UW–Madison Works to Address Expense Reimbursement Delays

The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Division of Business Services is taking action to address ongoing delays in processing expense reimbursements and P-card transactions, acknowledging the strain these delays have placed on students and employees.

Since the launch of Workday on July 7—and the freeze on expenses that preceded its implementation—Finance teams have processed more than 13,000 reimbursements. However, as of September 16, the current average processing time is 29 business days once a request enters the Division’s Centralized Audit queue, with some taking longer. The Division has set a goal to reduce this to under 20 business days in the short-term and ultimately to our pre-Workday standard of 8–10 business days.

“We know many expense reports were submitted weeks ago and timely reimbursements are expected and essential,” said Rob Cramer, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration. “One of our key points on Workday overall has been demonstrating progress, and to date, we have not accomplished that in this area, but we are taking steps every day to get there.”

To accelerate progress, Business Services is partnering with other divisions and the Universities of Wisconsin Shared Services (UWSS) to increase the number of people able to process reimbursements and reduce the timeline for review. The Division is also reviewing the full process to eliminate any inefficiencies or barriers. This efficiency review also includes input from the UWSS team which is currently utilizing Workday to process most expense reports in fewer than our stated and historical goal of 10 days.

In addition to supplementing its team and a full process improvement review the Division is exploring long-term solutions, including enhancements within Workday and the use of artificial intelligence platforms. While these technologies offer promise, we will likely not see a direct impact for several months.

The process of centralization started about one year ago and was determined necessary to implement the new Workday functionality for expenses. The effort began with the School of Medicine and Public Health to build the process and later added the School of Letters and Science, onboarding about 50 percent of the university. This initial implementation proved successful and efficient, but has been overwhelmed by the volume of activity due to the expense hold and summer travel.

Business Services expressed gratitude to schools, colleges, and system partners who have stepped in to support the Central Audit team during this critical period. Their collaboration has been essential in managing the workload and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Continue to check our progress here, under Centralized Audit Processing Statistics.

While the challenges are significant, the Division of Business Services remains committed to listening to concerns and making meaningful progress as quickly as possible.