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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-09-19
Concept: Transaction Matching and Unmatching

Concept: Transaction Matching and Unmatching

Workday provides manual and automatic ways to match both company (or ledger) transactions and intercompany transactions, helping you to reconcile your ledger account ending balances on journal lines.
When transactions are matched, Workday assigns a unique match ID to the relevant journal lines to indicate the link between them. After transactions are matched, you can focus on transactions that remain unmatched.
When underlying transactions become unposted, Workday unmatches certain transactions automatically. You can also unmatch transactions manually.
For greater control over transaction matching, you can exclude specific transactions from matching. See Mass Mark Journal Lines as Unavailable for Manual Matching.

Automatic Matching of Company Transactions

Workday enables you to automatically match company transactions, either as a one-off job or on a recurring schedule.
You can choose whether to match on ledger amounts or transaction amounts using the
Set Up Journal Line Matching
 task.
You create rule sets that specify matching rules for transactions. You then start or schedule a matching run. When the run takes place, Workday applies those matching rules to automatically match journal lines and assign match IDs.
To enable identification and reporting, Workday assigns the
Rule Based - Ledger Amount
 or
Rule Based - Transaction Amount
 match type to these journal lines, depending on your configuration.

Automatic Matching of Intercompany Transactions

Workday automatically matches certain intercompany transactions when they’re posted.
Workday automatically assigns an intercompany match ID to journal lines created from the same intercompany accounting event for specific transaction types, eliminating the need for manual matching except in rare cases.
To enable identification and reporting, Workday assigns the
Intercompany: Automatic
 match type to these journal lines.
Workday only matches transactions posted to the Actuals ledger.
Transaction Type
Match Behavior
On-behalf-of intercompany journals
For on-behalf-of intercompany manual accounting journals and on-behalf-of intercompany customer or supplier invoices, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the resulting pairs of Workday-generated intercompany journal lines when all relevant transactions are approved and posted.
Direct intercompany journals
When you post a direct intercompany customer invoice, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the intercompany receivable and payable journal lines when the corresponding direct intercompany supplier invoice is approved and posted.
Intercompany settlements
When you settle intercompany payments through a settlement run, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the resulting intercompany payment and receipt journal line pairs when the intercompany receipt is approved and posted.
Direct intercompany netting journals
For direct intercompany netting transactions, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the resulting direct intercompany netting journal line pairs when the transaction is approved and posted.
Intercompany accounting reversal journals
For on-behalf-of intercompany manual accounting journals where the
Create Reversal
 check box is selected, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the intercompany accounting reversal journals when they’re posted on the specified reversal date.
When you’ve selected the
Always Reverse Accounting and Accounting Center Summary Journals
 check box on the
Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
 task, and you reverse an on-behalf-of intercompany manual accounting journal, Workday assigns an intercompany match ID to the intercompany accounting reversal journals when they’re posted.
Workday doesn’t automatically match intercompany operational reversal journals.
Workday doesn’t automatically match:
  • Accounting Center summary journals, except for intercompany settlements of Accounting Center summary journals.
  • Alternate ledger currency (ALC) journals.
  • Intercompany operational reversal journals, which Workday creates when you’ve selected the
    Always Reverse Operational and Noncontrolling Interest Journals
     check box on the
    Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
     task.
  • Payroll journals.
You can manually match these journal types.

Manual Matching of Company and Intercompany Transactions

You can match both company and intercompany transactions manually. You can choose whether to match on ledger amounts or transaction amounts using the
Set Up Journal Line Matching
 task.
Example: You can manually match:
  • Company transactions that are small in number that you want to match quickly without creating a matching rule set.
  • Company transactions that are missing identifiable attributes that you can't include in rule sets.
  • Intercompany transactions that aren’t matched automatically by Workday.
You can mark offsetting journal lines as matched and focus on journal lines that remain unmatched.
To enable identification and reporting, Workday assigns these match types to manually matched journal lines, depending on your configuration:
  • Intercompany: Manual - Ledger Amount
  • Intercompany: Manual - Transaction Amount
  • Manual - Ledger Amount
  • Manual - Transaction Amount
See:

Automatic Unmatching of Matched Transactions

Workday automatically clears existing match IDs from certain journal lines, both company and intercompany, when you change the status of the associated journal from
Posted
 to any unposted status, such as
Canceled
 or
Unposted
.
Workday only unmatches transactions when these check boxes on the
Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
 task are unchecked:
  • Always Reverse Accounting and Accounting Center Summary Journals
  • Always Reverse Operational and Noncontrolling Interest Journals
Automatic unmatching applies to:
  • Accounting journals.
  • Company payroll journals.
  • Consolidation Data Capture journals.
  • Intercompany payroll journals that were manually matched.
  • Operational journals.
When you:
  • Unpost or cancel a transaction, Workday clears match IDs from all journal lines in a match group so that other lines in the match group become available for rematching and reporting is more accurate.
  • Unpost or cancel a journal associated with a journal line that’s marked as unavailable for matching, the journal line remains unavailable for matching.
  • Reverse a journal associated with a journal line that’s marked as unavailable for matching, the original journal line remains unavailable for matching but the new reversal journal line is available for matching.
Workday doesn’t automatically clear match IDs from Accounting Center summary journals. You can manually unmatch these transactions.

Manual Unmatching of Matched Transactions

You can manually unmatch both company and intercompany transactions:
  • Individually, through the related actions menu of a matched journal line.
  • In groups, using the
    Mass Unmatch Journal Lines
     or
    Mass Unmatch Intercompany Journal Lines
     tasks.
See: