Frequently Asked Questions

• Accounts Payable 
• Finance Accounts Receivable 
• Acquire to Retire and Capital Projects 
• Banking and Cash Management 
• Close and Consolidate 
• Gift and Endowment Management 
• Master Data Management 
• Planning, Budget, and Forecasting (limited to integration or functionality not in current solutions) 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Tax 
• Travel Management and Expense (potentially limited to integration) 

For the finance team, a critical and early step for the Workday implementation is the design of the foundational data model, also known by the abbreviation FDM. Beyond a traditional chart of accounts, the FDM will serve as a core structure of the Workday platform, supporting transaction processing and reporting. Because the FDM is crucial for all functions, including HR, Supply Chain, and Sponsored Projects, the design will require a collaborative effort involving a diverse and cross functional group of stakeholders. Read more about the FDM. 

Financial reporting will be significantly enhanced in Workday because of the way Workday tags financial data across the enterprise. Workday uses descriptors called worktags to describe each financial transaction according to the who, why, what, how, and where of the transaction. These multidimensional worktags allow Workday reporting to pull data across functional areas and/or these dimensions to provide the seamless, real-time reporting that will support enhanced operational visibility and decision-making.

Travel arrangements (such as booking flights, hotels, or rental cars) will continue to be made in Concur. Those travel transactions will then flow into Workday, where employees will complete their travel expense reimbursements. 

Business expenses outside of travel will be moving to Workday.

Worktags are labels that categorize financial transactions in Workday and include the details of who, what, where, and why for each transaction. In most cases, worktags are automatically applied to transactions using default settings. These defaults can be updated when needed. Access to add or change worktags in Workday will be managed centrally by a designated group.

Yes. Pcard transactions will be loaded into Workday daily. Pcard holders will upload receipts as part of the Pcard verification process in Workday. 

Sightline is a multi-year program across Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. Sightline aims to modernize business processes and introduce advanced technology solutions that support better ways of working across key mission-supporting functions such as human resources, finance, supply chain, and sponsored projects. Workday, the chosen technology platform, streamlines the user experience. Read this overview to learn more about how and why these changes are being implemented. 

Empower and engage people 

Prioritize mission-critical needs 

Provide a modern and intuitive user experience 

Embrace culture of change 

Strive for simplicity 

Drive standardization 

Receive trusted, integrated data and analytics more easily 

Elevate accountability, service quality, and compliance

Sightline directly aligns with Johns Hopkins Health System strategic goals, including: 

• Enhancing employee experience through simplifying processes and promoting professional growth (Organizational Culture and Workforce Development) 
• Streamlining data access and more efficient data management (Innovation & Discovery Acceleration)
• Promoting operational efficiency by leveraging Workday to execute and update processes (Operational & Financial Optimization)

Sightline directly aligns with Johns Hopkins University strategic goals, including: 

• Providing a cohesive digital environment in Workday (Goal 2: Removing barriers to collaboration) 
• Enhancing infrastructure that supports work by faculty and staff to help retain top talent (Goal 4: Advance faculty resources) 
• Enabling the focus on core missions by simplifying business processes and reducing administrative burden (Goal 7: Become the national employer of choice) 

External support for SAP is scheduled to end in December 2027, and technology has evolved significantly since SAP was implemented in 2007. A new technology platform is needed to take full advantage of the considerable updates to business-support solutions. 

Yes, the Workday transition applies to all employees. In 2027, many Johns Hopkins self-service and administrative tasks will move to Workday. 

Even if SAP hasn’t been part of your daily work, Workday will be the new platform for key work information and updates such as: 

• Managing personal information, W2s, goals, and performance reviews 

• Submitting expense reimbursements 

• Viewing paystubs 

Workday will make these tasks easier by bringing personal and administrative information together in one place, with a modern and intuitive experience. 

Updating business processes is a necessary step with modern cloud-based technologies. Technologies like Workday depend on consistency and simplicity to deliver their full potential in support of business operations. These updates will standardize workflows, enhance user experience, improve data quality and reporting capabilities, and promote greater transparency across Johns Hopkins administrative areas and the mission critical programs they support.

