Think of Workday as a vast digital filing cabinet for your organization. It holds everything from employee information and payroll details to financial data and project plans. Workday reporting is simply the process of pulling specific information from those filing cabinets and arranging it in a useful way. It’s how you answer questions like, “How many people did we hire last quarter?” or “What’s our total office supply spending for the year?”

These reports aren't just lists of data. They are tools for making smarter decisions, spotting trends, and managing the business more effectively. By turning raw data into clear, organized information, you can get a real-time picture of what’s happening across the company.

Workday gives you two main ways to get your data: standard reports and custom reports.

Standard reports are pre-built by Workday. They cover the most common business needs, like viewing a list of all active employees or checking recent hires. They are ready to go right out of the box. Think of them like a restaurant's set menu; the options are already defined for you.

Custom reports are ones you build yourself from the ground up. This is where the real power lies. You get to choose the exact information you want to see, how it's organized, and who can see it. It’s like creating your own recipe instead of ordering off the menu. You have complete control over the final dish.

To build custom reports, you first need to understand how Workday organizes its data. The two most important concepts are Business Objects and Data Sources.

A Data Source is the set of actual data you want to report on. If the Worker business object is the blueprint, the data source is the specific group of workers you’re interested in, like “All Active Employees” or “New Hires in the Last 90 Days.”

Every custom report starts with these two choices. First, you pick the primary business object (what kind of data are you looking for?). Then, you select the data source (which specific records of that data do you want to include?). This combination forms the foundation of your report.

When you log into Workday, the main tool for reporting is the search bar. It's your starting point for almost everything. You can use it to find existing reports, create new ones, or look up business objects and data sources.

To find a report, simply type its name. For example, typing Absence Balance will show you the standard report for viewing employee time off. To create a new report, you would type Create Custom Report.

Workday also uses a system of related actions. Next to many items, you'll see a small icon with three dots. Clicking this opens a menu of things you can do with that item. For an employee, this menu might include actions like “View Profile” or “Start Performance Review.” For a report, it will include options like “Run,” “Edit,” or “Share.” This little button is your best friend for discovering what's possible.

This basic navigation and understanding of business objects and data sources are the keys to unlocking Workday's reporting power. With these fundamentals, you can start exploring the data available to you and begin thinking about the questions you want to answer.