Glossary

A

Absence
The Workday term for the process of tacking and managing employee absences.  This can include absences for vacation, sick, etc.

Academic Unit
A Workday organization type that represents a school, college, university, or other unit of your institution. These units can recruit prospective students, admit students, offer programs of study or courses, or administer financial aid. Academic units are also used with…

Active Candidate
A person with an application for a specific job requisition. Candidates must be linked to a job requisition for Workday to initiate a job application event.

Advanced Report
Displays fields from the primary business object and related business objects with advanced design options, including: filtering, subfiltering, prompting, sharing, advanced report results can display on charts and worklets and with multiple headings and subtotals.  Advanced reports can be enabled…

Aggregation Security Group
A security group whose members are other security groups. Grants access to workers associated with any included security group.

Alignment
Alignment lays the foundation for true shared services, part of the CHESS Mission and Vision. Colleges support one another. When there are staffing issues at one college, another college can step in. Of further importance, every time there are Workday…

Approve
An action in a business process that designated participants select to progress the event to the next step.

Auto-fill
A time entry option that copies time blocks from a worker's schedule or from a previous week when entering time.

Award
A contract agreement with your sponsor in the form of funding to perform an activity for a public purpose. It defines how to capture direct and facilities and administration costs, recognize revenue, and bill your sponsor.

Award Cost Processing
Processing facilities and administration costs and revenue recognition related to spend transactions on awards.

Award Credits
Percentage of award or award lines you allocate to specific worktags for reporting purposes.
B

Base Pay Element
The compensation components that are included in the calculation of base pay for the purposes of determining the compa-ratio and target penetration. Example: Include both base pay and bonuses in the base pay calculation for compa-ratio.

Basis Limit
The maximum amount of direct costs you can use to calculate facilities and administration costs.

Benefit Defaulting Rule
A rule that identifies the benefit plans, coverage targets, and coverage amounts that employees receive by default when they do not complete an enrollment event.

Benefit Event Rules
These rules specify coverage increase limits, EOI requirements, waiting periods, and other rules and conditions of enrollment for benefits enrollment events.

Benefit Event Type
Identifies the events that trigger benefit enrollment, such as open enrollment, new hires, or the birth of a child. It also identifies the coverage types to make available to employees for when an event of this type occurs.

Business Function Milestone
In the CHESS Workday Student Project, these milestones represent when Workday Student functionality will “go live” for employees and students. The CHESS Workday project will have several milestones from Fall 2026 through Summer 2027.

Business Object
Objects used to store data in Workday (such as organizations or workers). A business object has fields and instances, which are analogous to rows and columns in a spreadsheet. Workday links related business objects: a worker is associated with a…

Business Process Definition
A collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product for a particular customer or customers.

Business Process Instance
A business process that the initiator has started. The Hire Employee for Organization X business process definition becomes an instance when the initiator uses it to hire an employee.

Business Process Security Policy
A business process security policy secures the steps and process-wide actions including view, rescind, cancel and correct. It specifies which security groups have access to each action.
C

Calculated Time
Result of applying time calculations to a worker's reported time. Automates application of company or regulatory rules.

Calendar-Based Time Entry
A time entry method that uses the time entry calendar as the focal point for entering, editing, and submitting time.

Cancel (business process)
Canceling a business process stops the workflow in progress and reverses changes made to data. You can't cancel a completed business process; you must rescind it. A securable action in a business process security policy.

Candidate
Candidates include both prospects and active candidates.

Cascading Leave
A sequence of related leave types that are linked together. When an employee meets the conditions defined for ending a leave, Workday generates a return from leave request and a separate request for the next leave.

CHESS
The Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS) is a nonprofit that employs a unique approach to transform the student experience and streamline administrative operations by aligning processes among member colleges. Central New Mexico Community College, Clovis Community College, Northern New Mexico College, San Juan College, and…

Compensation Basis
A grouping of compensation components, such as salary, commission, and allowance plans, that define estimated earnings for an employee population.

Compensation Component
The umbrella term for compensation packages, grades, grade profiles, and plans that can be associated with compensation eligibility rules.