All Sightline transformations, whether related to process changes, Workday technology, or other optimization opportunities are closely aligned with other technical and administrative JHHS and JHU initiatives across the HR, finance, supply chain, and sponsored projects functions. Sightline leaders are proactively identifying, monitoring, and engaging with leaders of parallel initiatives to ensure the transformation efforts complement and support broader institutional goals.

Workday will provide opportunities for a better user experience, streamlined and intuitive processes, automation, and improved data management and governance. 

Across JHU and JHHS, the areas of HR, finance, supply chain, and sponsored research will be impacted by Workday.

Sightline has a well-resourced team to support communications, engagement and readiness, and training. The team will execute a comprehensive change management plan that includes communication at key milestones throughout the program, employee engagement during each phase, robust end-user training in Workday, and the establishment of Workday Transition Teams. 

During the Design and Build phase, the Sightline team is redesigning administrative processes such as how employees change their personal information or how principal investigators set up a grant award budget. The work is organized into three “worksets,” each running for several months, and following the same collaborative cycle: design workshops, iterative reviews, process revisions, resolution of decisions, playback sessions, and final sign-off. To ensure alignment and long-term success, the Sightline functional teams engage subject matter experts and advisory groups in this process to help design and validate processes, provide feedback, and ensure informed decision-making.

Self-service and the administrative functions of HR, finance, supply chain, and sponsored projects will transition to Workday in the summer of 2027. Below are some self-service tasks and their systems that are moving to Workday: 

Johns Hopkins Health System & University 

*Self-service elements listed are not exhaustive 

Johns Hopkins Health System 

Johns Hopkins University 

• Benefits 
• Compensation 
• Contingent Workforce 
• Employee Data 
• Labor Relations 
• Learning 
• Organizational Relationships 
• Performance Management 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Talent Acquisition and Onboarding 
• Timekeeping
• Unified Engagement Layer 
• Workforce Planning 

HR leaders who evaluated the Workday demonstrations say it will bring an enhanced employee experience through its ease of use and reduction of manual tasks. This benefits HR practitioners who pull reports and review HR information regularly and employees accessing pay stubs and W2s. 

In the current state, HR practitioners move in and out of systems. Everything is connected in the future state, including onboarding, recruitment, employee experience, and data. This connection leads to a reduction in errors and greater ease of processing and receiving pay. 

Yes, all employees, including managers/supervisors, will be able to view dynamic organizational charts and reporting structures.

Yes, employees will still have access to a pay stub with pay details. In Workday, pay stubs are called payslips, and the layout will be different than today.

The first electronic W-2 for 2027 will be available in Workday in January 2028.

The Workday goals and performance structure will stay the same as in SuccessFactors (SAP today), but the Workday experience will offer a more user-friendly interface to better showcase skills and strengths. An employee’s job description will also show directly in their performance profile so that it can be referenced as goals are created.  

Workday is introducing a new check-ins feature to enhance team connections. Check-ins are designed to support ongoing, real-time performance conversations between managers and employees. Check-ins help team members to have structured, documented discussions throughout the year, encouraging continuous feedback and goal progression. 

All employees will begin using performance and goals in Workday at Go Live in 2027. 

For both JHU and JHHS, new position and job requisition requests are initiated in Workday, generally by managers. From there, the process differs: for JHHS, recruiting stays entirely in Workday; for JHU, the requisition is routed from Workday to the appropriate platform—Workday (students and CTY Summer), Interfolio (faculty and postdocs), or Eightfold (staff and JHPD). For both JHU and JHHS, approvals will automatically route to the appropriate individuals. HR teams will still be partnering with managers to support these processes. New onboarding functionality is in Workday for both JHHS and JHU.

Yes, you can create a new job requisition for a position that will be vacant but is currently filled. Workday allows for short-term position overlap, so teams can start proactively polanning for backfill. Two people can also temporarily share one position without creating a new position number or impacting headcount. Please adhere to your department/division’s best practice regarding position overlap.

Today, department, divisional, and central teams handle administrative work in human resources, finance, procurement, and sponsored projects differently. Faculty and staff have consistently shared that this administrative environment can be hard to navigate, inconsistent, and time-consuming.  

By introducing clearer ways to organize and deliver administrative support, Johns Hopkins aims to: 

• Reduce confusion about where to go for help 
• Improve turnaround times and consistency  
• Allow faculty and staff to spend more time on teaching, research, and service 

While some divisions have already made significant changes to their administrative structures, division level efforts alone aren’t enough. The new model creates a more consistent approach so that everyone has access to the same high-quality support — regardless of where they work. 

