UW-W Employee FAQs

Instructor-led training for HR, Finance, and Research Administration staff will begin March 26, 2025. Invites will be sent from UW-Madison.

How You'll Be Trained

Yes, all employees will have access beginning in March. 

Answer in progress, please check back.

Rather than using the Search field to locate tasks and reports, Shortcuts allow you to access up to 10 reports, tasks, or external links in one location. Shortcuts are located under the Menu on the Workday home page. 

1. Select the + Add Shortcuts button. The tab will be empty if you have not previously created any shortcuts. Note: A max of 10 shortcuts can be configured.
2. Search for the task or report you are creating a shortcut for, then select the (+) to add it to your Shortcuts tab.
3. When you have successfully added a shortcut, it will show Added to Menu.
4. When opening your Menu again, the newly added report will appear within the Shortcuts tab.

No, Workday does not do travel booking. 

Managers can view the Team Absence Calendar; department teammates cannot.

Many of the Workday Job-aids are available in Spanish & other languages. If the job-aid is available in another language there will be a link at the page bottom of the English version job-aid.

Job-Aid Library

Workday Glossary

In Workday, go to Personal Information, select Payment Elections, select Edit for Direct Deposit, add or update your bank account information, confirm the changes and submit. 

A new online benefits administration system called My Insurance Benefits will be available for all Universities of Wisconsin employees in July 2025. My Insurance Benefits will be accessed through the new Workday system starting on July 7. This new system allows secure access to benefits information and the ability for an employee to directly:

• Access the system 24 hours a day; 7 days a week
• Review, enroll and change benefits during a qualified enrollment period (reducing paper applications)
• Review and update dependent information
• Submit required documentation (for example, proof of a qualifying life event)
• Review breakdown of benefits costs

A worker’s Workday account access is ended after two years, meaning they can no longer log into Workday. It is left on or accessible for two years so that they can access tax and payroll documents.

Employee Time Management Job-Aids

Manager Time Management Job-Aids

If you need help with time entry or have questions, reach out to your supervisor or contact the UWW HR department at 262.472.1024. Or email your question/issue to workdaysupport@uww.edu (UW-Whitewater) or gethelpuw@support.wisconsin.edu (UW Shared Services).

Accurate work schedules are vital for pay calculations and managing time off. All employees must have a work schedule in Workday. Note: Student workers do not need a work schedule.

In Workday, a work schedule ties to key aspects of employment and time management within the system.

• Time Tracking: The work schedule is fundamental to tracking actual work hours.
• Time Off and Absence Management: The work schedule influences how Workday manages time off and absence requests. It helps determine the paid time off (PTO) accrual rate, which is often based on full-time equivalent (FTE) work hours.
• Payroll and Compensation: Employee recorded work hours and absences, in conjunction with the work schedule, are crucial for accurate payroll processing and calculations.

Assigning a Work Schedule

The manager and manager's manager, for all jobs that a worker has, can automatically approve the hours for the corresponding job(s) on the timesheet. If additional managers should have access to the employees in the Supervisory Organization, they should be assigned the Unit Timekeeper role for that supervisory organization. 

 Record your time using the Time Application timesheet or the Web Clock’s “Check In/Check Out” buttons. 

When you enter a block of time in your timesheet, select the appropriate job from the “Positions” dropdown menu in the window. 

 The best practice recommendation is that employees REVIEW and SUBMIT their timesheet for approval weekly.

Yes, if the revision is within the current pay period, select the time block you want to correct and make the necessary corrections, or click ‘Delete’ to erase the time block completely. Then REVIEW and SUBMIT the revised time for your manager’s approval.    

If the revision is for a previous pay period, your manager (or unit timekeeper) will need to submit the change on your behalf for the adjustment to be reflected on your paycheck.

If you have automatic meal breaks, you do not need to enter Meal Start or Mean End time, but you must still submit your timesheet.

Yes.

Yes, both your manager and unit timekeepers can make changes to your timesheet, even after you have submitted it.

Lockout Period Definition: The time frame where a timesheet may not be edited in Workday.

