Navigating UCF Workday: A Comprehensive Guide

The University of Central Florida (UCF) has embraced Workday, a cloud-based system designed to streamline and digitize various business processes. This system replaces many manual processes that were previously handled differently across colleges and divisions. This article provides a comprehensive overview of UCF Workday, covering access methods, training resources, key functionalities, and recent updates.

Accessing Workday

There are three primary ways to access Workday:

Direct Access: Access Workday through the UCF website or a dedicated link.
Workday Help: An in-system application providing users the opportunity to access learning tools at a self-driven pace.
Mobile App: Access Workday on the go through the mobile application.

Training and Support Resources

UCF offers a variety of training resources to help users navigate Workday effectively.

Workday Help Knowledge Base

The knowledge base within Workday Help contains over 300 knowledge articles organized within 15 categories that serve as self-driven training resources. A “knowledge article” is a job aid, video demo, or business process workflow that describes or outlines step-by-step procedures of a business process. All knowledge articles can be accessed using the Workday search bar or navigating to the Help app.

UCF Workday Training Catalog

The UCF Workday Training Catalog provides guidance on Workday training information, including system-based online coursework currently available in Workday and category information for the Workday Help Knowledge Base. All end-user training is developed to help the UCF community navigate Workday. These training materials and resources are currently available in Workday and require UCF NID access.

Read also: Comprehensive Work-Study Info

Available Courses

Workday Essentials: Getting Started: This course provides an introduction to Workday, assisting new users in getting started. It teaches basic information about how to use, navigate, and understand the system.
Workday for Managers: This course introduces Workday features used by those in managerial roles. It prepares them to get started by focusing on how to navigate within Workday to complete managerial tasks.
Navigating Grants: This course provides users with business process instruction on next steps once an award is integrated into Workday. You will learn what steps to take to complete setting up the grant, how to set up a sponsor, how to create billing schedules and add a grant to one, how to work with invoices in Workday, and how to update the system when facilities and administrative (F&A) rates change.
Expense Report Basics: Understanding the basics of expense reports is important to ensure they are processed timely and meet the policies of the University.
Adaptive Planning Navigation Basics: Understand basic navigational concepts for the Workday Adaptive Planning tool. Also, learn the fundamentals of Adaptive Planning by reviewing sheet types and data entry functionality.
I-9/E-Verify Refresher Course: This online course is designed for the HRBC, HR kNEXT, and UCF Global E&T team members who are responsible for completing the I-9 forms for employees.
Summer Processing Training: This online course is designed for the HRBC and HR kNEXT team members who are responsible for faculty summer appointments.
UCF Purchasing Card Training Program: This online course is designed to provide users with the policy and procedural information required to use a UCF purchasing card effectively within the scope of your daily responsibilities.
Microlearnings: Two microlearnings are now available in Workday Learning for UCF staff responsible for completing I-9 forms and faculty summer appointments. Microlearnings provide refresher training to UCF staff and contain self-paced content that is a combination of video recordings and documentation.

Additional Support

Workday Help Cases: All staff who manage Workday Help cases (also known as “case solvers”) will now have access to Help case message templates when responding to any Help case due to the 2023R2 system release. A Help case message template is a pre-populated (default) message to use for consistent messaging and efficient customer service support.
HRBC Report Guide: HR kNEXT is pleased to announce the development of the HRBC Report Guide which contains a summary of Workday Reports that HR Business Center (HRBC) employees will need to access and run to monitor the accuracy of dates in Workday. This guide lists each report and provides helpful information regarding the specific report.

Key Functionalities and Features

Workday offers a range of functionalities to manage various tasks and processes.

Delegation

Delegation in Workday is the temporary assignment of another user to act on your behalf to carry out specific activities. Workday allows you to delegate your Workday Inbox or specific tasks from your inbox, or the ability to initiate actions for business processes. The Workday Enterprise Systems (WES) team is pleased to announce upcoming improvements to the Delegation Assignments functionality in Workday.