Compensation Defaulting Rule
A rule that establishes the criteria for how compensation components default to worker compensation during staffing transactions (such as hire or job change).

Compensation Element
Compensation elements link Compensation to Payroll. When a compensation element is attached to a plan that is assigned to an employee, Workday can determine which earnings to use to pay the employee.

Compensation Package
A grouping of compensation guidelines (grades, grade profiles, and their associated steps) and plans that you can assign to workers as a set. Packages provide a quick view of the eligible plans for a particular job or group of employees.

Compensation Rule
Guidelines for determining which workers are eligible for which components of compensation.

Conditions
Conditions are one or more logical matches that are resolved to True or False and used to decide if some action should be taken. You can add conditions to steps in a business process to determine if the step should…

Connector
A set of 1 or more integration templates that provide a framework for building integrations in aparticular functional area. The integration can support a specific type of data, or can support a specific endpoint (example: Salesforce.com or Okta).

Contextual Custom Report
A custom report created from the related actions menu of a Workday object by selecting Reporting > Create Custom Report from Here. Simplifies choices of data and fields to those related to the context of the object.

Correct (business process)
Correcting a business process changes a specification or data in the workflow while in progress. A securable action in a business process security policy.

Cost Reimbursable Spend
A billing item that Workday creates to help you bill your sponsor for award-related spending. The cost reimbursable spend amount includes both the original spend amount and any overhead costs Workday calculates based on your award costs configurations.

Coverage Target
Defines whether a specific health care plan or insurance plan applies only to the employee or also to the dependents, spouse, family, and so on.

Cross Plan Dependency
Limits the coverage options available to workers during an enrollment event based on their choice of other benefit plans and coverage amounts. Example: You can limit coverage in a specific plan to a percentage of the total coverage in 1…

Custom Report
Reports not delivered by Workday and built using the Workday Report Writer. Can be created new or by copying another standard or custom report.
D

Dashboard (landing pages)
A specialized landing page containing a set of pre-configured worklets for a functional area that you can copy or modify. You can add additional custom worklets to dashboards using the reportwriter.

Data Source
A data source defines a set of business object instances for reporting purposes. Allows reporting access to all business objects related to those in the data source.

Day Breaker
The time of day on which a worker's work day and work week begins. Defines the 24-hour period over which daily time calculations execute and the 168-hour period over which weekly time calculations execute. Unless otherwise specified, the default day…

Deny (business process)
When you deny a business process, the business process is terminated and all Workday data is restored to its state before the business process started. To restart the business process, you need to submit the process again and redo all…

Deployment
When an enterprise deploys software, this means that the software is available for their employees to use to perform work.

Disposition
Status of candidates that have been rejected for hire or declined a job during the job application event.

Domain
A collection of related securable items such as actions, reports, report data, report data sources,or custom report fields. Each domain is secured by a domain security policy.

Domain Security Policy
A collection of related securable elements of different types and user-specified security groups that have access to elements of each type.
E

Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a network or interconnected system.

End-to-End Testing (E2E)
Behind-the-scenes testing that follows a process through an entire cycle, from beginning to end. This may include processes such as taking a student from initial inquiry and application all the way through acceptance, registration, payment, attendance, final grades, re-enrollment, and…

Enrollment Event Rule
A rule that defines coverage start and end dates, waiting periods, coverage increase limits, Evidence of Insurability requirements, and other coverage rules and conditions. Rules ensure that the benefits process presents only the options that each employee is eligible for…

Enterprise
A synonym for business, company, or corporation. It also includes organizations and establishments such as universities, hospitals, or government agencies. Enterprise refers to any entity that makes products or delivers services and needs to manage its human and financial resources.

Enterprise Interface Builder (EIB)
An integration tool that enables you to create simple, secure, and customizable integrations with Workday. Alternately, an EIB is a simple integration created by the integration tool. An EIB consists of an integration system, an integration data source, an integration…

Estimate at Completion (EAC)
Includes all the hours logged and approved for the project, as well as the future hours the worker expects to complete.

Event
A business process transaction that occurs within your organization, such as hiring or terminatingan employee.

