Read time: 10 minutes

Hey there, #wellbuiltworkday friends! Ceci here. In today’s newsletter, I’m sharing my favorite tips to help keep your Workday reporting efforts neat and tidy 📊

Don’t worry, I won’t recommend you run each custom report and ask yourself if it sparks joy (unless you’re a nerd like me who gets giddy about beautiful configuration)—that experience is for your stakeholders 😉

Instead, follow these 9 powerful reporting tips to declutter and organize your custom reports for a serene Workday experience 🧘‍♀️

If you want to avoid…

❌ Multiple versions of the same report output…
❌ Half-completed custom reports sitting stagnant in your tenant…
❌ Saying “I don’t know” when a stakeholder asks if a report already exists…
❌ Experiencing decision blockers when creating new custom reports…

Then this one’s for you!

Ever heard the phrase “don’t reinvent the wheel”? This phrase applies to most areas of life, and your Workday reports are no exception. Why start from scratch when you can work with what’s already available?

To review what Workday-delivered reports are at your disposal, run the delivered report, “Workday Standard Reports”. This report returns a list of all standard (i.e. delivered) reports that come with every Workday tenant. Yes—a delivered report that lists all delivered reports 😅

NOTE: With out-of-the-box security, only members of the Report Administrator security group can run this report.

When you run this report without a prompt selection, you’ll see there are over 5,000 standard reports available in Workday. 😳 Don’t panic—many of these standard reports won’t be relevant to you. They may be tied to functional areas, categories, or configuration components you’re not using in your tenant.

Cut through the noise and browse your exact area(s) of interest by performing a targeted search using the “Report Categories” prompt.

For example, suppose you’re using Workday’s Compensation functional area and you’re on a mission to build a custom report to show your workforce’s average compa-ratio. In this case, select “Compensation” in the Report Category prompt to filter for Compensation reports only. No need to boil the whole ocean 🌊

Once you see results, click the related actions of a report you’re curious about and follow the pathway > Standard Report > Run. It’s best to right-click “Run” and select “See in a new tab”. This way, you can go back and forth between reviewing a particular report and perusing the whole list.

While the Workday Standard Reports report is a handy investigation tool, on the report output, only the first column, “Category”, can be filtered on; this can make it difficult to sift through the results. To work around this limitation, use “Ctrl + F” with keywords to hasten your search. Returning to our Compensation example above, you could search the page for “Compa-Ratio” to highlight relevant reports with that keyword.

Whether you end up using a standard report for your needs or not, it’s great to get your report-writing team in the habit of perusing what’s available before creating new custom reports willy-nilly.

With a targeted search, you may find the exact report output you’re looking for 🎯 (hooray!) … OR! … you might find a standard report that gets you close to your goal. Don’t knock this! The “almost-but-not-quite” standard report is valuable; you may be able to copy it into a custom report definition and alter it to your liking…

Peek again at the most recent screenshot included above... do you see the column in the Workday Standard Reports output that says “Type”? There are two values in this column: Report Writer and XpressO.

The standard reports classified as “Report Writer” are built using Workday’s Report Writer data sources. The Report Writer standard reports can be copied into custom reports 💫

Copying a standard report into a custom report is like taking a shortcut! Doing so can help you bypass the many decisions involved in creating a custom report from scratch, like… “what data source should I use?”, “what fields are relevant?”, or “how do I make a certain chart output on a matrix report?” It gives you a behind-the-scenes view for how the report is built, while allowing you to make adjustments. The best part? It’s easy to do.

Once you find a standard report that looks like a solid base for your desired custom report, you can copy it by clicking the related actions and following the pathway > Standard Report > Copy. This creates a custom report of the same name with a “ - Copy” appended at the end (for your final version, definitely rename this).

If you already know the name of the standard report you want to copy, you can also run the task Copy Standard Report to Custom Report ad hoc.

Let’s hear it for a shortcut!!! 👏 We’re hard workers here at Well Built Solutions, but we love to work smarter too.

If you do end up creating a custom report version of a standard report, consider also running the task Hide Workday Delivered Report. With this task, you hide selected standard reports from Workday’s general search, driving users to your new and improved version instead 😏

The other type of standard report is XpressO. These reports are built using underlying code instead of Workday’s Report Writer interface. Therefore, XpressO reports cannot be copied to a custom report definition. They’re usually built to meet a popular (and more complicated) request of customers like yourself… but since there’s no option to customize, you either love it or don’t use it depending on whether the output meets your needs.

When building a custom report, false starts are common. You might begin with one data source, then realize there’s a better data source more suited to your purpose. Or you might copy a standard report to a custom report only to find it doesn’t work the way you expected.

If you build in PROD, you need to keep track of these false starts, deleting as you go. That can be difficult to do when you’re deep in the sauce of exciting configuration (I’ve been there!).

When you build in SBX, you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your drafts. You can let your attempts wash away with the weekly refresh and only migrate your best version to PROD for safekeeping. Leverage your SBX tenant as the playground it’s meant to be to let Workday work for you 😎

Report tags help organize your custom reports within Workday. Like labels on a file folder, Report Tags catalog your custom reports by any dimension you choose, such as module, usage, or audience.

For example, let’s say you built a headcount report for both your Recruiters AND your Executives. You can add Report Tags of “Headcount Report” for tracking report usage, and “Recruiters” and “Executive Dashboard” for tracking audience.

