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Purchasing or claiming expenses

From February 2027, buying goods and claiming expenses will move from long email chains and complicated approval layers to standardised, easy steps in Workday. In-system policy guardrails will also make for more streamlined processes by catching mistakes before they happen.

Direct access for expenses
Every member of staff will be responsible for their own expenses, with a move to a 'claim on the go' culture to quickly capture details and scan receipts in Workday (on the app if preferred).
Procurement cards
Reconciliations will also move into Workday (instead of Barclaycard Spend Management), so card approvers won't need to manage their own login cards and card readers.
Simpler approvals
Transactions will be routed automatically in Workday to the appropriate staff member for a single approval, such as an admin manager or the budget holder, depending on the cost.

For people who aren’t York staff – such as visitors, research participants or other frequent collaborators – the expenses process won’t change much from what it is now, though it will be streamlined to align with our Workday approach. External examiners will either be classed as an employee, and submit expenses through Workday, or classed as a supplier, and submit invoices through Workday.

Instead of manually processing every claim, central and departmental admin staff will instead audit samples of past transactions: checking that receipts match claim details, and that people aren’t intentionally abusing this new high-trust culture. The programme team has configured Workday to align with in-policy allowances, so the platform will prompt you to correct any errors before submitting transactions.

The workflows that define who approves transactions (based on cost) have been designed to be consistent for all University and subsidiary staff (with certain exceptions for hazardous materials). Interdepartmental expenses will align to a single Cost Centre wherever possible to improve accounting efficiency and reporting effectiveness.

We're also amending a policy point, no longer allowing expense claims for 'subsistence alcohol' (had with a meal on a business trip), to align with recent changes among most grant funders and some Russell Group members. This doesn't affect business entertaining.

Purchasers will still use free-format or catalogue orders, and a new integration with Creditsafe will auto-check various details of approved suppliers. University of York staff will be able to order goods for any Cost Centre in the organisation, as will subsidiary staff for their respective organisations. There’ll also be a focus on Cost Centres in the training before go-live.

We'll still use the fixed delivery locations we have now, but there'll be a free-text field in the Workday process to add contextual notes for suppliers to follow (such as 'This delivery is for the attention of XXXXX'). Requisitions for hazardous or regulated materials will automatically route to qualified safety and compliance approvers.

Benefits for the York community

  • Process tracking: you'll be able to monitor the status and next steps of your transactions in Workday, with automated notifications and nudges to help you keep track of actions.
  • Improved auditing: with more consistency, transparency and automated tax allocation (based on transaction types), we'll be in a much better position to easily report on our finances.

Training and guidance

Full details and step-by-step guidance will come through our functional training activities and resources, which will begin rolling out towards the end of 2026. If you or your line manager would like to share any thoughts before then, please do discuss them with local representatives in the Change Network to feed back to the team.

You can also use our Staff Learning Collection for practical resources on change and personal development for you and those you work with, and explore the full range of wider wellbeing support on offer.

Programme timeline

Common questions