Workday Financials Implementation Specialist

Role-Workday Financials Implementation Specialist

Location- City of Kansas City, Missouri

Duration- 12 months

Functional Scope

Core Financials / FDM & PeopleSoft-to-Workday Chart of Accounts, Financial Accounting & GL, Budgets & Budgetary Control, Projects, Grants & Governmental/Fund Accounting, Banking & Treasury, Business Assets, Expenses, Customer Accounts / Revenue, Financial Reporting, Security, Integrations, and cross-functional Payroll/HCM and Procurement dependencies

Customer Value / Expected Outcomes

Serve as a trusted Workday Financials advisor at City decision points, helping KCMO understand options, tradeoffs, lessons learned, and likely downstream consequences before decisions are finalized.

De-risk the FDM and chart-of-accounts transition by helping map PeopleSoft structures to Workday worktags/dimensions, cost centers, projects, spend categories, and account structures while validating whether proposed account rationalization will meet City reporting and accounting needs.

Maintain a holistic view across Financials so that decisions in FDM, Budget, Payroll/HCM, Procurement, Projects/Grants, reporting, security, and integrations do not create unintended impacts or rework in other areas.

Help Central Finance and departmental fiscal teams meet aggressive deliverables by supplementing Workday expertise, accelerating issue resolution, strengthening design validation, testing, conversion/reconciliation, and reducing the risk of schedule slippage or avoidable change orders.

Bridge the City's PeopleSoft knowledge to Workday, translate implementation concepts into practical business terms, and transfer knowledge to City functional leads and departmental SMEs so they are better prepared for go-live and long-term ownership.

Primary Functional Priorities

Core Financials / Foundation Data Model (highest priority): PeopleSoft chart-of-accounts mapping, account rationalization, worktags/dimensions, organizations, cost centers, projects, spend categories, ledger structure, hierarchies, and downstream accounting/reporting impacts.

Financial Accounting / General Ledger: journals, accounting rules, allocations, interfund/intercompany considerations, period and year-end close, reconciliations, fund accounting, and financial reporting outcomes.

Budgets & Budgetary Control: budget structures, budget loads, amendments/transfers, spend controls, commitment accounting, encumbrance considerations, appropriations, and budget-to-actual validation.

Projects, Grants & Governmental Accounting: project structures, capital projects, grant cost capture, sponsor/award requirements, billing/revenue recognition, indirect costs, bond/debt-related accounting considerations, and public-sector reporting.

Banking & Treasury: bank accounts, cash management, bank reconciliation, settlements, payments, transfers, liquidity/cash processes, and related controls.

Business Assets, Expenses & Customer Accounts / Revenue: asset conversion/accounting, capitalization/depreciation, employee expenses, billing/receivables, customer payments, deposits, revenue accounting, collections, and reconciliation.

Cross-functional Payroll/HCM impacts: understand how FDM, costing, organizations, payroll accounting, time-related inputs, and related design decisions affect Financials even when HR owns timekeeping/time reporting and Finance owns payroll.

Reporting, Security, Integrations & Data: validate that Financials design supports operational, management, budget, audit, regulatory, and departmental reporting while considering security roles, conversion, integrations, and data governance.

Procurement / Procure-to-Pay dependencies: Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Management / CLM, and related configuration remain a separate specialist workstream, but this resource must understand the accounting/FDM dependencies and coordinate closely so Financials and Procurement decisions remain aligned.

Key Responsibilities

Work directly with Central Finance functional leads and departmental fiscal officers/SMEs across KCMO's decentralized finance environment, including specialized operating groups such as Water, Aviation/Airport, Public Works, and other departments.

Participate in Accenture-led design, alignment, and decision sessions; translate Workday concepts and proposed designs into practical City accounting, budget, operational, and reporting implications.

Serve as an experienced "right-hand" advisor at decision points by providing options, lessons learned from prior implementations, common pitfalls, and recommendations grounded in KCMO's business requirements.

Provide hands-on FDM / chart-of-accounts support, including mapping PeopleSoft accounts and structures to Workday worktags/dimensions, cost centers, projects, spend categories, organizations, hierarchies, and ledger/accounting constructs.

Evaluate proposed account rationalization and FDM decisions and explain how they will affect GL, Budget, Procurement/AP, Payroll/HCM, Projects/Grants, reporting, integrations, security, and future operations before the City commits to a design.

Validate Financial Accounting and General Ledger processes, including journals, allocations, accounting rules, fund/interfund accounting, close, reconciliation, and financial reporting outcomes.

Support budget design and validation for budget structures, appropriations, budgetary control, commitment accounting, spend controls, amendments/transfers, encumbrances, and budget-to-actual reporting.

Support functional validation across Projects, Grants, Banking/Treasury, Business Assets, Expenses, and Customer Accounts / Revenue based on City priorities, with particular awareness of governmental accounting, grants, capital projects, and bond/debt considerations.

Identify and communicate cross-functional dependencies between Financials and Payroll/HCM, Procurement, security, reporting, integrations, data conversion, and other Workday workstreams to minimize downstream surprises and rework.

Help Central Finance and departmental SMEs complete project deliverables on schedule by working in the details of requirements, mapping, analysis, decision preparation, documentation, issue follow-up, and validation activities.

Support requirements traceability and Financials test planning, including scenario development, script review, test-data preparation, execution readiness, evidence tracking, and expected-results validation.

Support SIT, end-to-end testing, UAT / Customer Acceptance Testing, defect documentation, triage, retesting, and resolution tracking with the City and Accenture.

