Expense management analytics report missing cost center data

[jeffreyadmin]

Our finance team recently updated the cost center hierarchy in Workday, and now our expense management analytics reports are showing blank values in the cost center column for a significant number of expense reports. The reports were working fine before the hierarchy change.

The report uses calculated fields to display the cost center assignment based on the employee’s position, but after the finance team restructured the cost centers and moved several departments to new parent cost centers, the calculated field stopped populating correctly. The actual expense reports in the UI show the correct cost center when you drill into them, but the analytics report output has blanks.

This is blocking our monthly expense reconciliation process. Has anyone dealt with calculated fields not updating after organizational hierarchy changes?

Your cost center data gap is caused by a combination of calculated field configuration and hierarchy restructuring timing. Let me address all three aspects systematically:

Finance Hierarchy Update Impact: When your finance team updated the cost center hierarchy, they likely changed parent-child relationships and possibly merged or split cost centers. This creates a data discontinuity for reports that need historical accuracy. Here’s what happens:

• Expense reports submitted before the hierarchy change were associated with cost centers under the old structure
• If those old cost centers were deactivated or merged into new ones, the historical link breaks
• Calculated fields trying to traverse the hierarchy path find dead ends where the old structure no longer exists
• The UI shows correct cost centers because it displays the stored value on the expense transaction, but calculated fields trying to recalculate from current hierarchy data fail

Calculated Field Configuration Fix: Your calculated field using ‘Employee > Position > Cost Center’ needs to be modified to handle both effective dating and hierarchy changes:

1. Add an effective date parameter that references the expense report submission date: `Cost_Center_As_Of_Date(Employee.Position, Expense_Report.Submit_Date)

2. Instead of recalculating cost center from current position data, reference the cost center that was captured on the expense report at submission time: `Expense_Report.Worktags.Cost_Center This pulls the cost center value that was stored when the expense was submitted, which is the financially accurate approach for historical reporting.

3. For current/future expense reports, your existing calculated field approach works, but add a fallback:

   
   If(Expense_Report.Worktags.Cost_Center exists,
      Expense_Report.Worktags.Cost_Center,
      Employee.Position.Cost_Center_As_Of(Expense_Report.Submit_Date))
   

   This tries the stored worktag first, then falls back to calculating from position if needed.

Reconciliation Process Solution: For your immediate monthly reconciliation needs:

1. Create two versions of the calculated field:

   • ‘Cost_Center_At_Submission’ - uses the stored worktag value (for historical accuracy)
   • ‘Current_Cost_Center’ - uses the current position assignment (for reallocation if needed)

2. Add both to your report so finance can see:

   • What cost center was charged at the time (for historical accuracy)
   • What cost center the employee currently belongs to (for identifying reorganization impacts)

3. Add a third calculated field ‘Cost_Center_Changed’ (Boolean): `If(Cost_Center_At_Submission <> Current_Cost_Center, “Yes”, “No”) This flags expense reports affected by the reorganization.

Data Remediation for Blank Values: For expense reports now showing blanks, you need to backfill the cost center data:

1. Export a list of expense reports with blank cost centers (include Expense Report ID and Submit Date)
2. Create a query that pulls the cost center assignment for each employee as of their expense report submit date using the old hierarchy
3. If old cost centers were merged, create a mapping table: Old Cost Center → New Cost Center
4. Use EIB to update the worktag assignment on those historical expense reports with the correct cost center

This backfill ensures historical data integrity and allows your reconciliation to proceed.

Prevention for Future Hierarchy Changes: Work with your finance team to establish a protocol:

• Before hierarchy changes go live, run impact analysis reports to identify open transactions (expense reports, purchase orders, etc.) that reference affected cost centers
• Create a transition period where both old and new cost centers are active, allowing in-flight transactions to complete under the old structure
• Document cost center mapping for any mergers/splits so reporting can maintain historical continuity

Implementing these changes will resolve your blank cost center issue and make your expense analytics more resilient to future organizational changes.

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This draft is based on general Workday knowledge. It has not been verified against your specific version and environment. Practitioners: verify the steps and share your experience below.

[samantha_dev]

Hierarchy changes can definitely break calculated fields if they’re referencing specific hierarchy paths. When cost centers are moved or restructured, any calculated field that uses a hardcoded hierarchy path will fail. Check your calculated field definition - if it’s looking for cost centers at a specific level in the old hierarchy structure, that path no longer exists. You’ll need to update the calculated field to use the new hierarchy structure or make it more dynamic so it doesn’t break with future changes.

[kathleenninja]

I reviewed the calculated field definition and it’s using a path like Employee > Position > Cost Center, which seems pretty straightforward. I don’t see any hardcoded hierarchy levels in the formula. Could the issue be related to effective dating? The hierarchy changes were made effective as of the first of the month, and some of the expense reports with blank cost centers are from before that date.

[brenda_coder]

That’s a good catch on the effective dating. If your calculated field doesn’t specify an effective date parameter, it might be using the wrong effective date when evaluating the cost center assignment. For expense reports submitted before the hierarchy change, the calculated field should use the cost center as of the expense report date, not today’s date. You need to modify the calculated field to reference the expense report date as the effective date parameter, not a static date or ‘today’.

[abhishek_pro]

Beyond effective dating, consider whether the calculated field is pulling from the right source. If it’s pulling from the worker’s current position cost center rather than the cost center that was associated with the expense at the time of submission, you’ll get mismatches. Expense reports should capture the cost center at submission time, not current cost center. Check if your report is using a snapshot of the expense data or if it’s dynamically recalculating from current worker data. For historical expense reporting, you need to use the cost center value stored on the expense transaction itself.

[francesca_guru]

I’d also verify that the finance team’s hierarchy update didn’t accidentally break the relationship between positions and cost centers. Sometimes when restructuring, if the new cost center isn’t properly linked to all the positions that were under the old structure, those positions end up with no cost center assignment temporarily. Run a quick audit report to check for positions without cost center assignments - that would explain the blanks in your expense report even if the calculated field is configured correctly.

Confirmed this resolves the issue — after realigning our Workday calculated fields to the updated cost center hierarchy effective dates, historical expense report data populated correctly in the analytics report.