As shared during the October Finance Focus Group (FFG) meeting, a change to how budget dates are assigned to certain transactions in Workday will take effect Monday, November 2. This update applies to purchase orders, supplier invoices, and procurement card transactions.
Currently, purchase orders, supplier invoices, and procurement card transactions may inherit the budget date associated with the original requisition. Beginning November 2, the budget date will instead be associated with each individual transaction, providing a date that more closely reflects the timing of that transaction. The chart shared in FFG is available here for download provides an overview how this change impacts various transaction types.
This update is important for sponsored awards, which have defined periods of performance during which purchases must be received and agreed-upon work performed. Workday uses the budget date as part of a systematic check against the grant’s period of performance.
The change may be most noticeable when:
- There is a longer time between requisition creation and receipt of the product or service. Examples include:
- Blanket purchase orders used throughout the year
- Specialized research equipment with extended lead times
- Sub-award activities extending over longer periods
- Transactions / Documents are dated after the grant end date.
Action Items
Users should review the budget date for applicable transactions, particularly those related to sponsored awards. In some circumstances, the budget date may need to be adjusted to align with when the product or service was actually received.
Workday includes a custom validation that checks a transaction’s budget date against the grant’s period of performance and alerts users when the date falls outside those parameters.
Also, please refer to the Grants Budget Date Validation Error knowledge article in Workday for additional guidance on Budget Date errors and resolution.
Note: This change applies specifically to purchase orders, supplier invoices, and procurement card transactions. All other budget date configurations are not impacted by this update and therefore remain the same. (i.e. Cash Sale, Expense Reports, Internal Service Delivery, Payroll, Manual Journal, etc.)
Thank you for your attention to this important Workday update.