“I can see the award, but not the grant.”
Two layers: what a person can see and run, and what they can start or approve. Check the role, where it sits, the report's own access, then anything switched off.
No federal rule, but auditors still ask
There is no federal rule for grants access. It is about your own controls. Auditors will still ask one question: can one person both start and approve the same money move?
The diagnosis order
- The role. Is the person assigned to the award or the grant, or only to their department?
- Where it sits. Some roles are given at the department level and do not reach grant-level detail unless something is added.
- The report itself. Some dashboards need a second, separate access grant on top of the normal role, so the right role can still show nothing.
- Anything switched off. Some effort-related access ships turned off and has to be turned on before anyone can use it.
Minimum access, then a conflict check
A PI, a department grant administrator and a central grants analyst each need different things, and none of them needs to see everyone's pay.
Then flag anyone who can do both sides of any of these:
- Start a payroll adjustment and give the final approval.
- Change an award's overhead setup and approve the recalculation.
- Correct an award and invoice the sponsor for it.
- Certify effort and approve the adjustment that effort creates.
- Change award dates and release held costs for billing.
Two ways to take this further
The free health check runs sixteen checks on your grants area, and the free Effort Certification Review tests your own export in your browser.
The Sponsored Award Review is the scored version, $1,950 for your whole institution.
More guides like this: Workday Grants guides from an independent consultant.