At SuccessDay, we know that staying ahead of Workday updates is key to optimizing your HRIT setup. In this blog, our Senior Technical Consultant, Elaine Wallace-Legg, will walk you through some of the latest improvements in absence management introduced in the Workday 2025R1 release. These updates help organizations handle invalid time off entries when employees change jobs or schedules, making absence tracking more efficient and reducing manual corrections.
Managing time off can be a challenge when change jobs or schedules, often leaving HR teams to deal with outdated or invalid leave requests. These inconsistencies can cause errors in time off balances, compliance risks, and unnecessary administrative work. These new Workday features allow businesses to automatically remove invalid time off entries, keeping records accurate and up to date without manual intervention.
Why This Matters
This update is particularly useful in two common scenarios:
- Job Changes: When an employee moves to a new role, they may no longer be eligible for certain types of time off, for example, if they relocate to a country with different policies. Previously approved requests against specific plans may not apply to their new situation.
- Schedule Changes: When an employee’s work schedule changes, some previously approved time off days may now fall on non-working days, making them redundant. Without an automated fix, these errors would need to be manually corrected, which can be time-consuming and prone to oversight.
New Workday Features for Automated Cleanup
To resolve these issues, Workday has introduced two services that organizations can integrate into their Business Processes (BPs):
- Change Job: Remove Invalid Time Off Entries after Job Change
- Assign Work Schedule: Remove Invalid Time Off Entries after Work Schedule Assignment
By adding these services to the relevant BPs after the completion step, Workday will automatically detect and remove invalid time off entries. The first time you implement one of these services, Workday will prompt you to run a task that initiates a background job, which runs every 15 minutes to process updates efficiently.
How It Works: A Streamlined Solution
When the service step runs, Workday identifies approved time off entries that are no longer valid and removes them in a structured correction transaction, ensuring consistency and clarity in records. Since the correction process is handled through the Correct Time Off BP, it is important to review how this fits into existing workflows, particularly in relation to notifications and approval steps. Because the job runs in the background at set intervals, changes may not appear instantly, so organizations should factor this timing into their testing and process adjustments.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Timing: The correction runs every 15 minutes, so updates won’t be immediate.
- BP Dependencies: Consider adjusting condition rules to prevent unnecessary notifications or disruptions.
- Custom BP Options: If needed, create a streamlined BP specifically for handling these corrections efficiently.
Limitations of the Update
While these enhancements help clean up invalid time off, they won’t automatically adjust or replace entries. For example:
- If a schedule change results in additional working days, Workday won’t add new time off requests for those days.
- If a job change affects an employee’s eligibility, they must re-request some time off under their newly eligible plans.
What You Should Do Next
To fully leverage these updates:
- Review Notifications: You may want to notify employees or managers when time off entries are removed.
- Optimize Your Business Processes: Decide whether to replace or complement existing absence correction processes with these new automation features. If you’re already using the Update Time Off Requests BP, check how these changes impact it.
Final Thoughts
These Workday updates offer a simple yet effective way to manage absence corrections, reducing manual intervention and improving the accuracy of leave records. While not a complete solution for every absence-related challenge, they provide a solid foundation for streamlining HR workflows and ensuring compliance. A big thank you to Rich M and the Workday team for delivering this improvement! If you’re looking to optimize your Workday setup, SuccessDay is here to help.
Get in touch with us to discuss how these updates can improve your absence management strategy.
