When did the Workday Financials project start?
The Workday Financials project has been kicked off in March 2025.
When will the Workday Financial modules be available to employees?
The Workday Financial modules are scheduled to go live in the Summer of 2026 (FY 2027).
How is Workday related to the NEIU’s strategic plan?
Workday is currently the primary focus of NEIU’s strategic initiative to improve our technological infrastructure and increase operational efficiency. As the University continues to improve technology and business processes across campus, Workday is a critical component to meeting the institution’s mission and goals.
What is Workday and why are we transitioning from our current systems?
Workday is a cloud-based ERP system for HR, Finance, Planning and Student Services. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and refers to business process management software.
Workday will be the new tool the University uses to store and organize information and data so that we can conduct business. Workday is a modern, integrated system that will help us do our work quickly and efficiently.
What are the benefits of Workday Financials for NEIU?
Ease of purchasing - Improved and streamlined purchasing process leading to user-friendly procurement experience. As I mentioned before, Workday will allow purchasers to streamline the purchasing process by offering them a single point of entry to the purchasing system with a more intuitive interface.
Ease of monitoring and tracking - Workday offers an improved ability to monitor spending and track purchased and received goods and services. Workday means better visibility into spending through robust reporting.
Fewer human errors – Workday allows for automation of many processes currently performed manually. Automating many manual operations reduces the probability of human error in many financial processes. This allows us to address one of the key concerns: the lack of staff to support some business areas. As a result, this will allow the University to improve their resource utilization leading to better employee satisfaction. Which, in turn, leads to improved staff retention. All leadership and management can appreciate the significance of that impact.
Better decision making – Workday will allow access to robust reporting that will result in improved personal decisions. This will enable management and leadership to make more informed decisions quicker. Workday reporting provides real-time, data-driven insights that empower leaders to make faster, more informed decisions. Its customizable dashboards and reports offer transparency and visibility across financial and operational activities, supporting strategic planning and improved personal accountability.
Time savings - Workday streamlines financial and administrative processes through automation, reducing the need for manual data entry and repetitive tasks. Its intuitive interface and self-service capabilities enable users to quickly access and manage information without relying on support teams. By consolidating systems and improving workflow efficiency, Workday significantly saves time across departments. Employees will experience significant time savings across all operations.
Finally, Workday makes it easier for the University to pass audits by maintaining a single source of truth with real-time, auditable financial data. Its built-in controls, automated workflows, and detailed reporting ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and institutional policies. The system also simplifies document tracking and retrieval, making it easy to provide accurate information to auditors when needed.
How will I be trained to use Workday Financials?
Training for Workday is a very high priority, and we are currently refining our training programs and plan for introducing Workday to campus. Employees will be trained in how to use Workday Financial modules. The training program will provide you with a real-world experience of how to effectively use Workday and you will have access to training materials as we get closer to Workday go-live. The project team will communicate the start of the training program in the Spring of 2026.
Is the Workday Financials Project Team planning a pilot?
Typically, a pilot means that a project team is planning on releasing a new program to a limited employee group or a few departments before releasing them to the entire community. The project team is not planning on conducting a pilot. Both the Workday Financial module and the new business processes will be released to all project stakeholders on the Go-Live date (currently, Summer on 2026/FY 2027). The project team will ensure the Workday Financial module is functioning as designed before releasing it to the University community.