboard displays grant data, which is tailored to the Grant Manager logged into Workday. This gives Grant Managers a central place to find grant-related content that is specific to them.

This dashboard splits data across six tabs—Sponsored Grants, Awards, Stand Alone Grants, Gifts, Sponsored Grant Staffing, and Additional Resources.

For more information, including instructions on how to use the tool, refer to the Grant Manager Dashboard Job Aid.

Note: If working offsite, you must connect to Husky OnNet (VPN) to access the above link. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

About the Enhancements

Note: A one-time configuration is required in order to use the following enhancements. For more information, refer to the Grant Manager Dashboard Job Aid.

Flags

The Sponsored Grants tab now uses flags to highlight grants with an Award Line Lifecycle Status of Closeout in Progress or Expired. Hovering over these flags reveals recommended next steps.

 

Supplier Invoices in Progress Report

Grant Managers can now identify invoices that require their attention by clicking the down arrow next to a value in the Life to Date Spend column and selecting the Supplier Invoices in Progress link.

 

This displays a report of invoices in In Progress or Draft status for the selected grant(s). Monitoring these invoices is especially important for grants in Closeout in Progress or Expired status, as they should not have open supplier invoices.

Questions?

Please contact datagrp@uw.edu to initiate a ticket with the Finance DATAGroup.

The University of Washington is committed to creating a welcoming and respectful learning, working, and living environment. In support of this commitment—and in compliance with Washington state law (Senate Bill 5227)—the UW offers Cultivating Community at UW: Anti-Racism and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B). This 2.5-hour online course educates our community on topics such as racism, disability and accessibility, and LGBTQ+ identities; highlighting how these issues affect colleagues and students at the UW. The module-based format allows participants to complete the training at their own pace.

This course is required for new employees hired after June 30, 2022, who have not worked at the UW in the preceding 12 months. It must be completed within 30 days of their hire date. While optional for other employees, participation is strongly encouraged, with a long-term goal of at least 80% of staff, faculty, and other academic personnel completing the training every two years. For more information about this training requirement, refer to Anti-Racism and DEI&B in the Workplace.

To enhance the effectiveness of this program, UW-IT’s Reporting & Analytics team partnered with staff in the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) to develop a new dashboard, which is now available in the BI Portal! This dashboard tracks completion records for the anti-racism and DEI&B training (grouped by required and optional employees), identifies areas for additional outreach, and supports compliance with this crucial requirement.

Collaborating to Meet Requirements

Creating this dashboard was a team effort! OMA&D staff provided the requirements and feedback, while folks in the Reporting & Analytics Web Applications and Business Intelligence (BI) teams pulled the data from various sources to develop the dashboard.

Understanding the Data Pipeline

BI Portal resources usually rely on data from the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), but this dashboard needed additional data sources. Training completion records from the Bridge Learning Management System (LMS) were combined with employee data from the EDW and Workday in Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehousing platform.

With the data view available, the dashboard was built in Tableau and fine-tuned in partnership with OMA&D to ensure it met user needs. The team thoroughly tested it to confirm everything worked smoothly and accurately before rolling it out.

Exploring the Dashboard

Check out the Bridge DEI Employee Course Completion dashboard in the BI Portal to explore the tool, including the following features.

Filters

The left panel of the dashboard provides a number of filters, which allow users to narrow results by course status, employee details, and/or various levels of the HR Hierarchy. For more information about these filters, refer to the Filters tab for the dashboard in the BI Portal.

Search

The top of the dashboard provides a search field, which allows users to search for a specific employee by UW NetID.

Results

The center of the dashboard displays the results, based on the filter or search specifications. Additionally, each row includes the completion status, indicated with a check mark (✔) or crossmark (X) icon. You can hover over these icons to display a tooltip with additional context, such as course status, HR organization, employee detail, and manager contact information for a specific employee.

Questions/Feedback/Ideas?

Do you have a question about this dashboard and/or a request for a new resource in the BI Portal? Please submit a ticket to help@uw.edu with “BI Portal” in the subject line.

We’re thrilled to announce the release of the Grant Spend Verification Tool—a solution that simplifies grant expense tracking and compliance. This tool provides a clear view of expenses by grant and fiscal period, streamlines the verification process with built-in commenting and electronic signatures, and securely stores records for the required retention periods. With this tool, reviewing your grant expenses and staying in compliance is more efficient, transparent, and reliable.

Collaborating to Meet Requirements

Creating this tool was a true team effort!

• DATAGroup (UW Finance Planning & Budgeting) provided subject matter expertise, gathered user requirements, and shared feedback to guide development.
• Business Intelligence (UW-IT) built a report to meet user, security, and metadata requirements.
• Enterprise Document Management (UW-IT) integrated DocuSign and DocFinity to enable verification and storage.

Additionally, finance reporting users from the School of Medicine, College of Education, and College of the Environment participated in User Acceptance Testing, helping to identify issues, provide feedback, and refine the tool.

About the Solution

The Grant Spend Verification tool leverages the BI Portal, DocuSign, and DocFinity. Here’s an overview of how it works.

Step 1: Run the Report (BI Portal)

The Grant Manager initiates the Grant Spend Verification process by running the Grant Spend Verification report in the BI Portal. This report shows expenses by grant and fiscal period for a Principal Investigator.

Step 2: Review and Verification (DocuSign)

The Grant Manager routes the report through DocuSign for PI (or designee) review. The PI is notified, reviews the report, adds comments if needed, and signs electronically to verify the report.

Step 3: Document Retention (DocFinity)

Once finalized, the verified document is stored in DocFinity, an electronic document storage solution, for secure access throughout its retention period.

This end-to-end process ensures compliance while saving time and effort across departments. To get started and for more detailed instructions, refer to the Grant Spend Verification job aid.

Note: If working offsite, you connect to Husky OnNet (VPN) to access the above link. For more information, refer to Husky OnNet.

Need Support?

If you have questions and/or would like to request a demo or training session for your department, please email datagrp@uw.edu with “Grant Spend Verification” in the subject line. We’re here to help!