Extended Enterprise Learner
An external learner (e.g. A learner who is not employed by a company) who can access a company's learning catalog and content.

Extended Enterprise Learning
Workday Learning module that allows external learners (like vendors and contractors) to access a company's learning catalog and content.
F

FDM (Foundation Data Model)
The Foundation Data Model is the core of the Workday Platform that includes all accounting and financial roles.

Field Overrides
A tool that lets you customize integration systems that are based on a connector template. Field overrides are managed through an integration service. They use calculated fields or report fields to supply values to an integration system. Example: member IDs…

Finance (FIN)​
The financials workstream includes accounting, finance, financial reporting, analytics, revenue management, projects, and expenses.​

Functional Area
A collection of domain or business process security policies that are related to the same set of product features, for example, Benefits or Compensation.
G

Grade Profile
A breakdown of a compensation grade by functional task, geographical region, or other categorization your business requires. A profile enables you to assign more granular compensation ranges to workers.

Grant
A worktag that you can use to capture expenses.
H

Headcount Plan
Provides visibility into the number of workers necessary to achieve your business goals within a specified period of time.

Home Button
A button within Workday that, when selected, will take you back to your Landing Page, regardless of where you are in Workday.​

HR Partner
Performs HR management functions for assigned organizations.  Examples include creating and approval new positions, job assignments, and managing job profiles.
I

Inbox​
A specific inbox in Workday which contains assigned and completed tasks.

Individual Target
An individual bonus or merit target for a worker during a compensation review process that overrides the target defined on the compensation plan.

Instructor-Led
Refers to a training or educational approach where an instructor actively guides and facilitates the learning process. This typically involves live, interactive sessions where the instructor delivers content, demonstrates skills, and engages with participants to ensure understanding and application of…

Integration Attribute
An integration component that specifies the tenanted value of a data element in Workday. Example: Plan Sponsor Name is a type of attribute in benefit provider integrations.

Integration Data Source
Indicates the type of data that Workday receives from or exports to an external system and its location.

Integration Event
The record of an integration process. Every integration—current or past, involving the import or export of data, successful or not—gets recorded as an integration event. The integration event contains all the information about the integration process, including its status.

Integration Map
An integration component that specifies how values in Workday map to values in an external system. Example: Pay Rate Frequency is a type of map in third-party payroll integrations.

Integration Service
A group of related integration attributes, maps, and XSLT that provides a framework to transform Workday data into the format required by an external system.

Integration System
A tenanted definition of an integration between Workday and an external system based on a template that provides the methodology for communicating data.

Integration Template
A collection of integration services that enables communication between Workday and an external system. Workday provides integration templates in categories such as Benefits, Financials, HCM, Payroll, Payroll Interface, Procurement, Recruiting, Security, and Settlement. Many of the delivered templates contain default…

Integration Transformation
Converts data into a format that Workday or a receiving external system can understand. Workday provides some delivered transformations, and you can also create custom transformations.

Integration Transport Protocol
Controls how Workday exports data to an external endpoint or service or imports the data from an external endpoint or service. Workday supports several types of transport protocols, including email, FTP and SFTP, HTTP/SSL, Workday attachments, and Workday Web Services.

Integrations
Software integrations allow customers to move data between systems through an automated process.

Intersection Security Group
A security group whose members are other security groups. Members associated with all included security groups are granted access through an intersection security group.
J

Job Management Staffing Model
A structure that defines 1 set of hiring restrictions for all jobs in a supervisory organization, with nospecific limits on the number of jobs that can be filled.

Job Profile
The generic features and characteristics of a job or position, such as management level, pay rate type, compensation, skills, and other qualifications.

Job-Based Security Group
A security group that includes one or more job-related attributes or objects including job profile, job family, job category, management level, or exempt/non-exempt status.
L

Landing Page
Landing pages display a collection of worklets. Landing pages may have different display formats (grid or bubble) and support different functions. The Home landing page is intended for common worklets, such as self-service worklets.

Leave Family
A set of similar leave of absence types. Example: A company-specific family includes disability leave and bereavement leave, while a separate regulatory family includes jury duty and family medical leave.

