L&S Cost Center Manager Responsibilities and Resources

The gift SME team will provide a spreadsheet of all annual professorship amounts from the professorship letters (both off-101 salary values and research fund allocations) for L&S Admin and departmental professorships.   

The CCM will approve transactions for research/salary expenditures on funds and will understand the mechanics of the various different types of professorships. The CCM monitors for overages on worktags, but will work closely with the Gift SME Team.

The CCM will work with the Departments to determine when disbursements may be necessary (eg. at the start of a FY and/or when 233 funds are trending into deficit.) The process will require a UWF Request Form (found in UWF GFM) to be completed by either the Department or the CCM, with the DA or Chair signing the first line of the form. The form will then be uploaded to the L&S Gifts Form, the Gift SME team will receive the submission and provide their approval on the second line and enter the processing workflow. Please follow the Instructions on how to complete the Disbursement request. 

Technically called a disbursement, but another time is alcohol and they need to bill the foundation. The food can be paid on campus funds but alcohol is invoiced by foundation, this is the same form. Same form is used for this.

Disbursements:

• The CCM will help to facilitate the request for the UW Foundation Disbursements. The actual approval and notification of the availability of the funds to the Department and CCM will be handled by the L&S Gift SME team.
• Process Map
• Resources
  • Link to L&S Gifts Form – this is where you can start a Disbursement request, as well as the other types of requests listed below
  • Instructions on how to complete the Disbursement request
• Link to UW Foundation website

Fund management requests from UW Foundation

• Student Organization Support
• Vendor Payments
• Accounting Transfer
• Reinvestment
• Fund Closure

The CCM will be aware of the fund descriptions and parameters of Trust Funds. They will likely work with the Gift SME Team to discuss Anonymous (and other) types of special trust funds in which transfers, etc may be necessary. The CCM will want broad awareness of how Trust Funds earn income (eg. at which average percentage) so that they may advise units on what Estimated Annual Income may be. They will want to know the difference between 161 and 162 funds. As the approver of the worktag for Trust funds you will need to be aware of what is going on related to those funds.

Process

• Information on these types of funds may be found in a few ways.
  • First, there is a place within Workday where the terms and conditions may be provided on the trust fund worktag. If the information is not found here, reach out to the Gift SME team to request to have the worktag updated to include the information that is missing.
  • There is a Box folder that may contain the information you need – who puts this info here? Is this historical at this point? These are organized by SFS project ID, so to find the FDM crosswalk to figure out what the SFS ID is that is tied to your worktag ID.
  • If at any time you are unsure of the information you have, or the details needed are missing, please escalate to the Gift SME team to get the support you need, through a Halo ticket if possible.
• What you as the CCM are NOT responsible for, and these will be handled by the L&S Gift SME team:
  • Trust fund transfers
  • Liquidation of endowments
  • Coordination of trust funds between Schools, colleges, and divisions

The CCM will advise on UW Foundation Funds, consulting with the Gift SME Team as necessary for more complex matters -- particularly those involving staffing requests, etc. CCM's will know the overall parameters of UW Foundation Funds, have knowledge of balances and various nuances, and will be able to outline appropriate uses. They will have access to Fund Descriptions, MOA's, and various other documentation found in the UWF GFM (and Datarails), which will aid them in their work with units.

• As the CCM you will help ensure donor intent is maintained (does not include pulling donor reports); some MOAs are complicated and need interpretation to be sure that the funds are being used appropriately.
• CCMs are also for budgeting and forecasting assistance to help ensure sufficient funds are available for planned activity.
• Questions on endowments, will require education – need some context and need to know how to access earning information. Typical earning calculations, how to share this info in a way that makes sense to dept.

Process Map

Examples of questions you may be asked: 

• Can I hire a [position; eg. TA, PA, RA, summer salary, staff member, etc] with [name of fund?] 
• What's the balance in [name of Fund?] 
• We're in a massive deficit. Which of our UWF Funds might we be able to use to help pay that down? 
• What can [name of fund] be used for? (CCM will need to review fund description and MOA's, typically.) 
• We want to do [activity.] Which of our funds can we use for this? 
• Sometimes if there is a large amount of expendable cash, departments need help on a spend down plan (if reinvestment is not feasible). L&S has been finding funds with this issue and have asked for info from units on these.

The question will ideally come through a Halo ticket – “Ask a Finance Question”. 

Note: Any questions that are related to anonymous funds or professorships need to be reassigned to the Gift SME Team. They will loop the CCM and DA in on their response back to the unit. 

