Finance May 2022 Update

Welcome to the first ATP Finance update! Every month, ATP’s Finance Strategy Team will send out a report to keep stakeholders up to date on the progression of all finance-related activities in the Administrative Transformation Program.

About ATP’s Finance Strategy

The systems and business processes that support Finance, Human Resources, and Research Administration across the UW System are undergoing a transformation. ATP’s Finance Strategy Team, in close collaboration with leadership and subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the UW System campuses, is engaged in an initiative to expand our capabilities and modernize our technology. Finance strategy areas will cover: 

  • Financial Accounting/General Ledger 
  • Gift and Endowment Accounting  
  • Tuition Remission 
  • Budgets (Workday) 
  • Budgets (Adaptive Planning) 
  • Cash Management (Banking/Settlement) 
  • Fixed Assets  
  • Projects  
  • Non-Sponsored Billing & Receivables 
  • Internal Billing  
  • Travel & Expense Reimbursement  
  • SCM: Inventory, Supplier Accounts, and Procurement Functions (outside of Jaggaer) 

Planning Stage Activities 

Since ATP’s SI partner, Huron, joined in January, the ATP Finance Strategy Team has been focused on the activities and deliverables of the Planning Stage, which ended April 29, as well as building a team of more than 30 Finance team members.  

A major planning activity for Finance was creating a draft structure for the UW’s new chart of accounts. The new chart, which is called the Foundation Data Model (FDM) in Workday, is the basis of all financial activity. In the new world, worktags will replace funding strings or chart values and be used to identify important elements of transactions. The draft structure will be used in the first Workday tenant as the basis for designing financial business processes.   

The Finance Strategy Team conducted 14 Discovery Sessions that allowed the ATP team to see Workday functionality in each module area. The sessions also touched on the current state and opportunities that need to be considered in the future state design. The outcomes of the Discovery Sessions will be used in the Architect Stage.  

What’s Next 

Starting in May 2022, ATP transitions to the Architect Stage. Now the team’s focus will be on Future State Process Design and Architect Design Sessions. These sessions will include ATP Design Team members, Focus Groups, Validation Groups, and SMEs, including cross-functional representation when necessary.