Using Report Tags can also support standardization of your KPIs across various stakeholders. Let’s say you create a set of Attrition custom reports for your leadership team. You could add a Report Tag labeled “Attrition” on each of these custom reports. Then, if another stakeholder asks for termination data, you can search your existing custom reports for the “Attrition” Report Tag. This method will help you…

a) stay consistent across your workforce analytics, and

b) determine if a report request can be fulfilled with an existing custom report, or truly requires a new report build.

Want to get started? Here’s how to add a Report Tag to a custom report…

The Report Tag input appears adjacent to your custom report’s name on the custom report definition. You can either search and select an existing Report Tag or create a new one right then and there.

It’s that simple! Create your own philosophy around Report Tags and stick to it. Then, you’ll have a solid, organized inventory of custom reports to reference when your stakeholders come a-knocking.

You’ve all seen custom reports with names that are vague, unclear, or worse yet, include the Report Writer’s initials… try to limit this to your custom report drafts.

Once the custom report is finalized and shared with a wider audience, attempt to name the custom report according to its output. With a clear, detailed name, your fellow administrators and existing stakeholders will have less questions about what the custom report is for. You’ll also increase the custom report’s searchability in Workday and reduce the possibility of duplicates created by Report Writers thereafter.

Here’s an example…

Let’s pretend you created a matrix report that displays a chart of your employees grouped by country and employee type.

Which of the following is the best name?

❌ CB - All Employees
❌ Country Headcount
✅ Headcount by Country and Employee Type

With the third option, your end users and Report Writers alike shouldn't have questions about what to expect when running the report.

You’ve already reviewed the Workday Standard Reports available to you… now it’s time to uncover your inventory of custom reports.

Like a dream within a dream, there’s a report of all your custom reports. Conveniently, it’s titled, “All Custom Reports”. This report has a beautiful set of prompts (including Report Tags 😉) that allow you to narrow your results as needed.

Unlike the Workday Standard Reports report you reviewed in Tip #1, the All Custom Reports report is more user-friendly—you can filter on ALL the columns!

The columns in this report reveal details like…

The All Custom Reports report shows you your entire custom report inventory.

If you find a custom report that’s not your Goldilocks “just right” but is on the right track, you can copy it as described above in Tip #2: Click the custom report’s related actions > Custom Report > Copy.

No need to take the scenic route when writing reports! We love efficiency 👏

This tip might be my favorite… behold the task, “Mass Delete Custom Reports”! You can use this task to delete your custom reports en masse.

The task comes with prompts that allow you to filter for your deletion criteria. The prompt list looks mighty familiar to the prompts on the standard report, All Custom Reports, that you just reviewed in Tip #6.

A great starting point is to filter for custom reports for which the last run date was over a year ago; that’s almost a sure bet the custom report can be deleted, as it’s not in frequent use.

When you click OK, Workday will display the custom reports that satisfy your prompts as line items with a checkbox next to each one. You’ll need to select each custom report you’d like to delete manually (although, you can check “Select All” for efficiency).

Before you delete a custom report, it’s best to get permission from both the report owner and any shared groups or users to confirm the custom report is no longer needed.

Even better, with out-of-the-box Workday security, your Report Administrators have access to this task! Get them in the habit of deleting the custom reports they own that are no longer in use.

The Report Writer security group controls who has access to create and maintain custom reports and calculated fields. The Report Administrator security group has access to edit reports owned by other users.

These are both powerful security groups! You don’t want just anyone to be a member, so choose wisely.

With too few members in these security groups, you can experience bottlenecks when attempting to meet all your stakeholders’ requests. Or, if you have a dedicated reporting team, if only they have access, you risk “handcuffing” analysts who focus on certain functional areas (e.g. a Workday benefits analyst without access to create custom reports may have a difficult time fulfilling the entirety of their role).

With too many members assigned access (especially if these members are not yet skilled in report writing), you may end up with haphazard or duplicate custom reports scattered across your tenant. You’ve all seen the same version of a custom report with different initials floating around out there… let’s avoid that (see Temporary Reports below)!

Your best bet is to have an intentional list of members in these security groups who adhere to your standardized report-building processes (which will now hopefully include all 9 tips from this newsletter 😜).

“Temporary Report” is a setting on the Advanced tab of the custom report definition that tells Workday to auto-delete the report on a specified date.

The Temporary setting helps you avoid the issue of multiple versions. If a Report Writer makes a copy of a custom report just for themselves to add a certain column OR to fulfill an ad hoc, non-recurring request, they can set a delete date. It keeps your tenant tidy and is yet another way to let Workday work for you 💪

All you need to do is check the box, “Temporary Report”, then confirm the date you want it to delete. The date will auto-populate to a week from the day you check the box, but can be set to your preference.

And if the custom report ends up being super useful? No problem! Just uncheck the box.

While the Temporary setting is rather buried in the Advanced tab (it’s the last section on that tab), Workday makes it obvious once it’s been selected. A huge disclaimer will appear on your custom report definition right underneath the name.

You can also filter for Temporary reports on the prompts of the standard report, All Custom Reports, that you reviewed earlier. Hello visibility! 👏

It’s Spring y’all. And the cleaning doesn’t just happen at home… make the effort in your Workday tenant too!

When you work these 9 tips into your Workday report-writing process, your tenant will be more organized and your efforts more efficient ✨

We promise your HRIS team and stakeholders will feel the difference.

Happy Spring cleaning! 💐

As always, thank you for being a reader!

We’re celebrating you and your pursuit of a Well Built Workday 🥳

Until next time!

Ceci & Mia

Co-Founders of Well Built Solutions

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