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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-04-03
Create Work Schedule Calendars

Create Work Schedule Calendars

You can define the:
  • Days and hours that workers are scheduled to work.
  • Extent to which workers can edit their own schedules.
When using Workday Time Tracking, you must assign all workers a work schedule calendar. The work schedule controls the:
  • Scheduled hours when you enable the
    Include Scheduled Hours
     setting for a standard overtime calculation.
  • Start day of the week for the:
    • Time entry calendar.
    • My Schedule
       and
      View Schedule for Worker
       reports.
  • Shading of unscheduled work days on the time entry calendar.
  • Hours that Workday automatically populates on the time entry calendar.
  • Return values from Time Tracking report fields that include scheduled hours or days.
  • Workers who are eligible for biweekly time calculations.
Workday recommends that you create at least 1 default work schedule calendar with patterns and assign it to workers. Creating a default calendar ensures that the correct Time Tracking configuration options populate when managers create custom work schedules. Workday automatically applies these Time Tracking options to the worker's new work schedule based on their work schedule calendar assignment:
  • Day Breaker
  • Day Breaker Divides
  • Work Week Start Day
  • Biweekly Calculation Start Date
  • Configurable Calculation Period
A default work schedule calendar also provides a pattern for managers to use as a starting point when doing the first schedule assignment for a worker.
To enable workers to request time off for work days that aren't holidays, configure
Days to Include
 on the relevant time off plan on work schedule calendars In Workday Absence Management.
When using Workday Absence Management, for optimal performance:
  • Create at least 1 generic work schedule in your Workday tenant that covers most of your workers' schedules. Example: 8 AM to 5 PM for weekdays.
  • Create individual work schedules and manually assign them to workers with unconventional work schedules.
  • Create a calendar rule on the generic work schedule to assign a default work schedule to all workers. You can use the
    Assign Work Schedule
     task to override the default rule on work schedule calendars.
When using Workday Scheduling, you can use work schedule calendars to create static schedules for workers whose schedules don't change significantly from week to week.
  1. Access the
    Create Work Schedule Calendar
     task. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Schedule Summary
    Enter a short description to display when a worker edits their schedule. Include information that helps workers make changes within the parameters of their work schedule calendars. Examples:
    3 scheduled days/week
    ,
    Max 40 hours/week
    .
    Description
    (Optional)Enter a longer description to differentiate this work schedule calendar from other work schedule calendars. Example:
    Mexico - Hourly - Night Shift
    .
    Calendar Rule
    Select a rule to assign the calendar to workers.
    When a worker has multiple calendars, coinciding events cause them to receive the sum of the time from the events. Example: When you assign 2 calendars to a worker and an event occurs on both calendars on the same date, the worker receives the sum of both events.
    Work Schedule Calendar Group
    (Optional) Select or create a new calendar group to include the schedule in.
  2. (Optional) As you complete the
    Time Tracking
     section, consider:
    Option Description
    Day Breaker
    The start time and end time of the work week. This enables workers to enter time for an entire work week at once. When you select a time other than midnight, the time entry calendar displays 8 days for the work week.
    Example: The work week begins on 12:00 PM PST Saturday, so workers can enter time through 12:00 PM PST on the next Saturday.
    Workday uses the
    Day Breaker
     time as the start time of each work day. A worker's actual start time, such as the beginning of a shift, can be later.
    Day Breaker Divides
    When the
    Day Breaker
     isn't midnight (12:00 AM PST), select whether Workday assigns the reported calendar date to calculated time blocks that are before or after the day breaker. When a reported time block crosses the day breaker, Workday splits it into 2 calculated time blocks.
    When you select:
    • Current day from previous day
      , Workday assigns the:
      • Previous calendar date to calculated time blocks that occur before the day breaker.
      • Reported calendar date to calculated time blocks that occur after the day breaker.
    • Current day from next day
      , Workday assigns the:
      • Reported calendar date to calculated time blocks before the day breaker.
      • Next calendar date to calculated time blocks after the day breaker.
    Work Week Start Day
    Select the day on which each work week begins. Workday automatically populates this field with
    Sunday
    .
