NewsLink Articles
Greetings Administrative System Users!
Ohio State employees should first log in to NewsLink to ensure any staff-only posts display.
NewsLink provides news and information about Workday and other Ohio State administrative systems. Updates are collected twice a month, or more frequently as needed, and pushed out to system users by direct email. Bookmark and check this page frequently for the latest information. The next NewsLink email updates are scheduled for Monday, October 7 and Monday, October 21.
Please note: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's purchasing information for employees is available through go.osu.edu/supply.
Important dates and deadlines:
- GFA AU24 deadlines
- Business and Finance Period Close Calendar
- PCard Transaction Expensing
- Workday maintenance page (login required)
The Administrative Resource Center is your go-to spot for Workday training resources. Separate Fiscal policy training is available and offered by the Office of the Controller.
Need more hands-on help? Periodic Office Hours sessions are conducted by Ohio State business areas to help provide answers to commonly asked Workday questions. Office hours are open to users of all levels and are hosted by subject matter experts.
New Report Group Added - Find Transaction Summary Reports
The "Find Transaction Summary Reports" report group has been created to help end users run multiple reports with a single set of prompts. This report group will render results for the summary report groups in the following areas: Requisitions, Spend Authorizations, Expense Report, Miscellaneous Payment Requests, Supplier Invoices, Supplier Invoice Requests, and Purchase Orders. The output of all these reports is compiled and downloaded into one Excel file for end user convenience. Pivot tables have been added on a tab in the excel output summarizing the report statuses.
New Nelnet Commerce Manager Training and ARC Job Aid
The Nelnet Commerce Manager training is a half-hour course and introduction to using Nelnet Commerce Manager. Nelnet Commerce Manager is a simple but flexible option for accepting credit card payments online. As a payment collection gateway, a website or an existing application can redirect customers to Commerce Manager to securely process credit card transactions or integrate payments through a Qualtrics survey. Commerce Manager can also be set up as a standalone site to sell simple individual items (for example, a ticket to a fundraising dinner) or to collect customer information (order number, invoice number, etc.) and accept payment in an amount entered by the customer. This course includes demonstrations using the tool including finding a transaction, canceling a transaction, processing a refund, and building and running a report. These processes are documented in a new Nelnet Commerce Manager job aid in the Administrative Resource Center (ARC).
Enhanced Search Results Available with Workday Assistant
A new feature, Workday Assistant, has been enabled that provides more relevant and useful search results in the new Simplified Search view
Workday Assistant uses natural language processing, so in many cases, you will not need to match Workday terminology exactly to get relevant results. And depending on your search, the information you are looking for may be included in the search results, no additional navigation necessary.
University-wide Contracts for Gift Cards Available
A bid was done for gift cards and incentives, resulting in contracts being awarded to two suppliers – Virtual Incentives and Tango. These contracts are available for university-wide use for digital and physical gift cards. Contract information can be found on the appropriate contract book pages.
Virtual Incentives should be the primary supplier of gift cards due to an 8% contract discount on virtual gift cards. This includes priority over direct orders from brands such as Amazon. Any Amazon gift cards should be ordered from Virtual Incentives, not Amazon, in order to receive the discount. Users can select from many different brands and products, including Virtual Visa and Amazon. Please see the ordering instructions on the contract book page for details.
Please contact Steve Hronek.9@osu.edu, Commodity Manager, with any questions.
Recent and Upcoming Reporting Enhancements as of Sept. 23
Sources and Uses – Variance Analysis Changes
The changes described are scheduled to be moved to production during the week of Monday, October 7. Based on user feedback, the "Sources and Uses – Variance Analysis" report was updated to provide a streamlined solution for viewing Actuals and Encumbrance columns side by side. Encumbrance and Pre-Encumbrance columns have been added alongside the existing Actuals and Plan columns. This will allow users to compare actuals and outstanding encumbrances to plan estimates in a seamless way. Additionally, new dynamic column headings were added to the report to provide greater clarity to the selections made at report runtime that drive the values in the Plan and Forecast columns.
Travel Policy Updates
Effective Tuesday, October 1, 2024, the Travel Policy will be updated to reflect guidance for childcare costs and travel costs for children as outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations. Changes are listed below.
- Adding definitions for child, conference, and research
- Permits travel costs for children when a university employee is traveling for research with a trip duration of 6 months or more
- Permits childcare costs above and beyond normal childcare costs when traveling to a conference that lasts 5 consecutive days or greater
- Provides additional requirements for the approval and submission of these expenses
The Travel Office FAQs will be updated on Tuesday, October 1.
Reminder: FDM Worktag Clean Up/Inactivation
The Controller's Office recommends that units do a periodic review for worktags that are no longer being used and submit inactivation requests through an FDM Request in Workday. Prior to submitting worktag inactivation requests, please ensure that the Inactivation Checklist has been completed and the balances are clear.
Note that the checklist was recently updated to differentiate reports that should be run for FOD projects beginning with PJOSU. Contact CTL-FDMRequests@osu.edu with any questions.
Recent and Upcoming Reporting Enhancements as of Sept. 9
Below are details about recent and upcoming report changes.
Find Journals – OSU
The "Find Journals – OSU" report has been enhanced with two additional fields in the output of the report. The field names are "Cost Center" and "Worktags."
Report Retirement Reminder
The reports "Find Accounting Adjustments" and "Find Accounting Adjustment Lines for Organizations" will be retired on Friday, September 27. The recommended replacement for these reports is "Accounting Adjustment Status - OSU."
Purchase Order Auto-Close Functionality
During the week of September 9, Ohio State will start utilizing the auto-close functionality provided by Workday for university purchase orders for goods. When a university purchase order for goods meets the criteria listed below, they will automatically close.
- Fully received: where all quantities ordered have been marked received in Workday
- Fully invoiced and paid: when all the quantities ordered have been invoiced and payments have all been issued to the vendors
This will only apply to purchase orders where these criteria are met after September 9. If your purchase order has already been receipted and fully invoiced/paid prior to September 9, they will have to be sent to the Service Center through the current closure process.
Please pay special attention when building/approving requisitions for goods lines to ensure that the quotes match the requisition. Contact the Service Center if you have questions on how to build requisitions.