Process Steps: find the answers to some of the questions you may be asked about UW Foundation Funds:

• You can review helpful information about a UW Foundation fund two ways 

1. 1. You can use the Gift Fund Report located in the Box folder here where you can review for the following information 
   2. You can access fund information from the UW Foundation website 

Review the following: 

• • Fund description 
  • Terms and conditions 
  • MOA - As these are UW Foundation Funds, UWF is responsible for all the compliance and core donor-relations. It is possible a donor could work with the UWF to change the parameters of a Fund with (or without) conferring with campus. Thus, MOA's and info located at the Foundation should always be accurate
  • There may be emails from the unit that could be helpful for certain circumstances (such as if the question relates to hiring a staff member on a gift fund) 

If after reviewing the information you have available, you are unable to provide a confident response, please reassign the Halo ticket to the Gift SME Team to assist. They will keep you looped in as part of their response. 

UW Foundation accounting vs UW Madison accounting

• Foundation funds look like fund activity report, separate from UW side – alcohol spend
• The ability to run reports comes with foundation access
• Helpful to run this when the unit is asking questions about the balances
  • If development director there will be charge backs that want to know what was spent on them and the travel as well – these may require more frequent checks

Resources

• Recording of review of report and walk through – this is a work in progress, will be looking for feedback to improve

When questions come to you about allowability, assess based on fund type. If unsure, there is information on the KB describing general allowability of funds.

If gift or trust fund, also review MOA or Terms and Conditions to ensure compliance with donor intent.

If a question on balance is asked, you may refer the DA/PI to DataRails if that data is sufficient for their needs or run reports. For gift funds, this may include information on available balances at the Foundation, if needed. In complex or unique cases, loop in your Financial Manager and/or the Gift SME team.

Relevant L&S Fund types and Information Related to Allowability (https://kb.wisc.edu/ls/23070): 

101 – will only be used for faculty salary (new budget approach) 

• Not to be used for supplies/research expenses 
• Only non-salary on 101 will be within L&S Admin Units based on campus funding sources.  Only staff on 101 will be some L&S Admin Units and some staff in research centers.   
• OFF not allowed 

104 – Extension funding for faculty roles in X departments (DPLA & LaFollette)

128 - Cost recovery funding used by units selling goods or services, both externally and internally 

An example of where this type of fund is used in L&S: 

• SJMC has a few 128 funds associated with the student radio station 

131 regular tuition generated by self-supporting instructional programs: I would potentially like to split this into types of 131s that units have if the uses of them vary 

• Budget approach 131, department staff and STS/graduate appointments 
• One time tally sheets  - more guidance is coming
• Mission Reinvestment/VISP/other similar – more guidance is coming
• S&E
  • Student hourly expenses 
  • Office supplies 
  • Computers 
  • Furniture/other items for admin and instructional spaces 
  • Faculty recruitment 
  • Relocation stipend 
  • Other as approved by L&S Admin/AAD
• Summer session 
  • Summer session salary expenses only 
  • Revenue transferred to Mission Reinvestment 

• Professional programs – these are typically non-traditional academic offerings, like a part-time master's program. Expenditures on these sources should be related to the program itself. However, the profits that are transferred to mission reinvestment programs can be used with more flexibility. 
• Revenue transferred to Mission Reinvestment – can be used with more flexibility than the professional program fund 

133 – non-federal grants and contracts 

• Must follow approved budget and terms and conditions for allowability
• Spending category is important for F&A and invoicing purposes
• Always check with the Research Admin if questions arise as they will have the most up to date information
• OFF not allowed 

135 - OVCR/Grad School/WARF 

• Refer to OVCR website and award letters 

136 

• Should relate to revenue producing activity 
• Additional revenue may be used as more flexible spending, like a Mission Reinvestment 131 fund 
• OFF allowed, Should be related to revenue producing activity 

144 - Federal grants 

• Must follow approved budget and terms and conditions for allowability
• Spending category is important for F&A and invoicing purposes
• Always check with the Research Admin if questions arise as they will have the most up to date information
• OFF not allowed 

150 - Federal indirect cost reimbursement used for special allocations 

• New in FY27, research (FN0400) only 
• Will fund set percentage of faculty payroll instead of 101 in more research intensive departments and some research centers based on new budget approach

161 - trust funds (UW administered) 

• Gift funding, must follow terms and conditions for allowability 
• OFF generally allowed – check terms and conditions 
• Gift SME add? 

233 - gift funds (UWF administered) 

• Gift funding, must follow MOA housed at UWF 
• OFF generally allowed – check MOA to ensure consistent with donor intent 
• Gift SME add? 

