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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Create Awards

Create Awards

  • Create the supporting elements for your award. See Steps: Set Up Awards.
  • Configure the
    Award Event
     business process and security policy in the Grants Management functional area.
Awards are contracts where you specify the business rules, terms, and conditions that govern your award agreements with the sponsors. Workday uses the information on your awards to determine how to calculate award costs, distribute award credits, and recognize revenue. Awards can include:
  • Authorized amounts and effective date ranges on 1 or more award lines.
  • Committed effort and special conditions.
  • Configurations for calculating facilities and administration costs.
  • Direct and indirect sponsors information.
  • Distribution of award credits to multiple departments.
  • Tasks that you need to complete to maintain your awards.
When you create an award, Workday routes the award for approval with the
Award Event
 business process. When your award agreement changes, you can update the award by either:
  • Amending the award, and keeping a version of the original award. See Amend Awards.
  • Correcting the award, and replacing the original version of the award. See Correct Awards.
  1. Access the
    Create Award
     task.
  2. As you complete the
    Overview
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Organizations for Award
    Select organization worktags associated with this award. Users with roles in these worktags have view access and can report on the award, even if they don't have roles in the company.
    Award Contract Owner
    Workday populates this field with the person who creates the award and adds their name to the
    Award Contract Owner
     security group. You can specify this security group in business processes when you need to route reviews and approvals to a single worker responsible for the whole award.
    You can't assign the
    Award Contract Owner
     role outside of this task.
    Prime Sponsor
    The organization that sets the terms and conditions for your award.
    Example: University A receives an award from the National Science Foundation, and in turn issues a subaward to University B. University B can list University A as the
    Sponsor
     and
    Bill-To Sponsor
    , and the National Science Foundation as the
    Prime Sponsor
    .
    Bill-To Sponsor
    The organization that pays for the award.
    Example: You received the award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the award payment from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). You can set the
    Sponsor
     to NIH, and the
    Bill-to Sponsor
     to DHHS.
    Payment Type
    To use a letter of credit, select the payment type that matches the payment type on the letter of credit you want to use.
    Letter of Credit
    Select the letter of credit that contains the same:
    • Sponsor as the
      Bill-to Sponsor
       on the award.
    • Payment Type as the
      Payment Type
       on the award.
    Spend Restriction Default
    Select the default spend restrictions that you want to use to populate all award lines with. Select spend restrictions that are restricted by either spend category or object class.
    You can only apply spend restrictions by pay component group to projects with multiple funding sources, not to grants.
    You can override these spend restrictions by setting the
    Spend Restriction
     field on the individual award lines. Workday only refers to spend restrictions on the award lines, not the
    Spend Restriction Default
     on the award header, when validating a spend.
    Award Billing Sequence Active
    Select this check box to add a billing sequence number to the sponsor invoice. You can use the award billing sequence as a customizable label for your invoices.
    Award Billing Sequence Number Format/Syntax
    Enter an award billing sequence to help identify your award or sponsor. The award billing sequence can include a text string followed by patterns of either dates or sequence numbers. Surround the patterns with square brackets.
    Example: Gates_[Seq][yyyy][MM][dd] creates an award billing sequence that consists of:
    • A text string that identifies the sponsor, Gates Foundation.
    • The invoice number sequence, incremented from the
      Current Award Billing Sequence Number
      .
    • The date you generate the invoice, in the patterns you specify.
    This option displays when you select the
    Award Billing Sequence Active
     check box.
    Current Award Billing Sequence Number Used
    Enter any number that you want to begin the sequence with. You can also enter a number that is in continuation of an existing sequence from another ID generator.
    Workday increments this number with every invoice it creates for this award.
    This option displays when you select the
    Award Billing Sequence Active
     check box.
    Award Billing Sequence Generator Rule
    Create or select an award billing sequence rule to configure the sequencing of invoices.
    This option displays when you select the
    Award Billing Sequence Active
     check box.
    Award Currency
    Select a currency that the bill-to sponsor accepts.
    Workday populates this field with the default currency of the bill-to sponsor.
    Zero Amount Award
    You can create a zero amount award to capture activities before an award receives funding. When you select this check box, Workday overrides the sponsored funding fields to zero.
    When funding becomes available, you can amend the award to clear the
    Zero Amount Award
     check box and enter funding details.
    When you create spend lines against a zero amount award, Workday doesn't generate customer invoices for cost reimbursable spend lines.
    Cost Share Total
    Enter the amount that your company plans to contribute to the award costs.
    Cost Share Required by Sponsor
    Select this check box if the sponsor requires your company to pay a portion of the total award.
    Authorized Amount
    Enter the amount that the sponsor approved for this award.
    This amount must equal the sum of all the award line amounts on the
    Award Lines
     tab.
    Billing Limit Override
    Enter a billing limit to override the authorized amount of an existing award.