Assist with converted-data validation and reconciliation for FDM values, opening balances, customers, assets, bank accounts, projects, grants, open transactions, and other assigned Financials records.

Validate that transactions are not only technically successful but also produce the correct accounting, budget, fund, control, and reporting outcomes across affected City departments.

Support fit/gap discussions and identify where Workday standard functionality requires a City process change, policy/control decision, departmental alignment, or additional clarification from the system integrator.

Review Financials reports, training materials, process documentation, and knowledge-transfer content; identify gaps and help City users understand future-state processes and Workday behavior through practical examples and working sessions.

Track implementation risks, decisions, dependencies, and deliverables; escalate items that could affect the aggressive schedule, accounting integrity, cross-module design, testing, or production readiness.

Document issues, decisions, recommendations, action items, and ownership clearly for William Choi, City functional leads, project leadership, departmental SMEs, Accenture, and related stakeholders.

Support cutover, go-live, and post-go-live stabilization within the agreed engagement term, helping the City retain Workday knowledge and continuity through transition to steady-state operations.

Required Qualifications

Senior-level Workday Financial Management functional experience (typically 5+ years) with strong hands-on implementation experience and evidence of operating independently in complex Financials programs.

Demonstrated experience across multiple Workday Financials implementations or major lifecycle phases; candidates with three or more implementation experiences are strongly preferred.

Deep experience with Core Financials / FDM and chart-of-accounts design or transformation, including worktags/dimensions, organizations, cost centers, projects, spend categories, account rationalization, hierarchies, and reporting impacts.

Strong Financial Accounting / GL knowledge, including journals, accounting rules, close, reconciliation, fund/interfund accounting concepts, and the ability to evaluate accounting consequences of design decisions.

Broad Financials knowledge beyond FDM/GL, with meaningful exposure to Budgets, Projects, Grants, Banking/Treasury, Business Assets, Expenses, Customer Accounts / Revenue, Reporting, Security, Integrations, or related Workday Financials areas.

Ability to think holistically across modules and identify how a decision in one area - especially FDM - may affect Budget, Payroll/HCM, Procurement/AP, Projects/Grants, integrations, reporting, security, or downstream operations.

Experience supporting design review, data mapping/conversion, testing, reconciliation, training/readiness, cutover, and stabilization while working alongside a system integrator.

Experience supporting SIT, end-to-end testing, UAT / Customer Acceptance Testing, defect triage, retesting, and business-user coaching in Workday Financials.

Ability to work effectively with both centralized Finance leadership and decentralized departmental fiscal teams, translating technical Workday concepts into practical business and accounting decisions.

Strong written and verbal communication skills with the judgment to constructively challenge assumptions, explain tradeoffs, document recommendations, and build confidence with senior Finance stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

Direct state/local government or municipal Workday Financials implementation experience is strongly preferred; higher education, utilities, transportation, or other complex public-sector experience is also valuable.

Demonstrated knowledge of governmental/fund accounting, grants accounting, capital projects, bond/debt accounting considerations, budgetary control, commitment accounting, and public-sector financial reporting.

PeopleSoft Financials-to-Workday migration experience, particularly chart-of-accounts/FDM mapping, legacy process translation, data conversion, and reconciliation.

Experience working in decentralized organizations where enterprise Finance standards must accommodate department-specific requirements, including regulated or enterprise-fund environments such as aviation, utilities, public works, or transportation.

Experience working alongside a large system integrator such as Accenture in a client-side advisory / implementation support capacity, including design challenge, decision support, issue management, and knowledge transfer.

Workday certification or Workday Pro accreditation in Financial Management, Financial Accounting, FDM, Budgets, Projects, Grants, Banking, Assets, Customer Accounts, Reporting, or related Financials areas.

Experience supporting financial close, audit/reconciliation, data conversion, production readiness, and post-go-live stabilization in a complex Workday Financials environment.

Sourcing Guidance for Recruiting

Prioritize senior Workday Financials practitioners who combine deep FDM / chart-of-accounts expertise with broad Financials knowledge. The City needs a trusted implementation advisor who can also work hands-on - not a high-level strategist, project manager, or operational accountant backfill.

FDM / PeopleSoft chart-of-accounts transformation is the immediate priority. Look for direct resume evidence of worktags/dimensions, cost centers, projects, spend categories, account rationalization, hierarchy design, and downstream reporting/accounting impacts.

Strongly favor candidates who have completed multiple Workday Financials implementations and can articulate lessons learned, common pitfalls, and the downstream consequences of design decisions across modules.

Public-sector experience should receive significant weight. Ideal profiles understand governmental/fund accounting, grants, projects, bonds/debt, budgetary control, and complex municipal reporting requirements.

Broad Workday Financials breadth matters: candidates should be comfortable discussing Budgets, Projects/Grants, Banking/Treasury, Assets, Customer Accounts / Revenue, Expenses, reporting, security, integrations, and Payroll/HCM or Procurement dependencies even if they are not the configuration lead for every area.

PeopleSoft-to-Workday experience is a meaningful differentiator because the consultant should be able to translate KCMO's current PeopleSoft structures and processes into practical Workday terms and identify migration pitfalls.

Look for consultants who have worked directly with customer Finance executives and functional leads, can challenge an SI constructively, explain options in plain language, and build consensus across decentralized departmental stakeholders.

Avoid narrow single-module consultants, Procurement-only profiles, HCM-only candidates, technical-only resources, or candidates whose experience is primarily operational accounting without substantial Workday Financials implementation depth.