Legacy System
A legacy system is outdated software and/or hardware that is still in use. It meets the needs it was originally designed for but does not allow for growth.

Linked Leave
A leave type that shares an entitlement with other leave types or time offs. Eligibility rules, validation rules, and supporting data reference the combined balance of the associated leave types and time offs. Also known as coordinated leaves and time…
M

Manual Payment
A record of a payment made outside of Workday Payroll used to maintain accurate payroll information. Example: Payments for the exercise of stock options.

Micro-edit
The ability to edit existing time blocks or add time blocks directly to a day by double-clicking the time entry calendar.

Mission: All ​Together
The project name assigned to implementing Workday’s Enterprise Resource Planning solution and Student Information System.

Mock Semester
This is an opportunity for users to test the system in a seemingly real-life scenario, allowing those who are not part of the implementation project to apply to our colleges, seek financial aid, and even register for classes. These individuals…

Move to Production (MTP)
This is the process of moving all of the Workday Student project data and configurations into the “live” tenant where our HCM, Payroll, and Finance operations are housed. The CHESS Workday Student project is planning two MTPs.
N

Notifications
Alerts letting you know the status of submitted tasks or actions.​
O

Object Class
The spend categories that award sponsors agree to reimburse award recipients for maintaining their projects.

Off-Cycle Payment
A payment made outside the regularly scheduled payroll run. Manual, on-demand, reversals and history payments are classified as off-cycle.

On-Demand
A learning strategy that allows employees to access training resources when and where they need them, at their own pace.

On-Demand Payment
An off-cycle payment that replaces, or is issued in addition to, a worker's on-cycle pay.
P

Passive Event
Events that result from the passage of time rather than from a specific change to employee data.

Pay Component Group
A collection or combination of related earnings, deductions, or pay component related calculations combined to simplify payroll calculations.

Pay Component Related Calculation (PCRC)
A related calculation that resolves automatically with earnings and deductions. Often used in the earning or deduction definition, can be used to display on pay results.

Pay Run Group
A set of pay groups that share a period schedule. Used to process multiple pay groups at the same time.

Payroll Effect
An option available in Workday Absence Management to stop paying workers while on leave. You can configure a run category to pay workers on certain leave types when the Payroll Effect option is enabled for the leave type.

Platform
A collection of applications, tools, and integrations.

Position Restrictions
The attributes and conditions that apply to an unfilled position in a supervisory organization that uses the position management staffing model. Example: Job profile, location, qualifications, and worker type.

Pre-Hire
In Staffing, an individual you're tracking before employment. In Recruiting, a candidate who is in the Offer, Employment Agreement, Background Check, or Ready for Hire stage.

Predefined Security Group
Security groups whose members are assigned through a business process. These groups cannot be changed except by reversing the business process or executing a new business process, such as applying for a position, or being hired. Examples include: Employee, Contingent…

Primary Business Object
When defining a report, the primary business object is the business object returned by the datasource.

Prism Analytics
Workday Prism Analytics blends Workday data with information from external sources, including legacy systems.

Project Asset
A container that captures separate, ongoing costs of a capital project in progress. You can associate multiple projects assets with a project to track costs over the life of a project.

Prospect
Someone you are interested in tracking who isn't associated with a specific job. You can use tags, prospect types, and prospect statuses to help track these individuals.
Q

Quick Add
A time entry option that enables you to create a time block and copy it to multiple days in a week.

Quick Reference Guide
Longer than a tip sheet, a quick reference guide is an overview that provides a set of instructions on how to use a product or service.
R

Recruiter
A role that creates, qualifies, and evaluated applicants for jobs and position for assigned organization.

Reference ID
A unique identifier used to look up data for integration purposes.

Related Business Object
When defining a report, fields that return objects related to the primary business object are said to contain related business objects. These related objects may have their own set of fields that can be included in the report.

Releases
Occur twice per year and contain a significant number of new features and functionality that may require configuration.

Report Data Sources
Predefined groups of logically related fields, used when creating reports with Report Writer, which define the data in the report row. For example, the Employees report data source contains contact information, personal data, and identification information. Report data sources also…

Report Writer
Developed using the Report Writer Tool, they can be copied, and then the copy can be edited. They can be used on both custom and Workday-delivered dashboards.