    Example: You convert an old award for which you used 400 USD of the approved 1,000 USD. Set
    Billing Limit Override
     to 600 USD to avoid spending more than
    Authorized Amount
     in total.
    Award Schedule
    Select or create an award schedule with the posting interval that matches the reporting requirements of your award.
    When you use cost share with cost reimbursable billing and the transaction total exceeds the authorized amount or billing limit override, Workday:
    • Creates an invoice for the override amount.
    • Splits direct costs and indirect or facilities and administration (F&A) costs proportionally, preserving the F&A cost rate per transaction.
    When you increase the authorized amount or billing limit override, the remaining portion of the billing carries over to the next cost reimbursable billing cycle.
  3. On the
    Award Lines
     tab, add a row. As you complete the row, consider:
    Option Description
    Copy Line
    Click for Workday to add a new award line, populating line information from the selected award line and leaving the grant empty. From the new award line, you can either:
    • Add an existing grant.
    • Create a new grant, when you have permissions to create grants.
    Copy Line and Copy Grant
    Click for Workday to copy grant information along with the award line. Workday creates a
    Draft
     grant, populating information from the:
    • Grant on the selected line, when you copy a line with a saved grant.
    • Original saved grant, when you copy a line with a draft grant.
    Workday also adds a
    Modify Draft Grant
     button under the
    Grant
     prompt, enabling you to review and update copied and unsaved grant information.
    Workday saves the new grant when you submit or save your changes for later.
    This button only displays for users who have permissions to create grants. To prevent all users from creating new grants when they copy award lines, you can hide this button by selecting the
    Disable Copy Line and Copy Grant
     option in your grants management configurations. See Set Up Grants Management Configurations.
    Company
    When you add an award line, Workday populates this field with the company from the award header.
    For multicompany awards, select the affiliate company that you charge the award line to. You can select from available affiliate companies that:
    • Are enabled to initiate intercompany transactions with the award header company. To determine if a company can initiate intercompany transactions, access the
      View Company Intercompany Profile
       task for the award header company, and check if the award line company has the
      Initiate Allowed
       option set. See Define Intercompany Profiles.
    • Share a common currency with the award header company.
    • Use the same account set as the award header company.
    Line Type
    Select how you bill the sponsor for the award line.
    The line type that you select determines the fields you see on the award line. When you change the line type after filling out the other fields, you might lose information in the fields that aren't available on the new line type.
    The company on the award line determines the available line types that you can select from. To make a line type available for selection, add the line type as a valid line type in the grants management configurations of the award line company.
    You can select:
    • Cost Reimbursable
       to bill the sponsors for direct spend and F&A amounts incurred during a billing period, or to consume the spent amounts from a prepayment.
    • Fixed Amount
       to bill the sponsors for predetermined amounts, regardless of when you incur the award costs.
    To receive advance payments from your sponsor to consume as you incur award costs, Workday recommends that you select the
    Cost Reimbursable
     line type instead of the
    Prepaid
     line type. You can then select the
    Prepaid
     schedule type when you create the billing schedule.
    Primary
    Select 1 award line as the primary award line.
    Grant
    To associate the same grant to multiple award lines, the dates on the award lines can't overlap.
    To charge a spend to the award line, add the grant as a worktag on the spend transaction or payroll costing allocation.
    Line Amount
    The sum of all line amounts must equal the
    Authorized Amount
     on the
    Overview
     tab.
    Revenue Category
    Select the revenue category to book the accounting for payments from your sponsor.
    Spend Restriction
    Select or create the spend restrictions that you want to apply to expenditures on the award line. When you set
    Spend Restriction Default
     on the award header, Workday pre-populates this field for you, but you can change it for the award line.
    When you select multiple spend restrictions, ensure that all the spend restrictions are either for allowable costs or unallowable costs, not a mixture of both.
    When you select a mixture of both allowable and unallowable spend restrictions, Workday only checks against the allowable spend restrictions.
    See Create Spend Restrictions.
    For each spend restriction you select, create a custom validation in each of the spend areas that you want to apply the restriction on, and use the
    Allowable Spend for Grant
     source external field to represent the spend category, pay component group, or object class in the spend restriction. See Example Steps: Implement Spend Restrictions on Grants.
    To see the spend transactions blocked by award line spend restrictions, access the
    Award Spend Restriction Audit Report
     report.
    Deferred Revenue
    When you select
    Fixed Amount
     from the
    Line Type
     prompt, you can select this check box to recognize revenue on an award revenue recognition schedule and post the accounting to the
    Deferred Revenue
     account posting rule.
    When you don't select this check box, Workday recognizes revenue when your spend transactions complete.
    Rate Agreement
    Workday requires a rate agreement for billing on cost reimbursable award lines.
    When you don't have F&A requirements on cost reimbursable award lines, you can create a zero percent rate agreement.
