Due to the growing needs of the university, BYU-Idaho has made the decision to switch to Workday Financial Management as its new financial management system. The decision was made after months of research, deliberation, and an approval from the Board of Trustees. Beginning January 1, 2019, Workday will be the official financial management system of the school and will become accessible to employees.
Financial Services Managing Director Shane Webster explained that although the current financial system has done a wonderful job at serving the university’s needs in the past, the new system will be beneficial to the school in many ways. One of these benefits is increased efficiency.
“We’re looking to simplify business processes as we implement the software,” Webster said.
Workday Financial Management is a modern system that facilitates an organized workflow. Where financial requests used to be done through paper or email, many will now have the functionality to be completed online or through mobile devices with the Workday app.
Another benefit is that the system sends notifications when there is an action to be taken. Thus, when a person completes their task, the system will move to the next action and notify the appropriate person to authorize the request. The notification process and mobile accessibility feature allows seamless and organized business processes to take place at anytime and wherever a person may be located.
Additionally, Workday is a cloud-based software. Where the current system was created and managed by software developers on campus, it will now be maintained by Workday itself. This enables the system to be regularly updated and maintained by a party outside of BYU-Idaho—thus allowing the school’s software developers to have more time dedicated to other important projects throughout the university.
Another notable advantage of switching to Workday Financial Management is that it is already a familiar software to BYU-Idaho employees with its current human resources and payroll use.
“Workday Financial will integrate very well with the portions of Workday HCM product already in use on our campus,” Webster said.
There is a lot to do when it comes to switching financial management systems. The process has already begun and will continue through the January 1 introduction date. The university hopes to continually work on configuring the software to best meet the school’s needs when it launches.
Additionally, help will be provided to all BYU-Idaho employees as they transition to using the new system.
“We’re planning on helping everyone through the transition to the new system. That includes trainings, workshops, and on-demand training,” Webster said.
Webster expressed his confidence and assurance in this new development.
“This is the right time for this project. The group of people working on the project are the right group of people to get it done well.”
As this project is still in the development stage, regular updates, including FAQs and various trainings, will be posted at www.byui.edu/workday.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, you may send them to workdayfinancial@byui.edu, and a BYU-Idaho representative will get back to you.