• Employee timesheets are typically locked for payroll processing on Thursdays following the close of each biweekly pay period. You can find these dates on the 2025 Biweekly Pay Schedule.
• If your manager or HR department makes an edit on your behalf, you will receive a notification, and the changes will be automatically submitted. No further action is required from you.

Convert Overtime to Comp Time Steps

1. From the Workday Home Page, click Menu.
2. Click the Time application.
3. Select the week that has been identified for Overtime hours to be converted to Comp Time.
4. Click on any day within the week containing Overtime and the Enter Time popup will appear.
5. In the Time Type field, select Comp Time Earned. Do not change the Hours field; leave it as 0.01.
6. A new Time Block will appear on the timesheet called Comp Time Earned and show the actual earned comp time hours.
7. Overtime hours automatically switch to Comp Time.
8. Click Review and Submit. Adjustments will route for approval via the Enter Time Business Process.

Converting Overtime Hours to Comp Time - Employee

If a revision is for a previous pay period is required, your manager (or unit timekeeper) will need to submit the change on your behalf for the adjustment to be reflected on your paycheck.

External Student Object Job-Aid

• All students who are enrolled or eligible to enroll (typically this means admitted students, but the exact definition varies by campus) at a UW campus will have an external student record in Workday.
• These records will create a Workday user account for the student that provides us with basic information about the student directly from the campus Student Information Systems. This will reduce the administrative burden of data entry when hiring student employees and reduce duplicate records in Person Hub.
• An external student record/object (ESO) is classified as a contingent worker in Workday.
• There was an initial load of all active student records before Workday go live. There will be ongoing maintenance to maintain existing records and add new records. This update of information will happen twice per day in the Person Hub to Workday integration, although some campuses only send information to Person Hub once per day.
• Students will use Workday to clock in and out, enter their time worked, view pay slips, and manage their employee profile.

Requesting Time Off on Behalf of Employee

In the time and scheduling hub a manager can mass select all employees and mass submit/mass approve time and time off for one week at a time. There is also a mass operations management option for mass approving time and time off that may be used by Shared Services if necessary. 

The “Workers with Unsubmitted Time Report” enables time tracking administrators to identify employees who have entered time on their calendars but haven’t yet submitted it for approval. This report helps managers and timekeepers track down unlimited entries to ensure timely payroll processing.  

There is no limit on the number of hours you can carryover, but carryover hours must be used in the following year or else they are forfeited.

Yes. If an employee doesn't have enough of one leave type (like vacation) to cover the time, they can combine other leave types (like comp time, personal leave, or unpaid leave) to reach the desired total. For instance, they might request one hour of vacation and then 0.75 hours of personal leave to total 1.75 hours.

Similar to today, University and FAASLI staff will have their Allocated/Available Vacation front-loaded at the beginning of the year and will see a year-to-date balance showing what they have accrued minus used year to date. The year-to-date(YTD) balance may be negative during the year if they have used more than they have currently earned, but they may not overdraw the Vacation Available balance. This is the same setup for Postdoc time off which also displays Available and YTD balances. The decision was made by HR leadership that in Workday Legal Holiday time off will be accrued in the pay periods in which the holidays actually fall and employees will be able to use up to 16*FTE hours in advance of earning it, so that balance may be go negative up to that limit. The other time off balances cannot be overdrawn and will only go negative.

All 15 holidays that the University observes will be pre-populated in the calendar feature for all employees, however fall break and spring break and other milestones in the academic calendar will not be noted. 

You can only carry a negative balance for vacation time. If you request a sick or personal day without any time accrued, Workday will not allow you to submit the request.

Time off requests that have been approved before go-live will transfer to Workday. Time off requests that have not been approved will not transfer. 

All time off balances will transfer to Workday on the day of the transition.

1. Access your Workday account.
2. Select Menu in the top-left corner and choose the Manage Absence application.
3. Locate the Legal Holiday you want to cancel (assuming you plan to take it on another day) and select it. Note: The Legal Holiday will be colored green if it is available to be cancelled.
4. A new Absence Entries window will appear, select Cancel Absence.
5. A new Cancel Absence window will appear; review the Details, add a Comment specifying why you are canceling the request, and select OK. The request will route to your manager for review and approval.
6. Once approved, the hours will display as available hours to use under your Leave Balances Legal Holiday category. To use these hours, you would select the Legal Holiday as the Time Off Type of Absence.