234 Fund for residual balances, this should be added, uncommon but there are some 

• Flexible research funds, should be used to research 

Functions as L&S uses them 

What level of importance the Function carries. Workday pulls in the default function, easy to miss when reviewing and approving. - https://www.wisconsin.edu/financial-administration/accounting-and-budget-control/chart-of-accounts/ 

Link to MBO function page: https://mbo.wisc.edu/function-code/  

FN0200 Instruction 

• Salaries for department faculty and staff 
• Expenses related to instruction/department (S&E, etc) 

FN0400 Research 

• Might need conversation about this – historically we’ve used this for faculty research expenses, the chair TWA, salaries for faculty on research leave (if an internal or external fellowship is paid partially by 101), the systems website says: “Departmental research (i.e., research and scholarly activities that are not separately budgeted) are included under Instruction.” which I don’t think is consistent with how we have been using this function. Systems website suggests that this function is more related to grant expenses or items specifically budgeted for research (who makes that determination? - if a department gives faculty flex funds? 
• NRA scholarships 

FN0500 Public Service – there are programs/grants specifically set up with this function, it’s not common among most worktags 

• Outreach education 
• Community Service 

FN0600 Academic Support 

• Faculty on sabbatical 
• Museums and Galleries 
• Academic Administration (this is at the Dean’s level, not at the department level) [we should ask about that…]
• Are there L&S examples for this? 

FN0900 

• Scholarships 
• Fellowships (typically fellowships at the grad school use FN0900 but at the department level we use FN0400) 

Reports: 

• All Funds Financial Budget to Actuals (Good for PG) 
• Gift Financial Summary 
• Project Budget to Actuals (Good for PJ) 
• Award Budget to Actuals (Good for GR – there may be others in the grants space) 

As L&S financial experts, CCMs support units in understanding financial reports, analyzing data, and facilitate discussions to offer direction on additional resources or support. For analytical projects, strong collaboration and partnership with a unit on analytical tasks is critical to ensure contextual details and any unique operational conditions are addressed. Additional collaboration with L&S SME teams and Finance Manager may also be necessary.

The types of activities this will include are:

• Interpreting forecasting funds and assist with making staffing decisions
• Scholarship projection for annual budgeting
• Create department discretionary annual budgets
  • CCMs are available to assist with additional budget activity the annual budgeting process, however it is not required
• Assist with cleanup of worktags gift worktags
  • The Gift SME team will be responsible for maintaining a central database of issues that need to be cleaned up. The Gift SME team will reach out to the department and CCM to let them know cleanup activity will be coming their way.

Tasks such as expense reports, payroll accounting adjustments, costing allocations will all have a driver worktag. These tasks will be assigned to the proper CCM based on the worktag. It is the CCM’s responsibility to review these tasks and provide proper approval in Workday.

Transactions include:

• Expenses: Expense Reports, P-Card transaction reports, Ad Hoc Payments
• Procurement: Requisitions, Pos, PO Change Orders, Supplier Invoice Requests, Supplier Invoice Adjustments, Direct Payments, Customer Invoice Maintenance/Adjustments
• HR/Payroll: Costing Allocations, Payroll Accounting Adjustments, Hire/Create Job/Start Additional Job Requisitions, Employee Data Changes and Transfers
• Accounting: Journal Entries, Accounting Journals, Accounting Adjustments, Budget Amendments
• Other: Business Asset Disposition Requests

Halo tickets that will be routed directly to the Halo Manager Queue for review and triage prior to assignment to a Finance Initiator. Included under each ticket type is the information needed for a CCM to confidently be able to triage and reassign the ticket.

• Payroll Accounting Adjustments (PAA)
  • Include a relevant report as an attachment; eg. Payroll 360 report that shows the lines to be moved
• Financial Accounting Adjustments/Accounting Journals
  • Include the original expense or itemized lines
  • If an invoice is involved, include the original invoice
  • Department justification is needed to execute on the findings
    • They need to clearly convey what the choice is that they are making
• Revenue Transfers (this was already routing to the Halo Manager queue prior to 6/15/2026)
  • Need confirmation from both parties involved
  • May require justification if the move is more substantial

As the CCM, you will be reviewing these requests to confirm:

• If the requestor has the proper authority to do so.
  • Authority level needed will depend on the request being made
• Does the request include all the needed documentation to move the transaction forward?
  • Certain situations will require more documentation than others
• Overall, you will be the person responsible for preparing the ticket to make sure it is fully ready to be entered into Workday by the Finance Initiator

Typically, Jennifer will take a first pass at all non-grant ones, if Jennifer has follow up questions when reviewing strategic staffing requests, she may reach out to gather additional contextual information.

