Airtable Sync integration: Workday
  • 02 May 2024
  • 5 Minutes to read
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Airtable Sync integration: Workday

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Article Summary

Plan availability

Enterprise Scale access only

Permissions

Owners/Creators - To create or update synced tables, you'll need to have creator permissions in the base where you are setting up the sync.

Platform(s)

Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app

Related reading

  • Sync - Basic setup - If you haven’t set up a sync before, we recommend first reading this article to become familiarized with how the Airtable Sync feature generally works.

  • Airtable Sync FAQs - Answers to common questions that might help unblock you if you are encountering issues.

Workday sync requirements

To create a Workday sync integration, you need to first create a Workday report that specifies all the data you want to fetch, and you also need to create a Workday Integration System User that has access to the report.

Creating a Workday report:

  1. Enable as Web Service: Ensure that the Workday report is configured to be accessible as a web service.

  2. Unique Identifier Column: Your Workday report should contain at least one column that can uniquely identify each row of data.

  3. Share with your Integration System User: Grant access to the report for your Workday Integration System User (ISU). This step is vital for the ISU to retrieve the data from the report.

  4. Retrieve the Report URL: To establish a connection, you'll need the CSV URL of your Workday report. This URL is required for Airtable to fetch the data.

Configuring the Integration System User (ISU):

Your Workday Integration System User (ISU) must have the necessary permissions to access all the data within the report.

Testing the Report URL:

To ensure that your report is accessible using your ISU, open a web browser and enter the report URL. When prompted, input your ISU credentials. You should be able to download the report as a CSV file.

Allow Incoming requests from Airtable:

If your Workday instance is behind a firewall, then you need to configure your firewall to accept incoming API requests from Airtable. To allow Airtable access while still restricting other external traffic from accessing Workday, add the static IP addresses listed in this article to the allowlist in your firewall.

Enable Workday sync in your enterprise

Make sure Workday sync integration is not blocked in your enterprise settings. You can verify this in the Airtable admin panel. Once there:

  1. On the left bar, click Settings 

  2. On the top bar, click Integrations & development

  3. Find the Block integrations in automations and external source sync option below. Make sure this option is either turned off or that Workday is present in the allowlist.

Setting up a Workday sync in Airtable

Step 1: Add a new synced table

From a new or existing base, find the + Add or import button next to the table furthest to the right. If you have 4 or more tables in your base, then this button will simply appear as a + plus sign. Next, under “Add from other sources,” click the ## more sources option. Then, you’ll see a pop-up of other available syncs to choose from. Finally, click the Workday Reports option.

Step 2: Connecting with Workday

  1. After clicking to add the Workday sync you’ll be prompted to select or connect a Workday account. If this is the first time you are setting up a sync with Workday, then you’ll need to connect with a new account.

  2. Enter the credentials for your Workday Integration System User. If you don’t have a Workday ISU, please create one in Workday before proceeding.

  3. Next, enter the “Report URL. Once you’ve connected your Workday ISU, input your Workday report URL. If you don’t have a report URL, please follow the prerequisite steps to create one.

  4. Click the Next button to move on to field configuration.

Notes:

  • You must use the CSV report URL provided by Workday.

  • Depending upon the size of the worksheet, it may take some time for the next step to appear in Airtable. At the moment, Airtable can sync over a maximum of 50,000 records from a report per sync. You will see a spinner indicating that your report is being generated – do not close the window, otherwise you will have to start the process over again.

Step 3: Configure fields

  1. ​​Next up, you’ll need to configure the fields that will be synced over to Airtable. This involves choosing a primary field, customizing which fields will be shown, as well as picking field types for each column (field).

  2. We do our best to identify good field types for each field coming from Workday, however, sometimes you’ll want to adjust things so they make sense in your Airtable base.

  3. Sometimes, columns coming from Workday will be blank. This is most likely an indication that your ISU does not have access to the data in this column, and you will need to go into Workday to configure the ISU’s security policy to access this data. When this happens, we will present the following warning.

  4. Next, you need to choose a field that uniquely identifies each record. The unique field helps us accurately perform the sync by comparing the current state of your sync in Airtable to the information being held in Workday. In this case, the Worker field is not a great identifier, but changing it to Employee_ID solves this problem. If your report contains no unique fields, you can go to Workday and add a unique ID column to the report.

Step 4: Configure sync settings and create

  1. Before creating your synced table, there are options in the Settings section that allow you to choose whether or not you want to sync manually or automatically, and how to handle records deleted or hidden in the Workday source.

  2. You can also configure which fields to bring into the sync by clicking the Edit synced fields option.

  3. Once you’ve selected your desired sync settings, click the Create table button. Depending on how large the report being synced in from Workday is, it may take a few moments for the synced table to be created.

FAQs

How frequently does the Workday sync run when setting the sync frequency to automatic?

The sync runs every 6 hours. You can change it to only run when manually triggered.

What limitations exist for this sync?

The Workday sync has a record limit of 100,000 records. If your report exceeds this limit, we will only sync with the first 100,000 records from your Workday report.

Why is the synced table taking so long to be created?

Workday takes a long time to run large reports, especially when using computed fields. Expect to wait up to a few minutes for large reports.

Which report URL types can I use?

We require that the CSV report URL is used.

Why are some fields blank in Airtable?

Sometimes, columns coming from Workday will be blank. This is most likely an indication that your ISU does not have access to the data in this column, and you will need to go into Workday to configure the ISU’s security policy to access this data.


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