Workday Business User Terminology Glossary
Workday Business User Terminology Glossary
Workday Business User Terminology Glossary
Term Definition
Defines how much time off employees can accrue, the timing of the accrual, and other rules.
Accrual
Can define eligibility rules, frequency and limits that differ from the time off plan.
Additional Job A job held by an employee that is not his or her primary job.
Additional An off-cycle payment made in addition to a worker's scheduled on-cycle payment. Additional
Payment payments can be processed as part of a manual payment or on-demand payment.
There are three types of custom reports: simple, advanced, and matrix. An advanced report
provides all the features of a simple report, plus more advanced features such as accessing
Advanced
related business objects and producing multiple levels of headings and subtotals. Advanced
Report
reports also enable the use of sub-filters, run time prompts, charts, bubbles (worklets) and
report sharing, and provide the ability to expose the report as a web service.
An aggregation security group is one whose members are other security groups. Workers
Aggregation
associated with any included security group are granted access through an aggregation
Security Group
security group.
Annual Work
The number of months a faculty employee works in a year.
Period (AWP)
The multiplier used to calculate an annual amount of compensation for compensation plans.
Annualization
Each compensation plan has a frequency of payment, and each frequency has an
Factor
annualization factor.
Indicates that a task in a business process can proceed due to the approval by a designated
Approve participant. The participant is able to approve the completion of the task due to having
defined responsibilities for this task.
You can assign positions to organization roles. Depending on the staffing model, a position
Assignable Roles
may or may not necessarily have a worker specified.
A time entry method that copies time blocks from a worker's schedule or from a previous
Auto-fill
week onto the current week on the time entry calendar.
Awaiting Action A business process task waiting for someone to act upon it (e.g. approve, send back).
Base Pay Base wages for exempt and non-exempt employees excluding faculty and students.
Base Pay The compensation components included in the calculation of base pay for the purposes of
Element determining the compa-ratio.
Calculation Priority Calculation priorities specify the order in which time calculations execute.
Cancel (business Canceling a business process stops the workflow in progress and reverses any changes
process) made to Workday data. It is also a securable action in a business process security policy.
The maximum amount of time off employees can carry over from one balance period to
Carryover Limit
another.
A sequence of related leave types that are linked together. When an employee meets the
Cascading Leave conditions defined for ending a leave, Workday generates a return from leave request and
a separate request for the next leave.
A user-defined grouping of compensation components, such as the sum of salary,
Compensation allowance, bonus, future payments and retirement savings plans. Compensation plans
Basis that should be included in the compensation basis calculation can be specified. This
calculation can be used to view employee compensation in Workday.
Compensation
The umbrella term for compensation packages, grades, grade profiles and plans.
Component
Establishes the criteria for how compensation components default to worker
compensation during staffing transactions (hire, promote, demote, transfer).
Compensation
Compensation defaulting rules ease data entry by automatically defaulting compensation
Defaulting Rule
components to worker compensation for employees who meet the rule's eligibility
requirements.
The smallest unit of compensation for a worker in a specific position. Workday uses
Compensation compensation elements to determine the amount, currency, frequency and other
Element attributes of a worker’s compensation. Compensation elements, such as base pay, are
linked to compensation plans.
Compensation Compensation Grade is assigned to a Job Profile based on the level of responsibilities
Grade/ Grade performed by an incumbent of the Job Profile. Pay ranges are defined in Compensation
Profile Grade Profile.
Cost Center Cost Centers are used to track the financial impact of human resources transactions.
Costing Allocations define which Cost Centers a worker’s expenses are charged. Costing
Costing Allocation
Allocations override the worker’s default Cost Center.
Political entities (such as states, provinces, cities or other legislative entities) where
Country Region specific laws and regulations require companies to track and report on unique kinds of
worker and job information.
Faculty Leave Paid and unpaid leave types that are available only to faculty.
In a Report Writer report, a field contains data related to a particular primary or related
Field (reporting)
business object.
Used to limit the amount of viewable data after running a report. The data is limited by
Filter
user-entered criteria.
The first calendar day after the last leave of absence day. For example, if a worker’s last
First Day Back at
leave of absence day is Friday, February 9, then Saturday, February 10 would be the First
Work
Day Back at Work.
Frequency Used in compensation and payroll to help calculate worker compensation and pay.
The ratio of a worker's scheduled weekly hours to the business site's weekly hours. If a
Full Time
worker works 20 hours a week and the business site's weekly hours are 40, then the
Equivalent (FTE) %
worker's FTE is 50 percent.
A functional area is a collection of domain or business process security policies that are
Functional Area
related to the same set of product features, for example Benefits or Compensation.
Future Payment A type of bonus plan that can be paid out over multiple bonus plans, one-time payment
Plan plans or both. Any remaining target amount can be paid in a final true up payment.
