If you manage student financials, you’ll begin using Workday for student accounting information throughout 2025.
We will use Workday for student accounting, including tuition and fee assessment; collections; and processing of student charges, payments and refunds. Some tasks will begin as early as Feb. 17, but most information you’ll need for student accounting tasks will be available in summer 2025.
While WashU already uses Workday for many financial (and HR) tasks, when we add Workday Student functionality, WashU schools and Student Accounting will be able to:
- Correctly calculate tuition and fees based on a student’s program of study, financial cohort and class load
- Apply discounts, waivers, exemptions and refunds to student accounts
- Set up automatic calculations of tuition and fees at regular intervals, reducing administrative burden and improving the student experience by ensuring students see their most up-to-date information
- Track and accept payments from students and third parties (such as parents or sponsors)
- Ensure student and third-party payments are applied accurately in a timely manner to the appropriate charges
- Track balances due
Key things to know and do after go-live
- Course section fees are now visible in Workday. Please provide course section fee information to Student Accounting using the template. If you do not have the template, contact Vivian Eberhardt or Kristi Cunningham to receive a copy.
- Begin maintaining student financials cohorts to prepare for Fall 25 tuition assessment.
- If you maintain student financials in a school or unit or for Student Accounting, begin monitoring and applying early deposits for incoming students for Fall 2025 to ensure deposits hit the correct worktags.
- Legacy past due balance holds have been converted from SIS into Workday and will remain synced through Fall 2025 registration.
- The new Leave of Absence process begins Feb. 17. The new process will feature an automated workflow to help ensure that LOA requests are recorded and routed for approval, and that the student, their advisor(s) and the appropriate campus partners are notified when approval is given. Students or the Office of the University Registrar (OUR) can initiate the request.
Timeline
Key dates and tasks for processing financial aid
| Feb.-April 2025 | Complete your self-led training path in Workday Learning, which includes several eLearnings. Attend a session of the Student Financials in Workday instructor led-training, offered in March-April 2025. |
| February 2025 | Course section fees are visible in Workday. Begin maintaining student financials cohorts to prepare for Fall 25 tuition assessment. Legacy past due balance holds will be converted from SIS into Workday for fall registration. Leave of absence process begins in Workday. |
| April 2025 | Any payments for Fall 2025 will post in Workday. |
| June 2025 | Begin using Student worktags for Workday accounting. Begin using Workday engagements to communicate with students about payment plans, collections, 1098T and new student information. |
| June and July 2025 | Tuition and fees will be assessed for students. MD years 2-4 will be assessed on June 17, 2025. All other students will be assessed July 1, 2025. |
| July 2025 | Student charge items are visible in Workday. Begin using waivers on student accounts. Begin using student sponsor contracts in Workday. Begin using student credit memos in Workday. Financial holds begin processing in Workday. (Legacy past due holds were converted in February 2024) Students are able to sign up for payment plans July 1. (CAPS only) Begin using course registration soft drop for past due balances in Workday. |
| Aug. 1, 2025 | Begin using Workday for soft collection processes and write-offs. |
| Aug. 20, 2025 | Student refunds processed in Workday. |
| September 2025 | 1098Ts will run in SIS. Students will be able to view them in Workday in February 2026. |
What’s changing
Automated processes
Currently, WashU staff members manually perform several financial functions, including tracking and removing financial holds, posting charges to student accounts, and processing sponsor contracts, currently known as third-party billing. (Unlike scholarships, sponsor contracts are funding given to students with an expectation of something in return from the student. This generally means an employer pays for a student’s education with the expectation that the employee will continue their employment with the company and their additional education will be used to further company goals.)
Workday Student will either fully or partially automate and align these manual processes, including the removal of past due balance holds. Individual schools currently use various criteria for applying and removing holds, but Workday will ensure all schools are using consistent criteria.
Faster hold processing
Holds in Workday will be processed in real time, so when a hold is placed on a student account, the student is immediately prevented from completing the associated action (for instance, registering for classes). When a hold is resolved, it is also automatically lifted off a student’s account, allowing them to complete the associated action.
Fees assessed automatically
Workday Student will tie course fees to the course or course section, allowing these fees to automatically be applied to the student’s account once they register for that course or section. Students will also be able to view a breakdown of course fees, which they cannot do today.
Determining charge order
Using Workday, we will also be able to control which charges on a student’s account are paid first and which funds or aid may be used to pay which charges. This control will help us both provide a better student experience and ensure regulatory compliance.
Training and Support
You may be apprehensive about using Workday. That’s why our comprehensive training plan includes a multitude of resources you can take at your own pace, along with in-person instructor-led sessions. Explore resources and get help from the Training & Support for Student Financials webpage.