Reported Time
A worker's time that has been entered, but has not had any time calculations applied.

Rescind (business process)
On completed business processes, reverses all changes made to Workday data. A securable action in a business process security policy.

Revenue Category
An attribute in customer contracts and billing used to search for and report on goods and services you sell. Also a dimension in account posting rule types for customer contracts, billing, and accounts receivable that drives accounting behavior.

Role-Based Security Group
A security group that specifies one organization role and includes workers in positions defined for that organization role.

Roles
Groupings of specific responsibilities within an organization that are assigned to positions. A role is assigned to a security group to gain access to data associated with the role's responsibilities.

Run Category
Specifies which employees to process, and which pay components to calculate for each type of payroll run.
S

Search Bar
A tool with predictive search capability, results will appear after typing just 3 characters.

Securable Item
An action, report, or data that is part of a security policy. You secure access by defining the security policy to restrict access to an item to specified security groups. Related securable items are grouped into domains.

Security Group
A collection of users or objects that are related to users. Security group access to a securable itemin a security policy grants access to the users associated with the security group.

Segment
A grouping of related securable items, such as pay components, that can be secured together using a segment-based security group for that segment.

Simple Report
Displays fields from the primary business object with basic and limited design options, such as filtering and sorting.

Site Map
This icon is located under the Employee Profile icon and allows each person to view available reports and tasks based on their security role.

Spend Category
A logical grouping to search and report on acquired items and services. Also a dimension in account posting rules for procurement and spend that drives accounting behavior.

Staffing Model
A structure that defines how jobs and positions are created and filled in a supervisory organization. Workday supports 2 kinds of staffing models: Job management and Position management.

Staffing Organization
An organization category that includes supervisory organizations, matrix organizations, or retiree organizations.

Standard Report
Reports that Workday creates and delivers to all Workday customers. Workday creates standard reports using Report Writer or XpressO, an internal development tool. You can only copy and modify standard reports created with Report Writer.

Statement of Work (SOW)
A Statement of Work (or SOW) defines the scope, deliverables, timelines, and costs related to a project.

System User
An account associated with and required to launch a Connector or Studio integration. Workday delivered integrations and custom integrations require a system user account for authentication and web service calls. A system user account is not associated with a person…
T

Target
The object that a business process operates on. For example, for business processes that deal with an employee record, the target is the employee. Because the target determines the organization, it controls which business process custom definition Workday uses.

Task
A step, either standalone or in business process, that you must complete. For example, task alert notifications are triggered by steps in a business process.

Technical
The technical workstream includes data conversion, integrations, and reporting. This team weaves details from both the HCM and FINs workstream to fill the missing pieces in building Workday for CHESS.​

Temporary Report
A custom report that you designate as Temporary when creating the report. Workday automatically deletes temporary simple reports after 7 days. For advanced and matrix reports you can change the Temporary option on the Advanced tab of the report definition.

Tenant​
A tenant is a unique instance of Workday. Tenants provide dedicated, secure spaces where data exists independently of other tenants.​

Termination Adjustment
A time off adjustment that automatically sets the remaining balance of a worker's time off plan to zero upon the worker's termination.

Time Block
A time block carries information about a portion of time, such as the number of hours worked or in/out times. Time blocks can be reported or calculated, but only calculated time blocks are pulled into Workday Payroll.

Time Calculation
A set of rules to apply time calculation tags to calculated time blocks for Payroll or other purposes. Example: You could create a time calculation to convert regular hours into overtime hours automatically if a worker works more than 40…

Time Calculation Tag
Workday applies calculation tags to time blocks during time calculations. The tags map to payroll earnings to drive how time blocks are paid and can be included in time off and accrual calculations. You can also use them to display…

Time Clock Event
A time clock event describes a worker's actions, such as a check-in or check-out, on the web time clock or an external time clock. Workday matches time clock events to form time blocks, which workers can edit and submit.

Time Code Group
The primary use of a time code group is to determine which time entry codes a worker is eligible for. Time code groups are assigned to a worker or to a position through eligibility rules.

