Parents & Families

WashU is making big changes in 2025 to better support your students and the faculty and staff who advise and teach them. 

We are saying goodbye to a 30-year-old suite of systems that we use to manage student records, course registration, advising, and other academic tasks, and saying hello to a new system called Workday.   

Over time, we anticipate many wins with this transition, including better support of interdisciplinary education, greater alignment on key policies and processes such as leaves of absence and student onboarding, increased transparency around degree requirements, and less manual work for staff for tasks like waitlist management.

Changes for Students

Your student will need to learn and become comfortable with new processes for things like searching for courses, waitlisting for courses, keeping track of degree requirements, and reviewing and paying tuition charges.

Students will begin using Workday in Spring 2025 to plan and register for Fall 2025 classes. They will need to pay attention to key changes related to finding and waitlisting for courses, as well as start working with their advisors earlier than they might normally.

Changes for parents and families who pay tuition

If you pay all or a portion of your students’ tuition, your student will need to give you access to Workday. If you have more than one student attending WashU, each of your students will need to give you access to see their account balances and make payments.

If you are a WashU faculty or staff member with a student attending WashU, you can merge your accounts, so you only need to log in to your employee account.

Other changes: 

Account statements: Account statements will not be created by WashU, but you are able to create your own real-time statements with Workday whenever you need. Sign up for notifications to know when new charges post to your student’s account.

Payment plans:  With Workday, parents and family members who have been given access may make payments toward the payment plan. This is similar to what you do today. The student, however, must set up the payment plan first.

Key dates and actions

Tuition will be assessed in Workday on July 1, 2025, for the Fall 2025 semester. Any payments for Spring 2025 or Summer 2025 will use the current process, payment via Transact. Late payments for Spring 2025 or Summer 2025 will move to Workday in August.

Key Dates	Actions
February 17 and beyond	Your student(s) grants access to anyone who needs to pay all or a portion of their tuition. Students will need to log in to Workday to grant you access. Parents/families with access should set up notifications in Workday to receive emails and other communications about tuition payments.
Spring 2025 Semester	Parents/families will continue to use Transact to pay tuition and other fees for the spring semester.
Summer 2025 Semester	Parents/families will continue to use Transact to pay tuition and other fees for the summer semester. Use Transact until August 2025.
July 1, 2025	Fall 2025 tuition and fees will post in Workday. Your student will need to set up a payment plan if you or another family member pays tuition and other charges in monthly installments. Parents/family members need to ensure that notifications are set up to receive communications from Workday.
August 2025	All payments including any overdue balances for 2025 spring or summer semesters will move to Workday.
Fall 2025	All tuition payments and other related financial transactions will occur in Workday.

You and your student will both receive notifications via Workday and email if you have a balance due. Bills will not be sent automatically by WashU, but you can create your own on demand.

Getting help

Students who need assistance can submit tickets, call the help line, or visit workday.washu.edu to access tutorials and videos, as well as a list of daily office hours that they can attend for more personalized support.