    The rate agreement that you select determines the
    Basis Type
     and
    Object Class Set
     on your award line. The rate agreement also prefilters the eligible cost rate types in the
    Cost Rate Type
     field.
    Cost Rate Type
    For cost reimbursable, fixed amount, or prepaid award lines, select a cost rate type to apply different F&A rates for different locations.
    You can add new rate types by editing the F&A rate agreement.
    Exception
    For cost reimbursable, fixed amount, or prepaid award lines, select an F&A exception to:
    • Override the institutional F&A rates on your F&A rate agreement.
    • Waive the institutional F&A costs for the sponsor.
    • Override or waive F&A rates for expenses in specific object classes.
    If the exception contains a different basis type than the basis type on the F&A rate agreement, ensure that both basis types have the same object class set.
    Revenue Allocation Profile
    Select a profile to determine how Workday distributes revenue recovery for F&A or indirect costs across organizations.
    Basis Limit
    Select or create a basis limit that defines the maximum amount in direct costs that you can use to calculate F&A costs on a cost reimbursable, fixed amount, or prepaid award line.
    When you use the same basis limit for multiple award lines, all the award lines share the same pool of funding for that basis limit.
    Example: You assign the same basis limit, BL_25K of 25,000 USD, to 2 award lines. You can calculate F&A costs based on the first 25,000 USD of the total spend between the 2 award lines. If you spent 15,000 USD on the first award line, you can only calculate F&A costs on up to 10,000 USD of the total spend on the second award line.
    To see how much of the basis limit has been consumed, how much is remaining, and whether the basis limit has been exceeded, you can access the
    Basis Limit Audit Report
    .
    From Date
    To Date
    When you use the same grant on multiple award lines, ensure the
    From Date
     and
    To Date
     on the award lines don't overlap.
    Worktags
    Select 1 or more worktags to determine which organizations recognize revenue for the award line.
    Award Line Salary Cap
    To use a salary cap on an award with Workday Financials and Grants Management, you must specify the salary cap on the award line. If you need to create a salary cap, see Create Salary Caps (USA).
    Use the
    Award Line Salary Cap Override
     field to select an override with effective dates that cover the award line dates.
    When you specify a salary cap on both the grant and the award line, the salary cap on the award line takes precedence. The salary cap on the grant is only used when you want to apply salary cap without Workday Financials and Grants Management.
    When the payroll costing allocations of workers contain suballocations for salary over the cap, ensure that either the:
    • Same salary cap is effective throughout the entire award line date range.
    • Award line doesn't contain
      From Date
       or
      To Date
      .
    To apply award credits to a cost reimbursable, fixed amount, or prepaid award line, configure the
    Award Credits
     section.
  4. (Optional) On the
    Attachments
     tab, secure access to attachments by assigning them to attachment categories that you secure to segmented security groups.
    The security groups also determine attachment access during the
    Award Event
     business process.
  5. (Optional) On the
    Special Conditions
     tab, add comments to the special condition types to describe the terms your sponsor requires to fund your project.
  6. (Optional) On the
    Committed Effort
     tab, enter details about the individuals who are committed to work on the award. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Months
    Enter the total number of months out of a year that the person commits to working on this award.
    When you enter a month value, Workday populates the
    Annual Committed Effort
     with the corresponding percentage.
    Annual Committed Effort
    Enter the percentage out of a year that the person commits to working on the award.
    You can use committed effort to track both sponsored and cost-shared efforts.
    Committed effort data is for reporting purposes only and won't impact your payroll or costing allocation or obligation. When you implement effort certification, you can access Workday-delivered reports to compare committed effort with certified effort. See Reference: Committed Effort Reports.
  7. (Optional) On the
    Plan
     tab, ensure that you populate the budget check options set before submitting the award for approval. See Steps: Set Up Award Budget Checks
    To submit the plan for approval when you submit the award, configure the
    Award Event
     business process to add the
    Award Budget Hub
     step.
  8. (Optional) To allocate percentages of the award costs and overruns to specific worktags for cost reimbursable, fixed amount, or prepaid awards, access the
    Award Credits
     tab. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Award Credit Definition
    Select an award credit definition that contains the worktags you want to allocate award credits to.
    When you select an award credit definition that enables multiple-organization reporting, workers from multiple organizations can report on the award.
    Award Credit Worktag
    Select 1 of the worktags in the
    Award Credit Definition
    .
    When you add a worktag to an award credit line, roles with security access on the worktag can report on the award.
    Award Credit Allocation Percentage
    Allocate credit to the worktag you select.
    Example: Institutions can allocate award credits among cost centers to inform decisions regarding F&A reallocation or assignment of overruns.
    Workday requires that the allocated award credits for all the worktags in an award line add up to 100% for each
    Award Credit Definition
    .
Workday initiates the
Award Event
 business process and routes the award for review and approval.
Create a billing schedule for the award. You can also incorporate the creation of award billing schedule into the
Award Event
 business process following the completion step.