Time Entry Calendar
A set of self-service pages that workers use to enter, edit, and submit time, when using calendar-based time entry. When using high volume time entry, workers can view and submit time from the time entry calendar.

Time Entry Code
A time entry code describes the type of time a worker enters, such as worked time or meal allowance. To use time entry codes, you must attach them to time code groups, except for the default time entry code assigned…

Time Entry Template
A template defi nes how a worker's time entry calendar is configured. Workers are matched to time entry templates through eligibility rules.

Time Entry Validation
Errors or warnings that prevent users from entering invalid time. Critical validations prevent a user from submitting time. Warnings display when entering time but don't prevent the worker from submitting time.

Time Off
The rules that apply to a specific type of time off, including eligibility rules, whether adjustments are allowed, and limits that differ from the time off plan.

Time Off Plan
The rules for entering and tracking 1 or more related time offs. Identifies the unit of time, eligibility requirements, whether to track balances, and if time offs are position-based or worker-based.

Time Period Schedule
A time period schedule defines which dates are available for entry at a given time and defi neswhich dates are paid in which pay periods. They can line up with pay periods, or, in more complex scenarios, they can be…

Time Proration Rule
A rule that prorates employees' target compensation in a bonus or merit increase compensation event according to time-based criteria, such as leave of absence or time since hire.

Time Shift
A grouping of consecutive time blocks that you can use in standard overtime calculations, time block conditional calculations, and validations.

Tip Sheet
A tip sheet is a step-by-step guide designed to help individuals perform tasks or processes more effectively. It typically includes detailed instructions or helpful tips to support on-the-job performance.

To Dos
Reminders to do something outside of Workday. They can be part of business processes, and must be marked complete before the workflow will advance to the next step.
U

Unnamed Resources
Placeholders for project resources that you can use to assign tasks and perform resource forecasting without specific resource assignments.

Updates
An update means that the software is changing to a new version, which may include new features and functionality, in addition to bug fixes. Usually, an update is a major version with significant changes from the previous major version. Compared to a "fix," "patch," or "maintenance…

User Readiness Review (URR)
URR is an opportunity to invite a small cohort of employees and students to test our Workday configurations and training materials through a sneak peek of the platform. This is an opportunity for our Organizational Change Management (OCM) Workstream to…

User-Based Security Group
A security group whose members are workers. In a security policy, it grants access to the securable items to all members of the group.
V

View (business process)
A securable item used to allow members to view status of a business process and report on it. A securable item in a business process security policy.

View (permission)
The ability to see objects or data through the Workday user interface, when permitted in a domain security policy.
W

Work Schedule Calendar
A calendar that defines the days and hours that a worker is scheduled to work. In Time Tracking, work schedule calendars affect time entry options, calendar displays, and time calculations.

Workday Education
Workday Education offers a broad array of training and resources to help users excel with Workday software. This includes interactive self-paced courses, and instructor led training sessions designed to enhance skills and support effective use.

Workday Studio
An Eclipse-based development environment that enables you to build more complex integrations with Workday.

Workday Web Services
Workday’s public API. Based on open standards, Workday Web Services (WWS) provide the core method for integration with Workday.

Workday​
Workday is a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Student Information Systems (SIS) solution that consolidates various financial, payroll, human resource, recruiting, admissions, curriculum management, academic advising, student records, student financials, and financial aid applications into one centralized system. 

Worker
An employee or a contingent worker.

Worklet
A compact report displayed as an icon (a tile or a bubble) on any landing page, providing easy access to tasks and information that are used regularly. Examples: My Leadership Roles, Open Positions, and Anniversaries.

Workstream​
An organizational structure within the Mission: All Together 2025 project framework which divides tasks of the project to specific teams (e.g., HCM/HR, Financials, Technical).

Worktag
A named attribute that you can assign to events and objects to indicate their business purpose. For example, you can create a Customer worktag whose values are the names of your customers. You can use the worktag to assign a…
X

Xpresso Report
These reports are developed using Workday's developer tools, rather than reporting tools. It's not possible to copy or edit them, or even tie them back to a reporting data source. They can be included on Workday-delivered dashboards, but not on…