Workday Basics Terminology

Workday Components

Term	Definition
Home; Home Page; Landing Page	The default page contains applications, search, notifications, Inbox, and your Profile menu.
Applications / Worklets	An icon (a tile or a bubble) on the landing page providing easy access to tasks and information you use regularly. Examples: Time Tracking, Open Positions, and Anniversaries Use the Configure Applications icon above the Applications card on your Home Page to select optional applications to add to the Applications card.
Inbox	List of tasks you need to complete or have completed. Actions tab: Listing of your incomplete action items – items that need your attention Archive tab: a repository of your completed action items. You can use the archive tab to retrieve prior actions and check the process status.
Notifications	Message sent to you to update you on a task or process. Informational only, no action is required.
Dashboard	The dashboard is an application containing key management reports and actions.
Search	A field on the top left side of the Home Page enables you to find tasks, reports, and people within your organization. Search allows you to narrow results by categories, including common, organizations, and all of Workday. You can set your search preference by accessing preferences from the profile menu on the top right of the page. Search also allows you to filter results by specified criteria. For example, if you select the Find Jobs task, you can sort results by an organization, location, worker type, etc.
Report	A report is a table view of related information available within Workday. Reports are generated on screen but may be exported. Standard/delivered reports and custom reports are accessible based on your role and security.
Filter	A clickable icon used to narrow down data presented on a report.
Drill Down	A feature to view more data in a report. Drillable data elements are visible as blue text (or as a field in the table view or a column, line, or pie segment in the chart view), and when clicked, a menu appears providing options to view the data further.

Workday Processes

Term	Definition
Business Process	A business process in Workday includes the set of tasks that need to be completed for an event to occur, the order in which they must be done, and who must do them to accomplish the desired business objective. Business processes are created using a combination of actions, approvals, approval chains, To-Dos, or checklists. Examples of business processes: Hire, Change Job, Request Compensation Change, Terminate Employee
Delegation	Delegation is the assignment or reassignment of a task. If you are assigned a task, you can request for the task to be delegated. Requesting a delegation change is a business process that may require approvals.
Event	A business process transaction that occurs within the institution, such as hiring an employee or submitting an expense report.
Functional Area	A collection of business processes and associated security policies related to the same product features, for example, benefits or compensation. Workday solutions (Workday HCM and Workday Financial Management) are grouped into distinct functional areas.
Object / Business Object	Objects used to store data in Workday (such as organizations or workers). Workday links related business objects. Depending on the process, you may be able to Drill Down to view the corresponding business objects.
	Examples: HCM: A worker is associated with a position, the position to a job profile. Financials: Purchase order lines are linked to a purchase order header; the purchase order header is linked to a supplier; the supplier is linked to a company
Routing	Routing is the automated advancement of a business process from one role to another to complete tasks: approvals. Routing rules are, in part, based on the type of transaction, supervisory organization, employee type, and who initiated the transaction.
Task	A task is a step, either standalone or in a business process, that you must complete. Your current tasks will be listed in your Inbox Actions tab.
To-Dos	To-Dos are reminders to do something outside of the Workday system. They can be part of business processes and must be marked complete before the workflow will go to the next step.
Worktag	An attribute you can assign to events and objects to indicate their business purpose. For example, you can create a worktag to assign specific NACUBO codes to a procurement request.

People in Workday

Term	Definition
Approver	An approver approves the business process instance. There may be multiple levels of approvers throughout a business process. There can also be numerous approvers on a specific level of the business process.
Initiator	An initiator begins the business process.
Org Chart / Team	An organization chart is a visual depiction of how an organization is structured. It outlines the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between individuals within an organization.
Profile; Worker Profile	Your continuously updated page. It provides a quick view of your experience, skills, education, and projects.
Roles	Roles define a group of people with specific responsibilities and permissions. Roles help define what an individual can do and see within Workday.
Supervisory Organization	Supervisory organizations make up the organizational chart by grouping employees into a management hierarchy to define “who reports to whom.” A supervisory organization can be a business unit, department, group, or project. HR business process approvals and checklists are established for the supervisory organization hierarchy, with possible variations for organizations within that hierarchy.

What you see in Workday

Term	Definition
Task Actions and View	Buttons for commonly grouped tasks and reports that are accessed through applications/worklets.
Alert Message	The soft warning message that ensures you aware of system limitations or considerations. This message enables you to continue your work without resolving the issue.
Error Message	A hard warning message that alerts you when there is a critical error. An error must be corrected to move forward in a process or to enable your configuration.
Required Field Indicator	A field with a red asterisk indicates you must enter a value for this field before saving or submitting the page.
Related Actions	A clickable icon that enables the user to perform additional actions for an object.
Prompt	A prompt is a clickable icon that presents a list of options to select for a specific field.
Process Button	A clickable button that lets you do specific actions within a task. Examples are Add, Back, Cancel, Edit
OK Button	A clickable button to accept and save your changes.
Submit Button	A clickable button to accept and submit your input or changes in a business process. Submit will advance the business process to the next step.
Done Button	A clickable button that closes a confirmation screen.
Progress Bar	The bar tracks your progress as you are working through a task. It also allows you to move forward or return to a previous page within the task.