Get is an integration action that retrieves Workday data. It is a permission that can be
Get (permission)
granted in a domain security policy.
A breakdown of a compensation grade by functional task, geographical region, or other
Grade Profile categorization. A profile allows more granular compensation ranges to be assigned to
workers.
Proration of a worker's gross-to-net pay as a result of certain mid-period changes, such as
Gross-to-Net
a change in tax authorities, that creates sub-periods. Gross-to-net proration results in a
Proration
separate payment for each gross-to-net sub-period.
The basic unit of the headcount management staffing model. One or many headcount
groups can be created for an organization, each with its own definition and hiring
Headcount Group
restrictions. A fixed number of positions to fill in the headcount group can be specified,
and hiring can continue until all positions are filled.
One of the three staffing models available to use in an organization. One set of hiring
restrictions can be created that applies to all positions in the headcount group. As a result,
Headcount
headcount management does not provide the same level of control over individual
Management
positions as position management. This model is particularly useful for organizations that
Staffing Model
hire large numbers of workers into the same or similar jobs with the same or similar
requirements and restrictions.
A headcount plan forecasts the number of workers necessary to achieve business goals in
a specified period of time. This is a foundational component of workforce planning.
Headcount plans can be created with different statistic types, dimensions and time
Headcount Plan frames; link to financial budgets; and pre-populate headcount plan data. Headcount plan
reports help provide an understanding of whether organizations are hiring to plan,
headcount is allocated correctly, and if the right workforce is in place to support your
goals.
The movement of data between two systems. For example, data flows between Workday
Integration
and Oracle Financials.
A single leave of absence taken as separate blocks of time. To facilitate tracking, time offs
can be coordinated with leaves of absence. Validation rules and supporting data for
Intermittent coordinated leaves and time offs can reference combined balances. For example, eligibility
Leave and validation rules can check to see if an employee has a sufficient balance across
coordinated leave types and time offs to take all days in a leave of absence or time off
request.
An intersection security group is one whose members are other security groups. Workers
Intersection
associated with all included security groups are granted access through an intersection
Security Group
security group.
The collection of user-defined job family groups, which each contain job families, available
Job Catalog
for use in hiring and other staffing transactions.
Attached to a job profile, user-defined job categories allow tracking of additional job
information. Job categories can be defined to fit your business. The job category is displayed
Job Category
on the position—based on that position's job profile’s job category—which facilitates
reporting at the position level.
Job classifications are required for many kinds of job-related regulatory reporting and can be
Job Classification
used to categorize job profiles. A job classification group is the means by which individual
(Group)
job classifications are grouped and maintained.
Job Family A grouping of job profiles, which in turn may be assigned to a job family group, so job
(Group) profiles can be organized according to how organizations work.
Categorizes job profiles (and their associated jobs and positions) based on compensable
Job Level
factors such as the level of education, experience or training required to perform a job. Job
(Hierarchy)
profiles are assigned job levels, and those job levels are organized into a hierarchy.
Leave of Absence Can be used to define worker eligibility for leaves of absence and to define validations
Rule that prevent users from submitting invalid leave requests.
Defines rules that apply to a specific type of leave of absence, such as jury duty or FMLA.
Identifies the leave of absence family and unit of time for leave requests. It can also
Leave Type
identify employee eligibility rules for requesting a leave, validation rules for preventing
invalid requests, whether to track entitlement balances, and other options.
A kind of benefit event that occurs in the employee's personal life, for example getting
Life Event
married or having a child.
The physical building where a worker works. The building name is in the Location field.
Location
The work street address is located in Contact Information.
Location
A location membership security group is one whose members are any workers assigned to
Membership
that location.
Security Group
Workday Business User Terminology Glossary
Workday Business User Terminology Glossary
Categorizes job profiles (and their associated jobs and positions) based on the
management level to which they belong. For example, a particular job or position may
Management Level
belong to the Supervisor, Manager or Individual Contributor management level. Job
(Hierarchy)
profiles are assigned management levels, and those management levels are organized
into a hierarchy.
Manager Self Manager Self Service, also known as MSS, is the functionality for managers to view their
Service (MSS) team, review notifications and initiate certain tasks.
An off-cycle calculation that records check or cash payments made outside Workday
Manual Payment
Payroll.
There are three types of custom reports: simple, advanced, and matrix. A matrix report
forms the foundation for custom analytics. It summarizes data by one or two fields that
contain repeating values. The resulting matrix is displayed as either a table or chart that
Matrix Report users can drill through to see the associated details. The specific detail data users should
see when they drill down is controlled by selecting the desired fields when defining the
report. Matrix reports also provide features such as filtering, run time prompts, worklets
and report sharing.