High-volume, routine administrative transactions, such as travel and expense reimbursements and employee records updates, will be handled by dedicated human resources and finance solution teams. 

Divisional administrative teams led by divisional business officers (DBOs) will focus on division-specific priorities and work that depends on close relationships with faculty and staff. This structure will ensure that HR, finance, and sponsored projects staff will be organized to work more closely with others doing similar work. Many divisions already work this way, and others have begun moving in this direction. 

These teams are expected to launch in January 2027. Divisional leaders will provide more information and direction about what this new structure means for each division and department, including clear guidance on where faculty and staff will go for help. For now, employees should follow existing processes when seeking administrative support.  

HR and finance solution teams will handle high-volume, routine administrative transactions with increased speed, accuracy, and consistency. These solutions teams will provide easy and reliable access to support for common administrative needs.   

The solution teams also free up capacity for the divisional administrative teams to focus on mission-critical priorities for each division.  

Staff in HR, finance, procurement, and sponsored projects roles will have increased role clarity and access to more professional development opportunities across JHU.

The HR and finance solution teams will route employee requests submitted via the mySolutionTeam portal to the right place to get resolved.  

When Workday goes live in July 2027, solution teams will transition from providing support the current SAP system to providing support for Workday on the mySupportTeam portal.  

View the Sightline leadership team, comprised of leaders and subject matter experts from across Johns Hopkins. 

Sightline follows a multi-tier governance structure to support decision-making throughout the life of the program​ and ensure alignment with Johns Hopkins’ strategic goals. While initial recommendations are shaped by the Sightline team, each functional area actively engages functional experts and advisory groups prior to bringing decisions to executive leaders and the established governance groups. Learn more about Sightline’s governance structure.

The Year of Learning is an opportunity for the Johns Hopkins community to start learning about Workday before it launches in July 2027. Early learning options will help everyone get ready for Workday training in 2027.  

• Introduction to Workday Series eLearnings: Short (less than 10 minutes), self-paced modules covering topics like basic navigation, reporting, and preparation for Workday. 
• What’s Changing with Workday webinars: Monthly, 45-minute virtual sessions in 2026 with live demos and Q&A on topics like hiring, onboarding, purchasing, and expenses. 
• myWorkday Demonstrations: Brief videos showing Workday features and future design plans. Designs are subject to change before Go Live in July 2027. 

Visit the Workday Learning and Resources page to access Year of Learning materials now. What’s Changing with Workday webinar registration opened in late 2025, and sessions begin in January 2026. 

The topics include:  

• Workday Introduction: Overview of Workday and its benefits 
• Workday Navigation: Previews of Workday features such as the home page and My Tasks inbox 
• Workday Self-Service: Tasks employees can complete, such as managing personal information and viewing pay stubs (payslips in Workday) 
• Reporting in Workday: Reporting features such as prompts and filtering to analyze data easily 
• Getting Ready for Workday: Community resources available to prepare for Workday, including the Sightline website and learning materials

The topics include: 

• Employee Self-Service 
• Foundation Data Model 
• Talent and Performance  
• Managing People in Workday (1 & 2) 
• Expense Reporting 
• Time and Absence (JHU) 
• Benefits (JHHS) 
• Payroll Accounting
• Procurement Process
• Accounts Payable 
• Sponsored Projects

All webinar recordings will be available on the myWorkday Learning page for viewing anytime.

No prerequisites are required; all Johns Hopkins staff and faculty are welcome to join.

The Year of Learning provides early, general Workday education for the Johns Hopkins community to prepare them for Workday training, focusing on basic navigation and previewing Workday processes. In 2027, Workday training will offer specific guidance tailored to an employee’s role.

Workday training and resources will be provided for an extended period of time after Go Live.

The Workday Year of Learning in 2026 gives all employees the opportunity to discover the basics of Workday through webinars, short eLearnings, and demonstration videos. These resources help everyone get comfortable with core features, navigation, and terminology before the system goes live. Building this foundation early makes learning easier and reduces confusion later.  

In 2027, Workday training will focus on the specific tasks and processes each employee needs for their job. Training will be more comprehensive and nuanced than 2026 learning. This content will cover the details that matter for completing Workday actions by role(s) in the system.

