To truly understand the Campus Approval Deadline, one must first understand that most HCM transactions – such as Hires, Change Jobs or Terminations – route for several reviews and approvals (whether by unit administrators, Compensation, UWHR, Academic HR, HCM Operations, or others) before they can be successfully completed. Of course, routing for all those approvals can require a bit of prior planning to ensure:

• anyone who needs to review and approve the transaction actually has the time to do so, and
• there’s enough time to make any required changes/corrections and resubmit for those approvals well ahead of the deadline.

Though not all HCM transactions require HCM Operations’ approval (for example, business processes related to multi-year or indefinite academic personnel only route to Academic HR and most leave of absence requests only route to UWHR or Academic HR leave specialists, depending on population), those that do require HCM Operations’ approval must be submitted to HCM Operations before or on the Campus Approval Deadline in order to be reviewed before payroll processing (the Timesheet Approval Deadline). In other words, all other approvals preceding HCM Operations’ review – including department, Chair or Dean, Academic HR, UWHR, Compensation and other campus partner approvals – should be completed and the transaction in HCM Operations’ queue no later than 5:00 pm on the Campus Approval Deadline; this allows enough time for HCM Operations to review, request any necessary updates through the send-back process, and subsequently approve any HCM transactions before final payroll calculations.

Though HCM Operations makes every effort to review re-submitted transactions (those that were sent back for required updates or corrections) through the end of business day on the Timesheet Approval Deadline, please be aware that the payroll cutoff deadline could be missed for those returning transactions. Additionally, please understand that if an HCM transaction approval request comes into HCM Operations’ inbox after 5:00 pm on the Campus Approval Deadline, it will not be reviewed until after the completion of payroll for the current pay period.

Please note: Campus Approval Deadlines are specific to HCM Operations-approval transactions; though external partners such as Academic HR, UWHR, Compensation and others are aware of these deadlines, their internal workflows and schedules are necessarily different from the HCM Operations’ workflows and schedules.

Timing Tip: There’s never a reason to wait until the Campus Approval Deadline itself to submit HCM transaction approvals – once you’ve finalized the important employment details (such as effective date(s), compensation amount, etc.), feel free to submit your transactions several days, or even a few weeks, in advance!

When to Contact HCM Operations About Your HCM Transactions

In general, HCM Operations prioritizes HCM transactions that impact the current pay period, and HCM Service Partners will work diligently to complete all approvals for the current pay period before payroll processing begins. If you’ve entered a transaction in a timely manner, please do not email, submit a ticket or call HCM Operations with reminders or to ask us about the status; responding to so many status requests simply slows down the process.

However, we do want you to submit a ticket if there is a secondary pay-impacting business process that must be submitted after the completion of a business process which is currently pending HCM Operations approval. For example, if you are hiring a student assistant who then must be paid by a one-time payment (OTP), let us know you need the student hire approved before the Timesheet Approval Deadline, so you have enough time to enter and approve the OTP before the deadline.

In rare and specific circumstances, approval exceptions can be made if a Workday transaction is submitted after the Campus Approval Deadline; for guidance on requesting such an exception, see the Campus Approval Deadline Exceptions page. Please note: this exception process only applies to business processes awaiting HCM Operations approval.

Tracking Your HCM Transactions to Completion

You can always track where your HCM transactions are in the approval process by reviewing a pending transaction to see where it currently sits.

More Deadline Deep Dives

• Payroll Calculation Window (Green Bar)
• UW/Bank Holidays (Yellow Days)
• Paydays (Dollar Sign Icon)
• Timesheet Approval Deadline (Clock Icon)
• Additional Payroll Requests Deadline (Clock Icon)