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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-08-07
Configure and View Alerts

Configure and View Alerts

Security:
Notification Alerts
 domain in the System functional area.
You can create a configurable alert based on a custom report .
You can set the alert to run:
  • Immediately.
  • Once at a specified date and time.
  • Daily.
  • Weekly.
  • Monthly.
  • With a dependency that you configure based on a trigger.
  • On a customized recurring schedule.
You can edit alerts that you create, and you can edit scheduling information for alerts you don't create.
To avoid potential errors, configure alerts for Simple or Advanced report types. Workday alerts don't support:
  • Composite reports that contain 2 or more matrix reports.
  • Aggregation for matrix reports.
Before migrating reports, consider the downstream impact to edited reports in lower level tenants so that you don't migrate potential issues. Workday recommends that you validate reports after migrating them and consider the downstream impact to alerts and other processes.
A data migration error might occur when you use Object Transporter or a web service to migrate alerts that reference a custom report. This can occur when you edit a custom report and remove a prompt or configure it as
Do not prompt at runtime
. If you encounter an error when migrating alerts, correct the impacted alerts before attempting to migrate them again. The Object Transporter migration error message provides details on how to resolve the issue.
For alerts with a status of
Expired
 or
Suspended
, you can edit and save the alert to resolve migration errors. You might need to update the alert's future end date. Example: An expired alert has a
Run Frequency
 of
Daily Recurrence
. In the
Range of Recurrence
 section of the alert, you update the
End Date
 to be in the future.
If you want to correct expired or suspended alerts, activate the alert first and then correct them.
If expired or suspended alerts become active after you edit and save it, make sure you set the alert to
Suspended
 before attempting the migration. After the alert successfully migrates to the target tenant, verify the alert is still in
Suspended
 status. If the alerts have an
Active
 status in the target tenant, set them to
Suspended
.
  1. Access the
    Configure Alert
     task.
  2. Select a
    Report Name
    .
    Select a custom report that returns the objects that you want to create an alert about. When you use a custom report that includes a prompt, you must specify a default value and select the
    Do not prompt at runtime
     option on the
    Prompts
     tab of the report definition. The Data Source and Primary Business Object of the custom report determine the
    Notification Topic
     that Workday displays on the
    Alert Notification Details
     page.
  3. As you complete the
    Alert Configuration
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Notification Type
    Workday delivers 2 standard reports to drive the birthday and anniversary alerts. To use these alerts, you must first copy each associated report to a custom report to use for the alert configuration.
    Recipients
    Enter email addresses for notifications. By using this option, you authorize Workday to send notifications and reports using a potentially unsecured protocol. You can configure SMPT to protect sensitive information.
    Reply To
    Enter an email address that recipients can reply to directly from the notification emails.
    Notification Subject
    Displays as the subject line of the notification.
    Body
    Details
    Workday displays each detail as a separate line in the notification message.
    Alert recipient visibility of fields and
    Field
     values is different depending upon the data source:
    • Prism data source: Visibility determined by the security access of the administrator configuring the alert.
    • Workday data source: Visibility determined by the security access of the notification recipient.
    Sort By
    Select a field to sort attributes by. You can sort only by fields that retrieve attributes. Sorting is based on recipient locale.
    Date for Effective Date enabled fields
    Enter an effective date that affects only effective-dated fields in the
    Details
     grid. Workday alerts recipients about field information updated as of the effective date.
  4. When you select a run frequency other than
    Run Now
    , schedule the alert on the
    Schedule
     tab.
  5. As you complete the
    Schedule
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Dependency
    Workday displays background processes running in your tenant.
Workday:
  • Sends the alert to the specified recipients according to the run frequency that you selected.
  • Displays the alert in the
    Process Monitor
     report as an
    Alert Job
     process.
  • Sends you a notification if a configurable alert that you initiated doesn't run as scheduled.
Workday automatically performs a validation check when an alert job is triggered to prevent sending active alerts with duplicate report parameters and notifying unintended recipients.
Duplicate report parameters can be report filters, prompt filter values, or report fields.
Example: A custom report for an active alert contains an
Includes Manager
 report filter (or parameter) with a prompt value of
Yes
. The report is then updated for the same alert, and the
Includes Manager
 parameter is now set to
No
. When the alert job is triggered, the alert is identified to contain a duplicate report parameter even though the prompt value is now different.
If duplicate report parameters are found, the alert job immediately terminates and Workday:
  • Sends a notification to the Workday bell icon. You can click the
    View Background Process
     button to access the
    View Background Process
     report.
  • Displays error messages on the
    Messages
     tab in the
    View Background Process
     report.
We recommend that you access the
Alerts with Duplicate Report Parameters
 report to view and identify all alerts (active, expired, and suspended) that have duplicate report parameter issues.
Access the:
  • View Alerts
     report to view defined configurable alerts. To suspend an active alert, select
    Schedule Future Process
    Suspend
     from the related actions menu of the alert. To activate the alert, you can select
    Schedule Future Process
    Activate
     from the related actions menu of the suspended alert.
  • Copy Scheduled Alert
     task by selecting
    Reports
    Scheduled Future Processes
     from the related actions menu of a custom report.
  • Alerts with Duplicate Report Parameters
     report to view and identify alerts that have duplicate report parameter issues. To correct an impacted alert, select
    Schedule Future Process
    Edit
     from the related actions menu of the alert. Click
    OK
     to save, and then verify the report parameter values are correct. Note that this can only be performed by the owner of an impacted alert. If want to correct expired or suspended alerts, activate the alert first and then correct them.
If you corrected impacted alerts, rerun the impacted alert by accessing the
View Alerts
 report. Select
Schedule Future Process
Run Now
 from the related actions menu of the alert.