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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-06-13
Create Projects

Create Projects

  • Review setup considerations for project creation. See Setup Considerations: Create Projects.
  • Set Up Assignable Roles.
  • Create a project hierarchy. See Create Project Hierarchies.
  • Configure these business processes and security policies in the Project Tracking functional area:
    • Create Project
    • Edit Project
  • Security:
    Manage: Project Details
     domain in the Project Tracking functional area.
You can create nonbillable, billable, capital, and opportunity projects. These Workday projects help you to plan and track your work and resources. When you create a new project, you can:
  • Copy this data from a similar project:
    • Financials Summary
    • Overview (Summary and Details)
    • Project plan
    • Resource plan
    • Worktags
  • Select templates to prefill common project information.
  • Enter all your project data manually.
  1. Access 1 of these options:
    • Create Project
       task.
    • Create Opportunity Project
       task.
    • A project to copy. From the related actions menu of the project, select
      Project
      Copy Project
      . You can only copy the projects and project data that you can access.
    • An approved Idea. From the related actions menu of the idea, select
      Idea
      Create Project
      .
  2. (Optional) Select 1 or more templates for your project.
    If you select a
    Customer Contract Template
    , Workday creates a billable project.
  3. As you complete the
    Project Summary
     section, consider:
    Option Description
    Project Name
    You can reuse project names by editing the critical validation rule for project names on the
    Maintain Custom Validations
     report.
    Start Date
    End Date
    Select the start and end dates for the project.
    These dates control when workers can log time against the project in Time Tracking. Workers can only log time to the project between these 2 dates.
    Status
    Project previews display this status for informational purposes only. Project Status doesn't control functional behavior.
    Owner
    Identifies the person responsible for the project.
    You can use this information for roll-up reporting.
    Probability
    For an opportunity project, enter a number between 1 and 100 to specify or indicate the probability of converting to a project. Workday appends [O] to the names of opportunity projects.
    When you sell an opportunity project, you can convert it using the
    Convert Opportunity Project to Project
     task.
  4. As you complete the
    Reference Information
     section, consider:
    Option Description
    Optional Project Hierarchies
    Select additional hierarchies to group projects for reporting purposes.
    Project ID
    When you leave the
    Project ID
     blank, Workday generates a sequential ID.
    Integrations use the project IDs as a reference and only Workday administrators can change them.
    Billable
    Select this check box to enable time and expense billing, as well as revenue recognition for the project.
    Workday makes a project billable when:
    • You link the project to a contract or contract line.
    • You select a customer contract template.
    • A worker logs billable time against it.
    Capital
    Select to make the project a capital project.
    When you select this check box, you can't:
    • Review existing transactions tagged to the project for capitalization.
    • Revert to a noncapital project.
    A capital project is specific to a single company that you select for the project. You can tag transactions to a capital project when they belong to this company. Workday registers the resulting business assets with the company.
    Display Project in Opportunity Marketplace
    This option makes project roles available as opportunities in Opportunity Marketplace.
    Select to enable:
    • Project workers to express interest in unassigned roles for this project while it is active.
    • Project managers to staff their projects with interested candidates.
    You must configure project role requirements to include skills in order for Workday to display those roles in Opportunity Marketplace. Workers can view and express interest in suggested project roles that match their skills.
    This option only displays if your administrator configured projects to display in Opportunity Marketplace. Projects do not immediately surface as suggestions in Opportunity Marketplace. Project suggestions update once every 24 hours, Monday through Friday.
    Company
    Workday:
    • Populates this company on time blocks when workers log time against the project.
    • Assigns a worktag for the accounting, unless you override worktags in the operational transaction.
    Project Currency
    Workday converts all internal and billable rates to this currency when you report on the project.
    Customer
    Required for billable projects.
    Workday:
    • Populates this field on time blocks and worksheets when workers log time against the project.
    • Assigns a worktag for the accounting, unless you override worktags in the operational transaction.
    Balancing Worktag
    For capital projects, when you enable worktag balancing in your tenant, you can select a worktag to balance journals for transactions. The rules evaluate the balancing worktag of the project, not the balancing worktag of the transaction. Workday generates
    Due To
     and
    Due From
     accounting entries to balance your journal when the values on the transaction and project differ.
    When you use a cost center as a balancing worktag, you can restrict values to companies or company hierarchies on the
    Edit Cost Center
     task.
    Optional Balancing Worktags
    For capital projects, when you enable optional balancing worktags in your tenant, you can select up to 5 worktags. You can use them with your primary balancing worktag to report on and balance multiple worktags in a single transaction.
    Workday includes the Project worktag for the project.
    You can use a cost center as an optional balancing worktag to restrict values to companies or company hierarchies on the
    Edit Cost Center
     task.
    Project Groups
    Associate the project with a group of related projects for easier retrieval and comparison later on. This grouping is useful for roll-up reporting.
    External Project Reference
    You can associate the project with an external project ID, such as an ID from a third-party project.
    External Link
    To link the project to an external web site, enter the URL here. Example: https://zimit.io/
    The URL must match an authorized format specified by your project administrator.
    You can set up external links for the project using the
    Maintain External Link Validation
     task.
    Customer Contract Template
    For billable projects only.
    You can configure the Create Project business process to generate a draft customer contract from this template.
    Prerequisite For
    Displays all projects that have a dependency relationship with this project.
    Dependencies
    Select a project to create a dependency relationship with your current project. This relationship gives you 2-way visibility into related project details that might impact the current project.
  5. As you complete the
    Worktags
     tab, consider:
    • When you select the project on a transaction, Workday populates the transaction with the values in the
      Default Worktag
       column.
    • For worktag balancing, Workday only uses a balancing worktag if you select worktags of the same type in both the:
      • Worktags
         grid.
      • Balancing Worktag
         field.
    • You can set up related worktags for the project using the
      Maintain Related Worktag Usage
       report.
    • When you capitalize a
      project asset
      , Workday populates the related worktags in the
      Location
       and
      Worktags
       fields of the business asset.
  6. (Optional) As you complete the
    Project Detail
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Percent Complete
    When this value is 100%, workers can't log time against the project or its tasks.
    Success Rating
    After you complete the project, select a success rating.
    If you reduce the
    Overall % Complete
     to less than 100, the
    Success Rating
     field clears and becomes read only.
  7. (Optional) Select the
    Role Assignment
     tab.
    As you complete the tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Restricted to Single Assignment
    When selected, you can only assign 1 worker to the project role.
    Assigned To
    Assigns workers to a project role and grants them the appropriate security for their role on the project.
    Only workers with roles on the project can see project information. You can also limit roles to specific workers on this task.
  8. (Optional) Complete the
    Project Plan
     tab.
    When you create a new project, you can only access the project plan tasks on the project plan that are:
    • Unrestricted.
    • Restricted to the project hierarchy of the new project.
    • Inherited from the parent hierarchy of the new project.
    You can also add your project plan after project approval.
  9. (Optional) Complete the
    Resource Plan
     tab.
    When you create a new project, you can only access the project roles on the resource plan that are:
    • Unrestricted.
    • Restricted to the project hierarchy of the new project.
    • Inherited from the parent hierarchy of the new project.
    You can also add your resource plan after project approval.
Workday submits the project for review and approval.
  • Identify project risks.
  • (Billable projects only) Create customer contracts, and then add contract rates and billing rate rules.
  • Create custom objects.
  • Associate an idea with the project from the related actions menu.