What people complain about in Workday

Capabilities people described needing that Workday does not give them, taken from the highest-scoring problems first. These are individual accounts written in each person’s own terms, so two entries may describe the same underlying gap in different words.

• Automated data sync tool that eliminates manual re-entry across HR systems
• Real-time comp data reconciliation between HRIS and finance accruals
• Consistent single source of truth for employee records sent to multiple downstream tools
• Manual OCR and data extraction from PDFs, statements, receipts
• Manual reconciliation of GL exports to bank statements using spreadsheets
• Manual review of workpapers for errors and missing support
• A unified onboarding portal that integrates time tracking with task completion
• Mobile-optimized document upload and e-signature capabilities
• Automated scheduling and reminders for in-person tasks like drug tests
• A flexible, Excel-like modeling and analysis module within the finance platform
• Trustworthy, user-friendly interface that reduces the learning curve and earns user confidence
• Integrated data system that eliminates the need for external spreadsheets for ad-hoc analysis
• A reporting tool that integrates department-specific payroll data into standard budget vs actual reports
• Automated calculation and reconciliation features to reduce manual effort and ensure accuracy

The manual processes people built around the gap. A long workaround list is the strongest evidence a problem is real: someone is already paying for it in time. Where several people described the same workaround, it is marked.

• Re-keying new hire data four times across Greenhouse, Workday, provisioning, and payroll
• Discovering comp data drift only at end-of-cycle reconciliation
• Different versions of same employee record sent to perf-review, comp benchmarking, and reporting
• Completing paperwork in Workday manually without clocking in
• Uploading I-9 documents through employer's HR system
• Traveling off campus for drug test without compensation
• export to Excel because your expensive software can't handle it properly
• manually sorting through 20+ reports to compile budget vs actual
• performing extensive manual calculations to reconcile discrepancies

The problems themselves

Highest opportunity score first.

• Employee master data degrades across multiple HR systems (HRIS, ATS, payroll, perf-review) in a multinational company, causing payroll errors, reporting inconsistencies, and redundant manual data entry.

  4High
  General Business Services·Data Management·UniData Sync

• Accounting professionals waste a significant portion of their time on clerical, repetitive tasks (like manual data entry, reconciliation, and workpaper review) that are disconnected from the judgment and analysis they are trained for

  4High
  Accounting & Bookkeeping·Workflow Management·FileBot Accounting Assistant

• New hire is required to complete extensive onboarding tasks (HR paperwork, background check, I-9 documents, drug test) off the clock before starting work, causing frustration and unpaid hours.

  3Medium
  General Business Services·Onboarding & Credentialing·OnboardClock

• Practitioners are forced to export data to Excel because modern accounting and finance software cannot handle complex, ad-hoc analysis, reconciliations, or flexible reporting.

  3Medium
  Accounting & Bookkeeping·Financial Management·LedgerSync AI

• A local government accounting analyst cannot easily extract and reconcile budget vs actual data from Workday for a new payroll adjustment pilot program, requiring manual sorting of 20+ reports and extensive calculations that are not sustainable.

  4High
  Government & Public Administration·Reporting & Analytics·Workday Data Bridge