The new mySolutionTeam portal is a digital support hub with administrative resources and help, built on ServiceNow and accessible to all Johns Hopkins faculty and staff. Coordinated support teams will leverage the portal for administrative service across HR/payroll, finance, supply chain/procurement, and post-award sponsored projects. mySolutionTeam will also include a future knowledge base with articles and links to resources to support a simpler path to finding answers

The mySolutionTeam portal and JHU solution teams will be available to serve HR/payroll finance, supply chain/procurement tasks in January 2027. 

Yes. With the arrival of mySolutionTeam, staff and faculty will visit a single digital hub to handle administrative tasks ranging from help with benefits to assistance with purchasing and supplier payments. Support teams will continue to provide a high standard of service and leverage the new tool for improved coordination among teams, more timely responses, and more guidance to support self-service.

Payroll, including some systems currently outside of SAP.

Broadways Services (BSI) and Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) payroll will remain outside of Workday.

• Reach out to the Sightline team with specific questions: [email protected]

• Stay in touch by registering for email updates. Sightline will share opportunities to participate in engagement sessions, Workday Transition Teams, and training opportunities as they arise  

• The Sightline team will reach out to various staff and faculty for engagement opportunities throughout the program 

The Sightline program will promote a culture of continuous improvement and innovation through regular communication, Workday Transition Teams, and opportunities for employee engagement and feedback. Sightline aims to improve the experience of users across the enterprise, prioritize mission-critical needs, drive standardization, and elevate accountability, service quality, and compliance, aligning with the values of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. By involving employees throughout program phases and aiming to enhance their experience, the goal is to maintain high morale and engagement. 

Sightline is designed to enhance the experience of Johns Hopkins administrative teams by reducing time spent on manual, outdated processes, allowing staff to fully utilize their knowledge and skills. Sightline also aims to enable employees to focus on strategic work, professional growth, and innovation. Sightline’s guiding principles reinforce this commitment to investing in people and creating a more agile and effective administrative environment. 

While implementing a modern technology platform like Workday involves IT expertise, Sightline is much broader than an IT project. While IT@JH plays a critical role in configuring Workday and integrating it with existing systems, functional experts are reimagining and streamlining administrative processes across HR, sponsored projects, finance, and supply chain to fully leverage Workday’s capabilities. Sightline is led by executive sponsors from both Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, with a team of experienced leaders from core administrative functions with many years of experience in those roles at Johns Hopkins. 

Faculty will see improvements across business activities that intersect with finance, HR, supply chain, and sponsored projects. Examples include pulling reports for grants, purchasing lab equipment, hiring staff, and initiating finance transactions that previously took place in SAP. Review the myWorkday learning page for more information on what’s changing for faculty.

The Design and Build phase involves the Sightline team working together with subject matter experts (SMEs) from the university and health system to ensure comprehensive input and validation on designs for future Johns Hopkins business processes and Workday configuration. 

Employees with dual employment will be assigned specific Workday security roles that will enable them to support both entities as needed based on job responsibilities.

• Closeout Activities 
• Data Collection & Reporting 
• Execute Funding Activities 
• Pre-Award Preparation 
• Receive and Account for Funds 
• Sponsored Program Administration 
• Sub-Recipient Monitoring 

Sightline’s goal is to optimize integrations with Workday and reduce reliance on external systems when possible. An example of a sponsored projects integrations is Fibi, the pre-award platform. Visit the Workday Learning and Resources page to access myWorkday: Integrations, which includes a tracker of all Workday integrations,

Workday will introduce exciting reporting and dashboards to the community. The Sightline program places a strong emphasis on user experience, with a commitment to developing intuitive reporting, dashboards, and metrics that are clear to faculty and staff. These tools will be accurate, updated in real time, and designed to support decision-making and the management of sponsored projects. 

Sightline’s Faculty Advisory Committee is helping identify gaps and opportunities for sponsored activities reporting and analytics improvements. Today, faculty and their teams often pull several reports from disparate locations or bring together Principal Investigators (PIs) from across academic divisions to create consolidated views of project expenses and activities. Workday’s integration of HR, finance, and supply chain data will increase reporting quality to support grants planning and execution. Sightline will continue working with the Faculty Advisory Committee to define improvements based on this consolidation and will share them more broadly in future program phases.