    The work week start day determines:
    • The first day of the week that a worker's time entry calendar displays.
    • The first day of the week displayed on the
      My Schedule
       and
      View Schedule for Worker
       reports.
    • The period to consider for weekly and biweekly overtime calculations (along with the day breaker).
    Biweekly Calculation Start Date
    Enter the date on which biweekly calculations begin. The date must fall on the same day of the week as the
    Work Week Start Day
    .
    When you add a biweekly calculation start date, workers who you assign to this calendar become eligible for biweekly overtime calculations when they're in time calculation groups that include biweekly time calculations.
    Configurable Calculation Period
    Select the period of time over which Workday calculates overtime for period-based overtime calculations. You can create standard overtime calculations to pay workers after they work a certain number of hours during this period of time. For performance reasons, you must select a period between 2 and 31 days.
  3. (Optional) Complete the
    Scheduling
     section.
    Select the
    Enabled for Static Scheduling
     check box to use this work schedule calendar for static schedules in Workday Scheduling.
  4. (Optional) If the work schedule calendar uses schedule patterns, create them on the
    Patterns
     tab.
    Schedule patterns are recurring sets of start, end, and meal times that occur over a 7-day period. You can use schedule patterns instead of calendar events.
    1. In the
      Pattern Start Date
       field, select the date on which the patterns begin cycling.
      The
      Pattern Start Date
       determines the
      Pattern Start Day
      .
      The Pattern Start Day
       is the first day of the week displayed when you edit days individually on the
      My Schedule
       report.
    2. Select
      Pattern Details
       on each week to enter start, end, and meal times on the individual days of the schedule pattern.
      Select the
      24-Hour Shift
       check box if the shift is all day. The 24-hour shift begins and ends at midnight.
    3. You can add as many as 53 weeks to the grid. To copy values from an existing week to a new one, click the add button for the week you want to copy.
      If you create a pattern of more than 2 weeks, you can't enable workers to edit their own schedules.
  5. (Optional) On the
    Worker Editing Options
     tab, configure the extent to which workers can edit their own schedules. As you complete the tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Enable Worker Editing Options
    To enable worker editing options, the work schedule calendar must:
    • Use schedule patterns instead of calendar events.
    • Have a schedule pattern that is no more than 2 weeks long.
    The schedule patterns must conform to any restrictions you define here.
    Change Scheduled / Non-Scheduled Days
    Select to enable workers to change the days they’re scheduled for.
    Enable Hours Restrictions
    Select to configure the minimum and maximum number of hours workers must work per day or week.
    Uniform Start and End Times
    Select if all start, meal start, meal end, and end times must be identical for each scheduled day.
    Example: A worker's schedule starts at 9:00 AM every weekday. If they want to start at 8:00 AM on Fridays, they have to change their schedule to start at 8:00 AM every day.
    Minimum Duration
    Maximum Duration
    Enter the minimum and maximum number of minutes that workers can edit their scheduled meals to be.
  6. (Optional) On the Flextime Bands tab, configure core and flexible time bands. You can use flextime bands alone, with schedule patterns, and with calendar events.
    1. Add a row to the table.
    2. Create core bands for mandatory work hours.
    3. Create flextime bands. Select Morning Flex and Evening Flex if you want to tag those hours differently.
If the work schedule calendar uses schedule patterns, you can immediately view and edit workers' schedules.
The
Schedule Calendar Events
 tab displays any calendar events. You can only add calendar events to existing work schedule calendars that don't use schedule patterns.
If the work schedule calendar:
  • Doesn't use schedule patterns, add calendar events.
  • Uses flextime bands, create a flextime calculation to tag each category of band. See Create Flextime Calculations.
Access 1 of these reports to see a worker's assigned holiday or work schedule calendars:
  • Audit - Workers with Multiple Work Schedule Calendars
  • View Work Schedule Calendar
  • View Worker Calendars
  • View Worker's Time Eligibility
You can add the Employee As Self security group with modify permission to the
Self-Service: Work Schedule: Time Tracking
 domain so that workers can make self-service edits to their schedules. See Edit Domain Security Policies.