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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-05-30
Set Up Additional Options for Composite Reports

Set Up Additional Options for Composite Reports

  • Create a custom composite report.
  • Create the advanced, matrix, or trending reports you want to use as subreports in your composite report.
  • Security: These domains in the System functional area:
    • Custom Report Creation
    • Manage: All Custom Reports
You can set up additional options on composite reports to:
  • Apply styles and formatting.
  • Customize column headings using variables.
  • Manage business objects for filtering and grouping.
  • Set up drill-to report links.
  • Set up headers, footers, and prompt sets.
  1. Access the
    Edit Custom Report
     task.
  2. Click the settings menu.
  3. As you complete the
    General
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Style
    Select a style or select
    Create Formatting Style
    to create a custom formatting style.
    Business Object
    Select the business object that matches the dimensions setup in all subreports used in the composite report.
    Your selection determines the available values for the:
    • Control field column.
    • Data column.
    • Lookup data row.
    Hierarchy Structure
    Available when the business object has a hierarchical structure. Specify a hierarchy structure that you can use when you define filter criteria on a:
    • Data cell.
    • Data column.
    • Lookup data row.
    Example: You can define the filter criteria on a lookup data row in terms of all the values in the Corporate: All Accounts hierarchy structure.
    Workday references only the primary hierarchy for the outline structure.
    Hierarchy Effective Date
    Select the date when Workday retrieves hierarchies for filtering. Example: You undergo a company-wide reorganization at the beginning of next month. You can use the first day of next month to reference the reorganized hierarchy structure.
    Consider that:
    • Depending on the field, your selection might be the end date associated with the report period.
    • Not all hierarchies are date effective.
  4. As you complete the
    Header/Footer
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Text Expression
    Enter the text to display on your report and enclose variables in brackets.
    Example:
    Last updated on [V1].
    [V1] Variable... [V4] Variable
    Enter dynamic values for Workday to replace the variables with when you run the report.
  5. As you complete the
    Column Headings
     tab, consider:
    Option Description
    Style
    To format cells:
    1. Click the Popup Window icon on the
      Cell Name
       of the
      Column Heading Cells
       grid for the cell that you want to format.
    2. From the related actions menu of the
      View Column Header Cell
       task, select
      Column Header Cell
      Edit
      .
    3. Select a style.
    You can also access the
    Column Headings
     tab on the composite report definition to add column heading rows, define default styles, and override defaults.
  6. (Optional) On the
    Prompts
     tab:
    • Populate prompt values.
    • Connect prompts to a prompt set.
    • View and make bulk edits to prompts
  7. (Optional) On the
    Drill-To
     tab, create or manage drill-to report links.
  8. (Optional) On the
    Output
     tab, specify the output options for the report.
    To set up a chart output, the report definition must:
    • Contain no outlining on columns or rows.
    • Contain no repeating column groups.
    • Include at least 1 combined data row.
  9. As you complete the
    Advanced
     tab, consider these
    Composite Options
    :
    Option Description
    Show Prompts Tab in Report Definition
    Select to display the
    Prompts
    tab on the settings menu and report definition.
    Show Hidden Rows, Columns and Cells
    Select to override individual settings in the report definition and display cells, columns, and rows unconditionally.
    Show Row, Column and Cell definitions in designer
    Select to display the
    Cell
    ,
    Column
    , and
    Row
     tabs when you select the Report Settings icon. Enables you to view the definitions using the tab-based designer.
    Do Not Reverse the Sign
    Select to:
    • Display numerical data using the original sign value from a subreport.
    • Override sign reversals in the report.
    Display Drill To Links from Drill Down Data Column Only
    Select to only display drill-to links for the data column you either:
    • Drilled-down on.
    • Select
      View By
       when a sub-report is referenced in more than 1 data column.
    This enables the report to not display irrelevant drill-to links or drill-to links with the same names.
    Enable Dynamic Control Fields
    Select this option to enable a single composite report definition to generate various financial reports with multiple combinations of accounting worktags. See Concept: Dynamic Control Fields for Accounting Worktags.
When you run your composite report, you can view contextual drill-to report link details from the nested outline structure hierarchies on lookup data rows when you:
  • Drill into a dimension.
  • Select a leaf node within the outline structure hierarchy.
  • Select
    View By
     on a dimension.
When users run the report, they can freeze columns to improve data visibility when scrolling horizontally by clicking
Grid Preferences
 on the table toolbar. Workday disables freezing for composite reports that have:
  • Column or row groupings.
  • Multilevel column headers.
  • Repeating column groups.
If the report doesn't have columns eligible to freeze, Workday doesn't display the
Column Preferences
 menu to the report user.