• Inventory 
• Logistics 
• Master Data Management 
• Procurement 
• Reporting and Analytics 
• Sourcing and Contracting 
• Strategy and Execution 

Here is the proposed Sightline timeline:    

• September 2023-August 2024: Planning & Readiness  

• September 2024-March 2025: Prepare   

• April 2025-March 2026: Design & Build  

• April 2026-March 2027: Test & Educate  

• January 2027: Launch of the mySolutionTeam portal and JHU kicks of new solution teams 

• April 2027-June 2027: Train & Deploy   

• July 2027: Go Live  

• July 2027+: Production Support 

Review a detailed breakdown of these program phases.

Workday is anticipated to go-live in the in July 2027, which is the beginning of fiscal year 2028 (FY 2028).

Workday Transition Teams are local Johns Hopkins groups that extend the reach of Sightline, enhancing communication and facilitating new ways of working with Workday. They ensure internal audiences understand and can prepare for what’s changing through the creation of local communications channels. Teams also support operational readiness by engaging local units in select Workday implementation activities.

Workday Transition Teams consist of four roles:

• Sponsor: Executive leadership presence providing advocacy and strategic vision
• Lead: Team facilitator responsible for oversight, planning, and execution
• Expert: Subject matter experts in key areas guiding work in their functional domain
• Navigator: Implementation members tapped to execute readiness activities

Transition Teams are comprised of JH employees from individual business units outside of Sightline representing central offices, divisions, and entities within the health system and university. Team members were selected by local leaders to support their units through the transition to Workday. Transition Teams leads will be reaching out regularly to their organizations.

Johns Hopkins executives identified their transition team leads who in turn worked across their organization to identify additional team members that will support their transition to Workday. Transition Teams members often bring expertise in the areas of finance, HR, sponsored projects, and supply chain, or serve as trusted colleagues within units and teams that will reinforce extensive communication and local inputs back to the Sightline program.

Transition Teams support two key areas including implementation Support (data validation or clean-up for which local input is required, security role assignment validation, etc.) and Communication and Training (sharing updates, promoting engagement and learning opportunities, monitoring training, and identifying and addressing local change impacts, etc).

Teams launched in Fall 2025 and will remain active through Workday Go Live in July 2027, ensuring robust support throughout the transition.

Yes. Transition Teams play a crucial role in identifying local change impacts and defining and executing action plans to ensure the unit is positioned for a smooth transition and to maximize the benefits of the move to Workday.

Any new work or requested changes in SAP before and after the Workday transition (January 1, 2025 through August 31, 2028) will be limited to approved projects only. This limitation includes new or updated integration requests and fields, logic, and more. The SAP/Sightline Resources Request must be used for approval.  

The Sightline team will conduct multiple rounds of data validation, conversion, and testing to ensure accuracy and integrity. The data conversion strategy includes detailed mapping, warehousing, and cleansing processes, along with regular audits to identify and resolve any discrepancies. 

Customizations can make software platforms difficult to maintain and upgrade. Modern software packages like Workday keep choices limited with configuration, allowing Johns Hopkins to more easily manage software updates and quickly adopt new capabilities released by Workday. Best-of-industry choices are continually enabled in Workday because it is hosted in the cloud. Customizations should be thoughtfully considered and deployed where there is truly a unique need and advantage for Johns Hopkins.

Data cleanup refers to reviewing, organizing, and standardizing information to ensure accuracy and consistency. Data cleanup efforts included refining vendor data, job titles, and naming conventions, as well as determining which historical data will be migrated and within what timeframe. Older data that is not migrated will remain accessible through other systems.

Workday offers advanced analytics capabilities. Johns Hopkins will leverage those tools to collaboratively create template reports and data governance principles for administrative work that ensure data integrity.

A single, institution-wide Workday implementation ensures alignment from day one. Johns Hopkins’ administrative processes and data are deeply interconnected, making a phased approach complex and inefficient. Splitting the transition between SAP and Workday would require maintaining dual systems, leading to integration challenges and increased costs, and a longer timeframe to optimize the new solution. A unified implementation improves data consistency, enhances user experience, and streamlines workflows. While this approach necessitates coordination and strong change management, it fosters collaboration across all entities, ensuring a smoother and more cohesive transition.