How to Track Time on Workday HCM a Comprehensive Guide

Time tracking in Workday HCM is one of those features that looks straightforward on the surface but has enough configuration depth that getting it right requires understanding how the pieces fit together. Whether you're an employee trying to figure out how to log your hours, a manager trying to review and approve your team's time, or an administrator configuring the system, the experience is significantly different — and the Workday time tracking module is designed to accommodate all three perspectives. This guide walks through how time tracking works in Workday HCM from each of these angles.

How Workday's time tracking module is structured

Workday HCM separates time tracking into a few distinct layers. At the foundation is time entry — the act of recording hours worked. On top of that is time calculation, where Workday applies rules about overtime, shift differentials, and other pay policies to the raw time entries. Then comes time approval, where managers or automated rules validate and approve the time before it moves to payroll. Finally, payroll integration pulls approved time into compensation calculations.

Each of these layers can be configured differently depending on your organization's policies, which is why time tracking setups vary considerably from one Workday implementation to another. A manufacturing organization with hourly workers and complex shift schedules looks completely different from a professional services firm with salaried exempt employees. Understanding which layer a problem belongs to is often the first step in resolving it. Building Workday reports that connect time entry data to payroll outcomes is a useful way to verify that the layers are working together correctly.

Entering time as an employee

For employees, time tracking in Workday typically starts with the Time worklet on the Workday home page. Clicking into it brings up the current week view, where you can enter hours by day. Depending on your organization's configuration, you may enter hours in a simple grid (total hours per day), a detailed entry format (start and end times), or through a time clock entry that records actual punch-in and punch-out times. The input method your organization uses is set by your administrator and reflects your time entry method in Workday.

After entering hours, you typically need to specify what type of work those hours represent. This is done through time type codes — categories like Regular, Overtime, Vacation, Sick, or project codes that allocate time to specific cost centers or activities. The available time types depend on your role and your organization's configuration, so you may see a short list of options or an extensive menu depending on your setup. Accurate time type coding directly affects payroll accuracy, so selecting the right code for each entry matters more than it might seem.

Submitting time for approval

In most Workday configurations, time entries are collected for a period (typically a week or two-week pay period) and then submitted as a batch for approval. The Submit button on the time entry screen sends your time to your manager or to an automated approval workflow, depending on how your organization has set up the approval chain. Once submitted, you generally cannot edit the time entries without first having them sent back to you, so it's worth reviewing before submitting.

Workday will often flag errors or warnings before allowing submission — missing entries for days you were expected to work, time type codes that don't match your eligibility, or hours that exceed configured limits. These alerts are useful but can sometimes be confusing if you don't understand what validation rule is being triggered. If you encounter a submission error that isn't clear, the error message typically includes a reference to the time entry or date causing the issue, which narrows down where to look. HR systems like Workday are designed to enforce policy through these validation layers, which reduces payroll errors but can create friction when the policies aren't well understood by employees.

Using time clock and mobile entry

For organizations with hourly workers or those that require precise start and end time recording, Workday supports physical time clocks that integrate directly with the HCM system. Employees swipe, badge, or enter a PIN to record punches, which appear in Workday as time clock entries that can then be processed through the normal approval and payroll workflows. The time clock integration requires hardware setup and Workday configuration that's typically handled by an administrator, but from the employee's perspective the punch records appear automatically in their time entries.

Workday also has a mobile app that allows time entry and clock-in/clock-out from a smartphone. This is particularly useful for field workers, remote employees, or anyone who isn't regularly at a desktop computer. The mobile experience for time tracking mirrors the desktop experience in most respects, though some complex entry screens may be simplified on mobile. If your organization has enabled geofencing for time tracking — requiring employees to be within a specific location to clock in — those rules apply through the mobile app as well. AI-powered workforce management tools are increasingly integrated with Workday's time tracking to handle scheduling, coverage alerts, and time entry anomaly detection.

Reviewing and approving time as a manager

Managers in Workday see their team's time entries through the Time worklet or through the Team Time action. The manager view shows submitted time periods that are awaiting approval, with the ability to review individual entries, see time by employee and by day, and approve or send back time that needs correction. Most organizations configure automated reminders to both employees who haven't submitted and managers who haven't approved as the pay period deadline approaches.

Approving time in Workday is typically a matter of reviewing submitted entries for accuracy, flagging any that look incorrect, and clicking Approve for those that look right. Managers can approve time for individual employees or in bulk. If an entry needs correction — wrong time type, missing hours, incorrect project code — the manager can send it back to the employee with a comment explaining what needs to change, which notifies the employee to revise and resubmit. Automated approval workflows in Workday can be configured to handle straightforward time entries without manual manager review, reserving the manager's attention for exceptions and edge cases.

Configuring time tracking as an administrator

For Workday administrators, time tracking configuration involves several interconnected components. Time entry templates define what the entry screen looks like for different worker populations — what time types are available, whether start/end times are required, and what validation rules apply. Period schedules define when time periods open and close for entry, and when approval deadlines occur. Time calculation rules define how Workday converts raw time entries into pay-relevant quantities — how overtime is calculated, how shift differentials apply, and how different time types map to payroll components.

Eligibility rules control which employees see which time tracking options, connecting job profiles, locations, and employment types to specific time entry configurations. This is how Workday ensures that hourly workers see clock-in/clock-out options while salaried exempt employees see a simpler absence entry screen. Getting these configurations aligned requires coordination between HR, payroll, and IT, and testing them thoroughly before rolling out to the full workforce is essential. Compliance requirements around overtime and hours tracking also shape configuration decisions significantly — federal and state labor laws have specific requirements about how certain types of time must be recorded and compensated.

Common time tracking issues and how to resolve them

Several problems come up frequently in Workday time tracking. Missing time entries that should be there — employees who forgot to enter time or whose time clock records didn't sync properly — can usually be added retroactively by a manager or administrator, though some configurations lock time periods after a certain point. Time that was submitted but not yet approved that needs to be changed requires the manager to send it back before the employee can edit it.

Time period rollovers that don't match employee expectations — particularly around pay period boundaries that fall mid-week — can cause confusion about which hours belong to which period. Understanding that Workday calculates overtime by pay period rather than by week (in configurations that match payroll period to overtime period) helps resolve apparent discrepancies. If overtime isn't calculating correctly, it usually traces to a mismatch between the time period configuration and the overtime calculation rule. Tracking configuration changes in Workday over time helps identify when time tracking problems started and what changed before they appeared — a useful diagnostic approach when troubleshooting calculation issues.

Integrating time tracking with absence management

In Workday HCM, time tracking and absence management are closely related but distinct modules. Absence management handles planned time away — vacation requests, sick leave, FMLA, and other leave types — while time tracking handles the recording of hours worked. When an employee takes a vacation day, the absence management module creates a record of the absence, and depending on configuration, this may automatically populate the time entry with the appropriate absence code or require the employee to enter it manually.

The integration between these modules matters for employees who need to account for a full workweek including both worked hours and approved absences. If an employee works Monday through Wednesday and has Thursday and Friday as approved vacation, their time entry for the week needs to reflect both the worked hours and the absence hours. How this is presented and entered depends on the specific configuration your organization has chosen. Ensuring accurate leave tracking is part of a broader approach to workforce wellbeing, and when absence data integrates properly with time tracking, managers get a clearer picture of actual availability and workload across their team.

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