Forget about the old chart of accounts code block

Most companies use the Chart of Accounts to manage their business and produce financial results. Once this structure is created within the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool it is very rigid and cannot be changed without a massive and costly re-implementation effort. Workday introduced worktags to support the Chart of Accounts which are tied to each transaction.

Worktags are a categorization of the business transaction that provides the ability to support financial and statistical reporting. There is no true Chart of Accounts required since you have the ability to report on your financial and statistical data using worktags. Worktags provide the ability to report multi-dimensionally by being tied at the transaction. They also support the searching of results using transactional attributes. For example, when an employee fills out an expense report, the expense types they choose (Hotel/Airfare) are worktags, the company, cost center/department they belong to are worktags, even the employees themselves are worktags. All of the worktags support the multidimensional reporting required by various groups within the organization. Additionally, with configuration, worktags can be defaulted to transactions to support accuracy in entry and reporting.

Types of Worktags

Delivered Worktags – Standard fields provided out of the box (i.e. Supplier, Channel, Customer, Spend Category, Revenue Category, Tax Code, Tax Rate, and Expense Type). Think of the delivered worktags as support for multidimensional reporting requirements.

Delivered Organizations – Standard organization fields provided out of the box to track financial and statistical information (i.e. Company, Cost Center, Project, and Region). Think of the Chart of Accounts block.

Delivered worktags and organizations can also support the following:

• Security – access to certain transactions for groups or countries
• Hierarchy – to support reporting and setups at the higher level

Custom Worktags – If additional worktags are required for the organization they can be configured. There is a limitation of up to 15 for the entire Workday suite of applications (HCM/Financials/Payroll/Time Tracking). The custom worktags can’t be used for grouping and cannot tie security to the custom worktags. See below for sample out of the box delivered worktags:

Worktags can be aligned to any functional area that generates a business transaction like a Journal Entry or an Expense Report. Worktags can also be defaulted so each transaction has the appropriate value to support consistent and accurate reporting. Most organizations require reporting of their financial and statistical information. Workday provides the standard delivered worktags and organizations required for most companies. With the out of the box delivered worktags you get the reporting required without having a true code Chart of Account block.

Worktags Key Design Considerations

When implementing Workday, key considerations must be given to the worktags required for the organization during the design sessions. Review the following to determine the required worktags:

Chart of Account Values

• What segments out of the COA block should be worktags
• Determine if any additional attributes are required for reporting (i.e. location might be tied to the cost center of the current COA)

Reporting Requirements at the Transaction Level or Hierarchy Level

• Review current reports to identify the dimensions/fields required for reporting
• Reporting requirements at consolidated/hierarchy levels (Revenue/Supplier/Customer hierarchies)

Consider the Current Data Sources

• Review external systems that need to be integrated with Workday to see if standard worktags or custom worktags might be required (i.e. a specific value required from an external system for reporting)

Default Rules / Inheritance Rules

• Review the areas where defaulting accounts are currently used (i.e. category of a requisition used for defaulting the GL Account)
• Review other rules (hard coded or configured) to generate the accounting of business transactions
• Worktags support the financial and statistical reporting of an organization. Assuring all the key areas are identified during the design phase will support a successful implementation.