Travel Authorizations in Workday

This guide will outline the steps required to obtain a travel authorization: Workday travel authorization is available to employees of the Research Foundation. Students and non-employees will requests for travel approval and expense reimbursement using forms found on the Research Foundation intranet site. Use the header menu on the left to jump to various sections of the document.

Loralee Quintero
31 steps
4 minutes

Workday

Creating Spend Authorizations

To create a Spend Authorization, you must have access to Workday. This is restricted to employees or "contingent workers" with the Research Foundation. Students and other non-employees will continue to use the manual Request Authorization to Travel form and route for approval in DocuSign. The account analyst will submit the approved forms are sent to the Research Foundation Travel Desk.

Tip! Workday uses business process workflows to route expense reports for approval based on the accounts entered. If reporting multiple accounts, be sure that they all have the same approver. Workday can only route to one set of approvers (ex: grants and self-support programs would have different approvers at the analyst level). Workday uses expense types rather than object codes to identify expenses. The descriptions are generally the same as for the object codes in our previous software. You will always search for the description rather than using a number. Faculty should use the Request Authorization to Travel form to obtain SJSU approvals and attach that to the spend authorization request. See the Travel Policy for required SJSU approvals (sections 5.2 and 5.3 of the SJSURF Travel Policy).

Navigate to the Workday location provided by IT.

Click "MENU"

Scroll down to the "Personal" section and select Expenses Hub.

The overview page provides information on your cash advances; expense reports in draft status and transactions that need to be linked to an expense report. To create a travel authorization, click "Create Spend Authorization"

This page provides helpful links and instructions. Any fields with a red star are required fields. Click on the calendar icon to add the start and end dates for your travel.

Use the pop-up calendar to add the dates.

Click this icon.

Select the end date.

Click the "Description" field and add a description or purpose for your travel

Click the "Business Purpose" field.

Critical Alert! If you are traveling internationally, you must select International Travel as your business purpose. This will send a notification to the Risk Manager so that they may obtain travel insurance for your trip.

Use the radio buttons to select a business purpose for your travel.

Select the reimbursement type of either direct deposit or check. If you have direct deposit for payroll, your account information should be defaulted for expense reports.

Click the "Justification" field. You may add additional information here.

Under Spend Authorization Lines, click on Add.

In the expense item field, you can find expense reports in a few ways. Expense Item Groups: Domestic Travel and International Travel. This will show only the related expense types. By Spend Category: Lists spend categories and shows related expense types. Type Expense Type name: If you know the type (airfare, hotel, etc) you can type this in and it will pop up and you can select it.

For example, after typing Hotel, a list of related expense types appears. Click on the appropriate type.

Click the "Total Amount" field and enter the estimated total for your hotel.

Enter either your grant or program account in the appropriate field. All grants will start with GR followed by the number; programs (self-support, discretionary funds, central office) start with PR followed by the number. You may type the number in or use the menu to open a drop down list and search. The Additional Worktags field is driven by your default (cost center, department, etc.). These may change depending on the account you are using (for example, if you have a grant). If you type in the grant or program, it will automatically update the Additional Worktags for you.

Click "Attachments"

Attach the manual Request Authorization to Travel with the state-side approvals. This form is being used in place of FTS approvals.

Click "Add" to add another expense type to your spend authorization. Repeat for each expense type (airfare, per diem, etc.) Once you've added all of your projected expenses, click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen.

Cash Advances

If you wish to request a cash advance, click on the checkbox for cash advance. You must do this for each line of the spend authorization. The advance will only be calculated for the lines with this box checked.

Click "Submit"

Once submitted, this message will pop up. Click on the hyperlink to view the details.

Viewing Spend Authorization Details

Click this icon.

You will see the details of the spend authorization you have just submitted. When you are finished, click on Done.

Click "View My Cash Advances" to view any open cash advances and their status. this tile will show the total open that you owe. When you have submitted an expense report for the advance, it will reduce this total.

You can review the status of your advances. There are columns for the approval status, the open balance available, etc.

Approving Spend Authorizations

Click on the Task icon at the top right of the Workday home page. Find the Spend Authorization in your task list.

Click on this icon to enlarge the screen for better viewing.

Review the list of expenses by scrolling down the page. Check that the form containing campus approvals is attached. Make sure that the grant or program is correct. If everything is good, you can click on the Approve button at the bottom. If anything needs to be corrected, click on Send Back. Add comments to the pop-up box and submit.

Travel Authorizations in Workday

Loralee Quintero
31 steps
4 minutes

Workday

Creating Spend Authorizations

Navigate to the Workday location provided by IT.

Click "MENU"

Scroll down to the "Personal" section and select Expenses Hub.

This page provides helpful links and instructions. Any fields with a red star are required fields. Click on the calendar icon to add the start and end dates for your travel.

Use the pop-up calendar to add the dates.

Click this icon.

Select the end date.

Click the "Description" field and add a description or purpose for your travel

Click the "Business Purpose" field.

Use the radio buttons to select a business purpose for your travel.

Select the reimbursement type of either direct deposit or check. If you have direct deposit for payroll, your account information should be defaulted for expense reports.

Click the "Justification" field. You may add additional information here.

Under Spend Authorization Lines, click on Add.

For example, after typing Hotel, a list of related expense types appears. Click on the appropriate type.

Click the "Total Amount" field and enter the estimated total for your hotel.

Click "Attachments"

Attach the manual Request Authorization to Travel with the state-side approvals. This form is being used in place of FTS approvals.

Cash Advances

Click "Submit"

Once submitted, this message will pop up. Click on the hyperlink to view the details.

Viewing Spend Authorization Details

Click this icon.

You will see the details of the spend authorization you have just submitted. When you are finished, click on Done.

You can review the status of your advances. There are columns for the approval status, the open balance available, etc.

Approving Spend Authorizations

Click on the Task icon at the top right of the Workday home page. Find the Spend Authorization in your task list.

Click on this icon to enlarge the screen for better viewing.