October 2018

Workday reports:
A brief guide
to optimization
Authors
Reports in Workday are critical. They’re a gateway across
Stephan Dolan
Technology Leader – AMS the organization to information that’s stored and secured
Scott Winn
Workday Manager – AMS in Workday. This is where:
Kaarthik Arumugam
Workday Senior Consultant – AMS • Employees see personal information, as well as time entries
and approvals.
• Managers can check open or closed job requisitions.
• Payroll administrators review payroll records for validation.
• System administrators extract records for use by vendors
leveraging flat files or APIs for use by external systems.

Creating reports in Workday can be a fairly straightforward task

but it is critical that the report be efficient and not overly complex.
Optimizing reports during the initial phases of report writing
will allow for expected results to be returned in the least resource
intensive and quickest way possible. Inefficient reports can result
in incorrect or incomplete data being returned and/or long
running reports that can impact overall tenant performance.

There are some essentials to consider in building a custom

report or managing a standard report. These include a strong
understanding of the domain and the functional requirements
to limit the data being returned. Knowledge of the Primary
and Relational Business Objects will limit the number of
database reads. And finally, an understanding of how to: leverage
index data sources, to optimize calculated fields, to implement
static fields, to run report log validation and to execute
performance tuning.

See below for a brief review of each of these topics, as well

as a case study on reducing report runtime from over 6 hours
to 1.5 hours.

Workday reports: A brief guide to optimization | October 2018 2

 Optimization factors Performance tuning
Here are the top five factors affecting report From start to finish, these three steps will
performance, along with recommendations help you tune up:
for building or modifying reports for improved
1. Identify: Configure report logs for the
efficiency and runtimes:
selected reports in lower tenants.
1. Data source: This is the critical factor This will help you understand the time
in report runtime and performance. footprint regarding total execution,
Try to select an indexed data source with initialization and data retrieval, sub report
predefined data source filters and built-in invocation, filtering, sorting, grouping,
prompts. Use of reporting and analytics field access and processing. Use customer
driven data source without comprising logs (performance data), support logs
information extract. This will enable quick (additional performance drivers) and
data retrieval and small data subset internal logs (technical specifications for
extraction, resulting in faster report developers) to get data retrieval statistics.
runtime. By collecting and reviewing these data
2. Filter conditions: Order report filters such points, you can recognize the access
that the first filter reduces the data set models, design approaches, delays and
by the maximum number of rows. Continue preferable optimization techniques.
selecting subsets in this way until the last 2. Choose: To improve report runtimes,
filter. This will ensure that each filter will review and use available index data source
operate on fewer records and enhance and associated business objects. See ‘Index
the speed of the report. Look for ways to considerations’ below for a synopsis of the
include global static or audit fields in need to index, the advantages of it—and
the report so the search works efficiently the potential problems if used incorrectly.
via cache mechanism and avoid object- 3. Deploy: Tune custom filters, sub-filters,
type fields. data source filters and built-in prompts
3. Fields: Always use simple fields as the to optimize overall report efficiency. Ensure
first column in the report rather than that the first column in the field or filter
object-type fields. Select related business is static (not an object type). When
object fields that result in the least additional data is retrieved with internal
number of records without compromising reference and pointers, actionable fields
performance while meeting the business can affect performance. Use sorting,
need. Be cautious with the number and if possible, in studio instead of in reports.
complexity of calculated fields. Review In this way, it can be performed much
alternative transformations, if required. quicker on a limited number of records.
4. Sort: Sort on simple field types if necessary
and avoid sorting on object field types.
Also consider using alternate frameworks
and approaches to group by, leveraging
mathematical computations or sorting
instead of performing it during report
execution.
5. Security: This affects the performance
of user-defined reports. Since security
is applied at the field and data levels, the
more fields with complex security there are,
the longer it will take the report to process.

Workday reports: A brief guide to optimization | October 2018 3

 Index considerations Problem:
As the data volume increased, the time it took
Indexing is a key strategy to retrieve
to complete reports gradually increased from
information quickly and efficiently. It scans
30 minutes to a couple of hours. It eventually
and identifies required records using optimal
errored after hitting six hours of runtime after
search patterns with pointers and stored index
a few months.
values. Workday standard data source, which
results in large dataset extracts, might cause Troubleshooting:
delay, so take care in selecting the data source A Workday case was created. We partnered
that will result in fewer but necessary results. with the customer to offer a number of options,
including the creation of a new data source,
Workday supports indexing using indexed
tuning of calculated fields and sorting of
data source. It optimizes search and data
the report outputs. None, however, seemed
retrieval, better aggregation and filtering on
likely to result in a quick turnaround or fix.
large datasets. It also contains predefined
security-enabled data source filters that work The fix—Report tuning:
more efficiently compared to normal report The performance tuning methodology
filters. It can be challenging to identify these mentioned above was followed to identify the
data sources and fields, but it can pay off. problems. Then, the appropriate data model
was selected and the required fixes were
Consider these factors in retrieving results
deployed. As a part of the identification
from a query index: It won’t handle non-
process, report logs were enabled and data
effective dated fields. It secures results. And
pattern, including functionality, was studied.
it minimizes returns that require a functional
Impacted areas and processing were analyzed
information review. Custom data source,
to resolve threads that were consuming
introduced in Workday 29, takes this approach
the long runs. As a next step data source,
further.
available primary business objects and related
Custom multi-level calculated fields with business objects with data source filters and
index data source can be powerful, but they built-in prompts were compared and carefully
can affect performance if you don’t take selected. Functional requirements were
proper design and technical considerations reviewed and data elimination conditions
into account. were tuned to improve runtime. The fix
was deployed leveraging available data source
Making it real filters (instead of in conjunction with custom
The customer was using Workday’s report filters), enabled built-in prompts, included
writer to build time entry and time-off a new global static field that uses cached data
data for current and retroactive period and finally rearranged the filter sequence
changes. The report had custom calculated to enhance data retrieval process.
fields, filters, sub-filters and prompts. The The result:
report was scheduled to extract data every Report runtime was optimized from over
week for a maximum biweekly period. A studio 6 hours to 1.5 hours in production.
integration called the RaaS service was
used to get the Workday XML and transform
it to the clients required file format.

Source: Workday

Target: External application

Report population: 150,000 employees

Record size: 1 million rows approximately

Tool: Report writer

Workday reports: A brief guide to optimization | October 2018 4

About Alight Solutions
As a leading provider of human
Workday timekeeping custom report runtime
capital solutions, we help our
clients and their people navigate
the complexity of health, wealth 6 6
6
and HR. We combine data-
driven, consumer-centered 5
technology with personalized
4
care and service to deliver 4
a superior customer experience.
Our dedicated colleagues 3
across 19 global centers help 2
2 1.5 1.5
more than 22 million people
1
and their 18 million family 0.75
1 0.5
members simplify work and life,
both now and in the future.
At Alight, we are reimagining how Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17 Aug-17 Sep-17
people and organizations thrive.

alight.com
©2018 Alight Solutions
How can you optimize your Workday reports?
Take a look at your current processes and review our recommendations above.
See what steps you can take to improve efficiencies and save time.

If you have questions about optimization or other aspects of Workday,

contact us at [email protected].

Workday reports: A brief guide to optimization | October 2018 5