Modify Modify is an action through the Workday user interface that can be permitted on
(permission) securable items in a domain security policy. It includes view permission.
Companies use a base currency for transactions and reporting. Each company in a tenant
can have its own base currency. When a transaction currency is different than the
Multicurrency company base currency, the transaction is recorded in the transaction currency and
automatically converted to the base currency. Default currencies can also be defined for
customers and suppliers.
Multiplier-Based Insurance coverage based on multiples of salary, for example, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or 6x
Coverage salary.
No Retro Processing
The earliest date that Workday can process supported retroactive changes for a worker.
Prior To date
A worker with a status of Terminated or On Leave for payroll processing purposes. A run
Non-active Worker
category can define rules for processing non-active workers.
A payment, such as a manual payment or on demand payment, made outside the
regularly scheduled payroll run. Reversals and history payments are also classified as off
Off Cycle
cycle. Off cycle manual and on demand payments enable additional or replacement
payments to be issued.
On Demand check Manually processed check generated outside the usual payroll processing cycle.
On Demand
An off cycle payment that replaces, or is issued in addition to, a worker's on cycle pay.
Payment
Used in a business process to coordinate multiple events that are entered during the
On Hold same time period. Additional events are placed On Hold until a previously submitted
event process is complete.
One-Time Pay Payment for a Compensation Plan type that is paid one time, such as a bonus.
Settlement The agreed upon terms for an employee’s separation from Carnegie Mellon University.
There are three types of custom reports: simple, advanced, and matrix. A simple report
Simple Report provides straightforward design options for the beginning or occasional user to create
reports quickly and easily.
Any event that changes an employee's position or job, for example a hire, transfer or
Staffing Event
promotion. Staffing events usually trigger an opportunity to change benefits elections.
Defines how jobs and positions are created and filled in a supervisory organization.
Staffing Model Workday supports three kinds of staffing models: Job Management, Headcount
Management, Position Management.
Standard reports are developed by Workday and delivered to all Workday customers.
Depending on the reporting requirements, standard reports may be defined using the
Standard Report Workday Report Writer or in XpressO (Workday's internal development tool). Standard
reports that were designed using the Report Writer can be copied to create a custom
report and then modified according to user requirements.
Student Wages
Base wages for student workers.
Hourly
A partial period created when there is a change in a worker's compensation mid-period.
Sub-Period Payments are prorated over each sub-period according to the change in compensation
and the settings on the Compensation Element tab of Create Earning.
Subfields are additional details about a field, like a master/detail relationship. Subfields
Subfield
are used when creating reports using Report Writer.
All of a worker's wages subject to a particular tax, including wages for exempt positions
Subject Wages
and those that exceed a wage cap. See Taxable Wages.
Supervisory
An organization for a group of workers that report directly to one manager.
Organization
Termination A time off adjustment that automatically sets the remaining balance of a worker's time off
Adjustment plan to zero upon the worker's termination.
Termination
The first full day a person is no longer a Carnegie Mellon University employee.
Date
A time block carries information about a portion of time, such as the number of hours
Time Block worked or in/out times. Time blocks can be reported or calculated, but only calculated time
blocks are pulled into Workday Payroll.
A set of rules to apply time calculation tags to calculated time blocks for Payroll or other
Time Calculation purposes. For example, a time calculation could be created to automatically convert regular
hours into overtime hours if a worker works more than 40 hours in a week.
Workday applies calculation tags to time blocks during time calculations. The tags map to
Time Calculation
payroll earnings to drive how time blocks are paid and can be included in time off and accrual
Tag
calculations. They can be used to display time and time off totals on the time entry calendar.
A time clock event describes a worker's actions, such as a check-in or check-out, on the web
Time Clock Event time clock or an external collection system. Workday matches time clock events to form time
blocks, which workers can edit and submit using the time entry calendar.
Time Code The primary use of time code groups is to determine which time entry codes a worker is
Group eligible for. Time code groups are assigned to a worker or to a position via eligibility rules.
Time Entry
A set of self-service pages that workers use to enter, edit and view time.
Calendar
Time-Off Type Time off that an employee can request such as Paid Time Off or Jury Duty.
To-Dos are reminders to do something outside of the Workday system. They can be part of
To-Dos business processes and have to be marked complete before the workflow will go to the next
step.
To pay the outstanding balance for one or more bonus plans in order to meet the bonus
True Up
target.
Union
A grouping for all employees who belong to specific unions.
Organization
Unsupported A type of transaction entered for a prior period, for which the Retro Pay Calculation process
Retro cannot automatically recalculate employee earnings and deductions. Workday identifies
Transaction these transactions so that the necessary adjustments can be manually entered.
User-Based A user-based security group has workers as members. When used in a security policy, it
Security Group grants access to the securable items to all members of the group.