Workday Time Tracking Setup for Hourly Workers

Workday time tracking setup for hourly employees, featuring a desktop dashboard and mobile time clock for clocking in and out, managing timesheets, approving hours, and maintaining payroll compliance.

Setting up Workday Time Tracking for hourly workers comes down to six building blocks: time entry codes, time code groups, time entry templates, period schedules, eligibility rules and time calculations. Design them from your pay policies and FLSA obligations backward, keep each worker eligible for one template and one period schedule, and test calculation order before go-live.

Disclosure: The author works at CloudApper, which makes CloudApper AI Time Clock for Workday, which is discussed in this article.

Key takeaways

  • Write down your pay rules (overtime, differentials, breaks, rounding) before you touch configuration; every calculation should trace to a written policy.
  • Hourly workers usually need In/Out entry rather than Hours Only so you capture start and stop times.
  • Eligibility rules decide which template, code group, calculation group and period schedule each worker gets, so test them with edge-case workers.
  • Calculation priority order changes results. Pad priorities with leading zeros and leave gaps.

What are the building blocks of Workday Time Tracking?

Workday's administrator course material describes the setup components below. Names can vary slightly by release, so confirm them in your tenant.

ComponentWhat it controlsHourly worker design tip
Time entry codesThe kinds of time a worker can report and whether entry is Hours Only or In/OutCreate only codes employees should actually pick; fewer codes means fewer errors
Time code groupsCollections of time entry codes offered to eligible workersGroup by population, such as plant hourly versus retail hourly
Time entry templatesLayout and behavior of the time entry calendar, including a default time entry codeA worker should be eligible for only one template
Period schedulesWhen time entry opens, locks and closes, plus the submission periodAlign with payroll cutoffs; one per worker
Eligibility rulesConditions that assign templates, code groups, calculation groups, period schedules and work schedule calendarsBase them on stable worker data such as pay rate type or location
Work schedule calendarsStart and end of the workweek on the time entry calendarMatch the FLSA workweek you have defined
Time calculationsRules that tag hours as regular, overtime, premium and so onAssigned through time calculation groups, never directly to workers

If you are new to the worker side of the experience, start with our walkthrough on how employees track time in Workday HCM, then come back to the configuration decisions here.

Should hourly workers use In/Out or Hours Only entry?

Workday supports an Hours Only time entry code for elapsed time and an In/Out time entry code for arrival and departure times. For most nonexempt hourly employees, In/Out is the safer choice. The Department of Labor's FLSA recordkeeping fact sheet requires employers to keep hours worked each day and total hours each workweek, and start and stop times give you the evidence to support meal break, minimum rest and shift differential rules.

Hours Only can still fit some populations, such as part-time staff with a fixed schedule or project time allocation for salaried nonexempt roles. If you allow optional out times on a template, Workday can create an incomplete time block when a worker forgets to enter an out time, so plan who monitors and fixes those before the period closes.

How do you configure overtime and premium calculations?

Workday applies a default calculation tag to each entry based on its time entry code, splits blocks at the day breaker, runs eligible calculations, and then removes temporary tags. Calculation templates include Standard Overtime, Consecutive Day, Shift Differential, Minimum Daily Hours, Minimum Weekly Hours, Minimum Rest, Schedule Deviation and others. Standard Overtime can be set by daily, weekly, biweekly, rolling 24-hour, shift or configurable periods.

Priority order is where most errors hide

Each calculation has a priority. Workday sorts priorities alphanumerically, so "13" runs before "2" unless you pad values, for example 0010, 0020, 0030. Workday's guidance is to run double time before overtime, daily overtime before weekly overtime, and monthly overtime last. Leave gaps between numbers so you can insert a rule later without renumbering everything.

A test matrix for hourly calculations

  • A worker who works 46 hours in one workweek with no daily overtime.
  • A worker in a daily overtime state who works one 12-hour shift.
  • A night shift that crosses midnight and the day breaker.
  • A shift that qualifies for a differential for only part of its hours.
  • A week that includes a holiday or paid time off. Whether paid leave counts toward overtime is a policy decision; see our explainer on counting PTO toward weekly overtime.
  • A worker who transfers between locations or jobs mid-week.

Workers or administrators can use the Run Calculations option to recalculate a week after a configuration change, which is useful during testing.

Is time rounding allowed, and how should you handle it?

Federal regulations at 29 CFR 785.48 recognize the long-standing practice of rounding start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour, but only if it does not result, over time, in employees being underpaid for time they actually worked. Some states and courts look harder at rounding than the federal rule does. Before you configure rounding, confirm the policy with employment counsel, make sure it rounds in both directions, and plan a periodic report that compares rounded and actual punch times by worker.

How will hourly workers record time in Workday?

Workers can enter time through the Workday web and mobile experience, through hardware time clocks integrated with Workday, or through third-party tablet clocks. Choose based on where your workers are when they start a shift, not on what is easiest for HR.

OptionWorks well forQuestions to ask
Workday web or mobileWorkers with a company device or a reliable personal phone policyHow will you handle location rules and workers without a smartphone?
Wall-mounted hardware clockFixed sites with many punches at shift changeWhat does each clock cost to buy, maintain and replace?
Tablet kiosk appSites that want shared devices with self-service featuresDoes it capture punches offline and sync to Workday? Who manages the devices?

As one tablet example, CloudApper AI Time Clock for Workday runs on iOS or Android tablets, supports face ID, QR code, barcode and NFC punches, captures attestation answers and stores punches offline before syncing them to Workday. Whatever you choose, test how punches arrive in Workday: which time entry code they use, how missed punches surface, and how corrections flow to approvers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a worker be eligible for more than one time entry template in Workday?

Workday's administrator guidance says a worker should be eligible for only one time entry template, and the same applies to period schedules. Workers can, however, belong to more than one time calculation group. If eligibility rules overlap, workers may see the wrong calendar or none at all, so build a report that lists every worker with their resolved template and period schedule before go-live.

Why is Workday calculating overtime incorrectly after we added a rule?

The most common cause is calculation priority. Workday sorts priorities alphanumerically, so unpadded numbers run in an unexpected order, and calculations with the same priority run in random order. Pad priorities with leading zeros, check that double time runs before overtime and daily before weekly, and confirm the new calculation is assigned to the right time calculation group.

How long must we keep time records for hourly employees?

Under the FLSA, the Department of Labor says payroll records must be kept for at least three years, and records used to compute wages, such as time cards and work schedules, for two years. Many states require longer periods, and union agreements may add more. Set your retention policy to the longest requirement that applies to each population.

Should hourly workers approve their own timesheets in Workday?

Workers typically submit time and managers or timekeepers approve it through a business process configured in your tenant. Separating submission from approval is a basic control. Configure who approves in the business process, set reminders before the period schedule locks, and give payroll a report of unsubmitted or unapproved time so issues are caught before the payroll run.

Next steps for your Time Tracking setup

Write a one-page pay rules document for each hourly population and get payroll and legal sign-off. Map each rule to a component in the table above, then build eligibility rules from stable worker data. Create the test matrix, run it in a sandbox, and compare results against manual calculations. Also review how to create and manage period schedules in Workday so cutoffs match payroll. More admin guides live on our Workday guides hub.

Last reviewed: October 2026.

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