Inbox and Notifications

The Workday inbox is your personal activity stream - containing notifications of tasks, approvals, due dates, and other items sent to you as part of your organization’s business processes. Workday sends notifications to your Outlook inbox as well as to your Workday inbox. The frequency in which the Outlook notifications are sent can be modified based on your preferences.

Homepage

The Workday homepage provides you with quick access to various tasks in Workday.

Expense and Procurement

With Workday, there are no more paper LAPERs or paper timesheets. It’s important to determine whether you manage another employee - such as a GTA. Expense Cards are the new P-Cards in Workday, and there is a new workflow for how to make purchases. Purchases that relate to a Purchase Order (PO) are made with a Procurement Card. Requisitions enable you to request goods or services on behalf of yourself or other employees.

Reporting

HR kNEXT is pleased to announce the development of the HRBC Report Guide which contains a summary of Workday Reports that HR Business Center (HRBC) employees will need to access and run to monitor the accuracy of dates in Workday. This guide lists each report and provides helpful information regarding the specific report.

Recent Updates and Enhancements

UCF regularly updates Workday to improve functionality and user experience.

System Updates

Workday releases two system updates annually in March and September. Updates may impact specific groups within UCF or the entire UCF community. UCF’s first Workday system update of the year was completed on Saturday, March 9. All UCF employees (including faculty and staff) will notice feature updates to their Workday announcements and Workday search. The Workday Time Entry view for hourly employees also has updates. UCF’s second Workday system update of the year was completed on Saturday, September 9. All UCF employees (including faculty and staff) will notice feature updates to their Workday homepage, Workday search and My Tasks. Learn more information about campus community impacts at What’s New with Workday: System Release September 2023. UCF’s first Workday system update of the new year completed on Saturday, March 11. Workday releases two system updates annually (March and September) to launch new system functionality. All UCF employees (including faculty and staff) will notice global navigation menu changes. View our “Workday Digest” video to explore some of our new system features.

Key Updates

Expense Hub and Notifications: The kNEXT Team announced new enhancements to the Workday user experience, the Expense Hub and new and updated Workday notifications.
Help Case Message Templates: All staff who manage Workday Help cases (also known as “case solvers”) will now have access to Help case message templates when responding to any Help case due to the 2023R2 system release. A Help case message template is a pre-populated (default) message to use for consistent messaging and efficient customer service support.
Workday Assistant: UCF is providing all interested employees with the opportunity to test and provide user satisfaction feedback prior to launching a new Workday application called Workday Assistant!
Case Management: UCF staff that manage Workday cases in the Help Workspace app (Case Solver security role) can now share cases, link cases, and retain visibility on cases that they create.
Workday News Blog: The divisions of Administration and Finance and UCF Information Technology announced the launch of the Workday News Blog.
Bid Threshold: UCF Procurement Services is pleased to announce that the bid threshold for university purchases has been increased from $75,000 to $150,000.

Functional Updates

Pay Component Group: The Workday Enterprise System, Grants and Payroll are announcing changes to the Pay Component Group. Changes involve new and revised earning codes that are scheduled to go into effect in Workday during the pay period cycle of January 31-February 13.
Faculty Agreements: The distribution and signing of UCF’s fall faculty agreements transitioned to Workday effective July 7.
Search Committee Training: The Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) announced improvements regarding search committee training effective April 1, 2023. Based on feedback, the following updates have been made: Additional Job Appointments The following provides guidance on how to manage staff who have multiple job appointments within Workday.

Other IT Services

UCF IT provides technology solutions and reliable support so students, faculty, and staff can focus on their work without tech distractions.

Phone Services and Networks: UCF IT manages phone services, networks, online learning tools, research computing, and more.
Instructional Resources: Multimedia systems, classroom support, event production, and more.
Research Support: Support for research grants and awards.
Leganto: Integrate library resources into courses.
WebCourses: Access your classes, assignments, and grades online.
Interfolio: An academic platform to streamline various faculty-related processes.
Workday: Create expense reports, request time off, or approve employees' time.
NID Password Reset: Need to reset your NID password?

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