The CCM will review payroll and other reports to ensure the proper funding is being used for an individual’s payroll. The CCM will also monitor and approve changes made to costing allocations in Workday

CCMs are not responsible for entering a Costing Allocation into Workday, this is a responsibility of the Finance Initiator role.

All positions should be set up with a department default funding for the position restriction. The CCM will regularly monitor that all position restrictions are assigned the default worktag. CCM’s will also review the department default worktag to ensure nothing has been charged to this worktag. If there is a balance on the default worktag the CCM will need to investigate and work with the initiator to correct the balance.

Reports use:

• All position restrictions costing allocation by CCHL, Company, Supervisory Org and Position (UW)

In the process of approving transactions, and monitoring financial activity via recurring reporting practices, CCMs are exposed to all non-grant financial activities of the department/unit. As financial experts and L&S representatives, the responsibility is to ensure that operations are financially sound, issues are proactively identified and potential areas of long-term concern are regularly highlighted. When reviewing financial activities, if a CCM has a question that is not readily answerable or there are additional contextual details needed, it is the responsibility of the CCM to investigate further by engaging with the unit leadership, ART peers, or escalate to the Finance Manager.

Note: While CCMs will note be responsible for providing specific training on how to run and use reports in Workday or in Datarails, they are available to help the people in the departments they support when questions come up.

Reporting Guidelines, Recommendations and Standards 

A key responsibility of the CCM role is reviewing or auditing financial operations (worktags/funds) regularly, investigating issues and recommending (or taking) corrective action when intervention is necessary. A strong recurring reporting process is an effective way to support this responsibility. Some key report recommendations are provided in the next section, however a wide range of reports are available that may apply to specific situations or fit personal preferences. 

When reviewing reports consider the following questions: 

• Is the type of financial activity for the period being reviewed consistent with past periods? 
• Is there a significant fluctuation in expense or revenue activity? Is a fluctuation explainable or expected? 
• Do transactions make sense with the understood usage of the worktag? 
• Is the unit’s intent or plan being executed appropriately at a transaction level? 
• Are there obvious errors? Or outlier transactions that need further investigation? 

If a question is not answerable or there are related questions, it is the responsibility of the CCM to investigate further by engaging with the unit leadership, ART peers, or ask for assistance from the Finance Manager. 

Operational areas to focus recurring review on: 

Payroll: 

• Monthly or payroll-period review of posted payroll transactions 
• Monthly Audit of Department Default Funding worktag (PG0000XXXXX UWMSN | L&S | Department Default Funding) 
• Allocation end date audit 

Operational: 

• Monthly review of Unit/Department as a whole (e.g. All funds by Cost Center or Cost Center + Fund Type). 
• Monthly review of high-need or high-risk Department specific worktags. Such as:  
  • 136 Programs operating as distinct Business Units 
  • Department 150 Overhead PG 
  • Department 131 Mission Reinvestment PG 
  • Department identified worktags needing specific attention 

With regular review, regardless of an external prompt or specific question, financial accountability and early identification of areas for concern is achievable. A CCM performing consistent review can gain expertise in the financial operations of the unit and notice trends or discrepancies, become a strong resource for planning and strategic work, and actively participate in intervention efforts.  

Recurring Reports

Payroll Reporting

Financial Reporting

Additional Reporting Responsibilities

• Report Running Support/Training: Support requests from Units on how to run reports, what reports people have access to, and support generating complex or customized reporting solutions.  
• Report Documentation/Guides: Create documentation or user guides to support report adoption and accessibility within Units and ART groups.  
• Report Interpretation & Analysis: Support units in understanding financial reports, analyzing data, and facilitate financial discussions and offer direction on additional resources or support.  

Additional Resources

Additional reports can be found in workday by accessing the Reports I can Run dashboard. In addition, it can be helpful to categorize Workday reports by how they are intended to be used, such as: 

Workday Report Categories: 

• Reference: Reports that provide background info, or system info, in support of a Workday user.  
  • Examples: Reports I Can Run, Programs – FDM Validation, Grants – FDM Validation, Spend Categories (FDM), etc. 
• Transactional: Reports capturing transactional activity, typically based on transaction type. 
  • Examples: Find Supplier Invoice, Find Customer Reports, Find Expense Reports, etc. 
• Summary: Reports of aggregate financial activities, summarizing by worktag, period, organization.  
  • Examples: All Funds Financial Budget to Actuals (UW), Program Budget to Actuals Summary, Grant Budget to Actuals Summary, etc. 
• Export: Reports with large scale and minimal summarization. Often exported for additional manipulation. 
  • Examples: Payroll 360, All Worker Costing Allocations, etc. 

Links: 

L&S KB – Workday Report Central 

UW System – Workday Data and Reporting  

UW System – Job Aid Library