Reporting No Leave Taken - Employee

Approve No Leave Taken

Reviewing Missing Leave Reports by Employee & for the Team

UW Policy: Vacation, Paid Leave Banks, and Vacation Cash Payouts

Amount of vacation to be charged

1. University Staff Not Exempt from FLSA
   • Leave is charged in 15-minute increments.
2. Faculty, Academic Staff, and LImitied Appointees and University Staff Exempt from FLSA
   • Leave for full-time faculty, academic staff, and limited appointees and FLSA-exempt university staff is charged in half-day increments. Abesences of at least one-quarter up to three-quarters of a day should be charged as one half-day. Absences greater than or equal to three-quarters of a day should be charged as one day.
   • Employees with less than full-time appointments should report actual hours absent

Expense Report Job-Aids

 Financial Services Office Hours, Fridays, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM, Join Finance Office Hours.

Email: uwstraveloffice@wisconsin.edu

Create an Expense Report - Employee

Note: Expense reports cannot be submitted in SFS any longer. SFS will remain available for historical information until March 2026.

No, travel authorizations are not required.

From the Expense Report in progress, you can cancel it by selecting Actions > Expense Reports > Cancel.

 The payment election is the method that you will receive reimbursement for your Expense Report. Expenses will be reimbursed via direct deposit, similar to payroll. To edit or add a “Payment Election”:

1. On the Workday home screen, type “Payment Elections” in the Search bar.
2. Select “Payment Elections”.
3. Scroll down, click the “Add” button next to the “Payment Elections Requiring Setup” section.
4. Complete all fields, clicking on the drop-down menus to see all options. Click “OK” to submit.

You cannot change your payment elections once an Expense Report has been started. You will need to cancel any current Expense Reports, change your payment elections for expense reimbursements to receive direct deposit, and create a new Expense Report.

Expense Reports will be settled every two weeks, consistent with our payroll cycle.

 Yes. From the Expense Report task in your Workday inbox, instead of approving, click the “Add Approvers” button and search the new approver.

Yes, employees must be an Authorized Driver before operating any vehicle for university business and to claim mileage reimbursement.

Review Driver Authorization Status in Workday

Review Driver Authorization Status in Workday

Employees must be an Authorized Driver before operating any vehicle for university business and to claim mileage reimbursement.

No, this is no longer needed.

 Options:

• Use a nearby recognized landmark or building.
• Use the street name, along with the city/state info, and exclude the street number.
• Use a nearly street number.

 Workday provides a base calculation but allows you to adjust the mileage to reflect trip diversions necessary for business. Manually adjust the calculated mileage and add a brief explanation in the Justification field.

Yes, you can download the Workday App for iOS or Android to create Expense Reports on your mobile device. Some users may find efficiencies in snapping photos of their receipts and creating an Expense Report in real-time. Expense Reports can be completed on the device or saved for later.

Installing Workday on a Mobile Device - Employee

 For the mobile App:

• “Enter Quick Expense” allows you to take a picture of your receipts and log the details of the expense so that you can quickly add that expense item to your Expense Report at a later time.
• You can delete lines from your Expense Report by selecting the expense line > tap the red “remove” button at the bottom.

Performance Reviews Overview Tipsheet

Answer in progress, please check back.

Answer in progress, please check back.

TAM will be available for up to 1 year after go-live.

Answer in progress, please check back.

All P-card purchases will be reconciled in Expenses via an expense report. The ability to charge purchases over $5,000 will still need campus approval. Transactions are loaded into Workday as they are made and employees have 60 days to submit a an expense report. 

Answer in progress, please check back.

Yes. In Workday, purchase orders are called requestions. You will use the requestion task for anything that would have previously required a PO.

Answer in progress, please check back.

Yes, you are able to use the “My Requisitions” and “Find Purchase Order Lines and Line Splits for Organization” to find a list of PO’s.