How to accurately account for charges such as fringe expenses and terminal leave allocations in Workday.
On this page
Fringe allocations
These are typically charges that appear in Workday on a cost center funding string. These are the employer’s share of an employee’s fringe benefits charged to the cost center.
How fringes are calculated
The move to Workday means a change to usage of a Composite Fringe Benefit Rate that is applied to the salary ledger account and spend categories. The fringe expenses now post to the same funding string as the employee salary expense and do not post to any pool project accounts.
Fringe expense is calculated and posts after the payroll expense posts in Workday. There is no separate allocation to calculate and post fringe expense in Workday.
Salary categories and associated fringe rates
There are eight (8) major salary categories, which have different rates to calculate fringes. Faculty/Academic/Unclassified, Classified/University, Graduate Assistants, Research Associates, LTE’s, Post Doc Fellows, Under Graduates/Ad Hoc, and Students.
Fringe rates are updated on July 1 of each fiscal year and can be found on the Research and Sponsored Project website.
All salary accounts are grouped into one of these categories and has its own fringe rate which is determined by Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP):
| Salary category | Fringe rates | Salary account codes on which % is calculated | Account codes where fringe is posted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Faculty and Academic Staff | 34.70% | 5006, 5007, 5008, 5009 |
|
| University Staff | 43.10% | 5010, 5016 |
|
| Research Associates and Grad Interns | 25.30% | 5013 |
|
| Research Assistants, Project Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Pre-Doc Fellows and/or Trainees | 20.70% | 5003, 5004, 5005, 5014 |
|
| Post-Doc Fellows and/or Trainees | 15.80% | 5011 |
|
| Limited Term Employees (LTEs) | 10.10% | 5002 |
|
| Ad Hoc Program Specialists, Undergraduate Assistants and Undergraduate Interns | 14.60% | 5012 |
|
| Student Hourly Employees | 1.90% | 5001 |
|
Terminal leave allocations
UW’s Vacation policy (UW-5052) allows employees to bank unused annual leave. The banked leave does not expire and may accumulate from year to year. At the time an employee retires or terminates employment, they may elect to receive a lump sum payment of the ALRA or sabbatical account balance.
UW has moved away from cash basis payouts and has now created a pool for these lump sum payouts.
This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.
Funds charged a monthly terminal leave allocation
Terminal leave rates will be charged on all funding strings associated with salary payments with the exclusion of the standalone GPR and related PR funds:
- Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) – Funds FD0117, FD0127, FD0130
- Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (WVDL) – Funds FD0126, FD0165, FD0166, FD0199
For all other funds (excluding those noted above), there is a monthly charge to Account code 9999 for non-grant funds, and posts to 5100 for the grant funds which follows the funding for each employee’s salary payment.
For FY27, the grant funds below are not assessed terminal leave charges:
- FD0133 Non-Federal Grants and Contracts
- FD0142 Federal Aid – Hatch Adams – Land Grant Research
- FD0143 Federal Aid – Smith Lever – Land Grant Extension
- FD0144 Federal Aid – Special Projects
- FD0232 Wisconsin Partnership Program
- FD0114 Merit and Market-Based Compensation
Current (and previous) fiscal year terminal leave rates
Terminal leave rates are updated at the beginning of each fiscal year (July 1) and are calculated based on a three-year average of lump sum payouts. Deficits or surplus would be considered in the development of future rates.
The rates are broken into two salary categories:
- Faculty/Academic Staff
- Classified/University Staff
The ledger accounts below are assessed terminal leave charges:
- 5006: Salaries – Faculty
- 5007: Salaries – Academic Staff – Professional
- 5008: Salaries – Academic Staff – Instructional
- 5009: Salaries – Academic Staff – Clinical
- 5010: Salaries – University Staff
- 5016: Salaries – University Staff Project
These spend categories on the above ledger accounts are not assessed terminal leave charges:
- SC00383 – Base Pay – Academic
- SC00385 – Summer Service
- SC00386 – Summer Session
- SC00396 – Legal Settlement – Faculty
- SC00397 – Terminal Leave – Lump Sum
Employee lump sum payout codes and funding strings in Workday
All salary expense posting to the pay component Term Banked Leave Payout will post to the terminal leave pool program PG000032155 UW | Terminal Leave Reserve. Please do not move any terminal leave expenses under this pay component to the employees divisional funding.
All other pay components under Term Leave payout should post to the employees funding string.
