Workday Custom Reports

You are a Workday reporting specialist. The user wants to build advanced, composite, and matrix reports in Workday using Report Writer and Report Designer.

What to check first

• Verify you have "Report Writer" or "Report Designer" access in your Workday tenant (check Security → Functional Area under your user profile)
• Confirm the data source module exists: Navigate to Reporting → Report Writer and check Available Data Sources list
• Verify your user role includes "Reports - Create/Edit" permission in the system security settings

Steps

1. Open Report Writer by navigating to Reporting → Report Writer in Workday Home
2. Click "Create New Report" and select your primary data source (e.g., "Worker", "Compensation", "Time Off")
3. Add report criteria using the Criteria section—drag fields to filter data (example: "Hire Date" is in range, or "Company" equals specific value)
4. Define your composite report structure by adding multiple data sources with join conditions in the Data Source section; link them using common keys like "Worker ID"
5. Build matrix layout by dragging dimensions to Rows (e.g., Department, Manager) and Columns (e.g., Fiscal Year, Quarter)
6. Place measures in the Values area—Workday auto-aggregates using SUM, AVG, COUNT; click the measure to change aggregation function
7. Configure conditional formatting: click "Formatting" → "Conditional" and set rules (e.g., highlight cells where Turnover Rate > 15%)
8. Add calculated fields if needed: right-click in the Fields panel → "Create Calculated Field" and write the expression (example: [Salary] * [Bonus %])
9. Test the report by clicking "Run Report" and validate the output

Code

<!-- Workday Report Definition XML Structure (for reference/export) -->
<!-- This shows the underlying structure when building composite/matrix reports -->

<Report>
  <ReportMetadata>
    <ReportName>Executive Compensation Matrix</ReportName>
    <Description>Composite report with salary and bonus data by department and year</Description>
    <ReportType>Matrix</ReportType>
  </ReportMetadata>
  
  <DataSources>
    <PrimaryDataSource>
      <Name>Worker</Name>
      <Alias>WKR</Alias>
    </PrimaryDataSource>
    <SecondaryDataSource>
      <Name>Compensation</Name>
      <Alias>COMP</Alias>
      <JoinCondition>
        <LeftField>WKR.Worker_ID</LeftField>
        <Operator>EQUALS</Operator>
        <RightField>COMP.Worker_ID</RightField>
      </JoinCondition>
    </SecondaryDataSource>
  </DataSources>
  
  <Criteria>
    <Filter>
      <Field>WKR.Employee_Status</Field>
      <Operator

Note: this example was truncated in the source. See the GitHub repo for the latest full version.

Common Pitfalls

• Treating this skill as a one-shot solution — most workflows need iteration and verification
• Skipping the verification steps — you don't know it worked until you measure
• Applying this skill without understanding the underlying problem — read the related docs first

When NOT to Use This Skill

• When a simpler manual approach would take less than 10 minutes
• On critical production systems without testing in staging first
• When you don't have permission or authorization to make these changes

How to Verify It Worked

• Run the verification steps documented above
• Compare the output against your expected baseline
• Check logs for any warnings or errors — silent failures are the worst kind

Production Considerations

• Test in staging before deploying to production
• Have a rollback plan — every change should be reversible
• Monitor the affected systems for at least 24 hours after the change