Main Content
Financial Dashboard User Guide
Overview
This dashboard provides both a high-level summary and a detailed transactional view of budget vs. actual financial performance of our Core Funding resources. At the University of Washington, core funding refers to the foundational operating resources used to support essential academic operations, faculty salaries, and administrative infrastructure. Users can monitor overall trends in our Core Funding resources while also drilling into the specific ledger accounts that are driving variances in the Actual Expenses by Ledger tab.
Things to Know Before You Get Started:
Begin by defining your reporting scope (Right Panel):
- Fiscal Year – Select the reporting year (e.g., FY2026)
- Month(s) – Choose one or multiple months.
- Cost Center Hierarchy (Division) – Example: Schools
- Cost Center – Choose your specific Cost Center
- Resource / Program – Optional for deeper analysis
To view your entire year’s budget, select "All” months. The “Period Variance” vs actual expenses will be your remaining spend.
Filters Carry Across Tabs:
Any filters applied on the Budget Summary & Expenses (first tab) will persist and impact what you see on all subsequent tabs. If data appears missing or unexpected, double-check your filter selections. Combining filters allows you to move from a broad division view down to a specific program or funding source. The Enterprise Financial Operations hierarchy represents costs that support the broader Tacoma campus and are not attributable to a single school, department, or unit.
Quick snapshot of performance:
- Budget Expenses – Total planned spend
- Actual Expenses – Realized spend
- Period Variance ($ and %)
- Green (Positive) = Under budget
- Red (Negative) = Over budget
This visual compares:
· Budget vs. Actual across:
o Salaries & Wages
o Fringe Benefits
o Operating Expenses
Use this to quickly identify which major category is driving overall variance.
Budget Version Context – FY25 budgeted expenditures are based on the FY25 Recast version in Workday Adaptive Planning. FY26 budgeted expenditures reflect the November 2025 snapshot, and may not include subsequent updates or revisions. If your cost center’s budgeted amounts differ from expected values by more than 1% and you would like additional information, contact Cherie Berthon, AVC for Fiscal Planning & Budget at cberthon@uw.edu.
Provides a categorized breakdown:
Ledger Account Type - Budget - Actual - Variance - Variance %
- Highlights whether each Ledger Account Type is over or under budget
- Color coding helps quickly identify issues
This is your “management view” before diving deeper.
This section allows you to drill into individual ledger accounts, giving you full transparency into what’s driving each category.
What You’re Seeing
This tab includes:
- Actual Expenses:
- Ledger Type – Expense classification
- Ledger Account Type – Category (e.g., Salaries, Benefits, Operating Expenses)
- Ledger Account – Specific account:
- Salaries – Classified Staff
- Salaries – Professional Staff
- Supplies and Materials
- Services
- For a general overview of the system UW uses to track and organize financial information, visit UW’s Foundation Data Model (FDM). If you have questions about any of the terms used in this dashboard, see the Glossary of FDM Worktags.
- The dashboard is updated on a monthly basis. This will occur approximately 9 business days after month-end · If you are working remotely, you will need to be connected to Husky OnNet VPN to view the dashboard
Need Help?
If something looks off:
- Double-check your filters (especially if navigating across tabs)
- Confirm data refresh timing (Dashboard is updated after the monthly close—Approximately 9 business days after the last day of the previous month) · Please reach out to tacfiscal@uw.edu for questions and additional support.
