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Tools and References

Non-Salary Accounting Journal Less than 90 Days Questionnaire

Non-Salary Accounting Journal Over 90 Days Questionnaire

Journal Type Decision Tree

Using the Workday Foundation Data Model (FDM): to help determine spend/revenue category

FDM Tool

Key Terms/Definitions

How to adjust, transfer, or manually record revenue or expenditures in Workday

UW Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB) Library

Listing of ledger accounts with spend/revenue categories

Workday Financial Accounting and Pre-Workday Historical Reporting

WISER User Reference

REDxDoBS: Manual Journal Entry Training

Page Updated: March 20, 2026

RED is partnering with the Division of Business Services (DoBS) to offer a 90-minute session demonstrating how Workday users should enter Manual Journal Entries (the Non Salary Cost Transfer process).

Topics covered:

  • An overview of manual journals
  • Explanation of the different journal sources/types
  • Key terms and definitions
  • Step-by-step walkthroughs and examples, including guidance on how to populate fields (e.g., ledger, spend vs. revenue category—hint! always spend for this journal source)
  • Additional resources and materials to support campus administrators

Presentations

Session Recording RED Learning Videos
Session Slides PowerPoint Slides

Job Aids

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What security role is needed in Workday to perform these actions?

The Workday security role you will need to initiate journal entry is the Cost Center Accounting Specialist.

Will there ever be the possibility in the future to allow approvers to create journals, instead of delegating that task to initiators?

Journal initiation is based on security roles. DoBS and RSP are exploring additional roles that will allow initiation in the future.

Where is the non-production Workday site?

You can find the training tenant here.

Since Accounting Journals aren't tied to any specific expense line, can you do an Accounting Journal when you need to move multiple non-salary costs of the same spend category from one funding to another? For example, you could just include the details for each line you're moving?

Yes, you can do an accounting journal for this.

Accounting Adjustments only work for certain expenses, right? Even if it's a one-to-one transfer, an Accounting Journal must be used.

That is correct. Accounting Adjustments apply to paid supplier invoices, expense reports, supplier invoice adjustments, and P-card transactions.

If I submit an Accounting Journal where Accounting Adjustment could have been used, is that incorrect?

Yes, we recommend using an Accounting Adjustment when you can, as it will retain a link to the original transaction. The Accounting Adjustment can be used to adjust expenses related to a supplier invoice or expense report after they have been settled. Accounting Adjustments do not allow you to split a cost, so in a situation where a supplier invoice or expense needs to have the original funding split, you would use an Accounting Journal.

What is the difference between a Manual Journal and Non Salary Cost Transfer?

A Non-Salary Cost Transfer is specific for moving expenses from one funding string to another when an Accounting Adjustment cannot be performed. A Manual Journal is used when adjusting revenue or balance sheet ledger accounts.

Would a "Manual Journal Internal Chargeback" be used when paying expenses from a co-sponsorship that posted last fiscal year?

The Manual Journal Internal Chargeback is only used when a Workday transaction posted to ledger account 6750, or a WISER transaction from a prior year posted to account 2650.

If you are reviewing an adjustment and find an error, is there a way to fix it without starting over?

No—you must send it back to the initiator to correct.

In SFS, only cost transfers after 90 days required a separate justification. Why does Workday now require separate justifications for cost transfers less than 90 days?

The “less than 90-days” questionnaire captures the same justification that was previously entered as free text in the old cost transfer tool.

Is there a scenario where the questionnaire is not required?

If the journal includes a grant worktag, a questionnaire is always required.

Previously, the cost transfer justification for transfers less than 90 days were entered in the text field within the Non Salary Cost Transfer Tool. With the transition to Workday, this information is now provided in the required questionnaire attachment.

What is the reason behind not allowing backdating or manually adjusting the budget date?

The budget date drives F&A calculations for each transaction and therefore adjusting and/or backdating a budget date has potential to cause unintended F&A calculations. For this reason, we recommend letting the system set the budget date. Note that if the budget date is backdated to before 7/1/2025, no F&A will calculate.

Is there a central list of ledger account numbers?

A high level breakdown of ledger accounts is found here: Using the Workday FDM

A full listing of ledger accounts with descriptions is found in the FDM Maintenance Tool

Do we have access to all spend categories in the journal entry? For example, I learned that “SC000270 - Maintenance Copier” is available for Purchase Orders, but not for P-card expenses.

Usage of the spend category on a manual journal should follow those same procurement usage rules, which we can now see in the FDM Maintenance Tool. You should have access to most values that are allowable with the fund. There is configuration on the spend category that allows it to be used for procurement usage, so if the spend category is not enabled for procurement usage you may not be able to select it on procurement purchases.

Could you please share a link that explains what to put in the memo and external reference fields?
What does “Halo #######” mean in the External Reference ID?

"Halo" followed by numbers is probably a reference to the Halo ticketing system used by the College of Letters & Science.

What does it mean when I see “Accounting Adjustment:1, Accounting Adjustment :2, Accounting Adjustment : 3” in my queue?

These indicate separate transactions for three different Accounting Adjustments; in this instance, the subject doesn't include a transaction ID.

Is there interactive assistance for the Journal Type Decision Tree?

Not currently, but this has been noted for future development.

On the Journal Type Decision Tree, for the question “Are you making a transfer on many 'Supplier Invoices', 'Supplier Invoice Adjustments', 'Expense Reports', or 'Procurement Card transactions'?”, can you share some guidelines on what should be considered “many”?

There is no specific quantity from the Business Services side; this should be a best judgement call from the individual's perspective.

Can you explain the reason or benefit to this more complicated process with so many niche avenues, as compared to the ease and simplicity of the previous Cost Transfer Tool? I'd love to be able to explain this to my colleagues, because they see this new process as a complete hassle.

We totally understand what you are saying. Workday's functionality allows you to see the linked relationship to the item you are transferring by using the Payroll Accounting Adjustment and Accounting Adjustment functionality. So if you want to see the history, you will be able to see it from the linked item. The Non-Salary Cost Transfer process is functionality in Workday that allows you to create manual journal entries that can be loaded via enterprise interface builder (EIB). I know that the pain point you mentioned has been called out to the Workday team & is on the radar for review to find ways to address the concerns you are noting.