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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-08-07
Set Up Custom Color Palettes

Set Up Custom Color Palettes

Security: These domains in the System functional area:
  • Custom Report Management
  • Manage: All Custom Reports
You can define and apply a report-specific custom categorical color palette to display company-specific branding or thematic colors instead of the default Workday palette. You can configure a custom palette on
Advanced
,
Composite
,
Matrix
, and
Trending
 reports. You can define a single custom palette up to 50 colors for each report.
  1. Access the
    Edit Custom Report
     or
    Create Custom Report
     task.
  2. On the
    Output
     tab, select
    Chart
     or
    Chart and Table
     from the
    Output Type
     prompt.
  3. In
    Chart Options
    , select a supported
    Chart Type
    .
  4. In the
    Color Palette
     prompt, select
    Create Color Palette for Report
     to open the custom color palette task.
  5. Select colors using the visual color picker or enter specific hex codes in the
    Colors
     table. You can add up to 50 colors to the palette.
  6. Review the palette order and adjust the color sequence as needed. Workday assigns colors to chart values sequentially in the order defined in the palette. Color assignment also depends on the report sort order. For example, when chart values are sorted alphabetically, the first alphabetical value receives the first palette color.
  7. Click
    OK
    . You must have at least 1 valid color to save the palette.
  8. To edit or delete a custom color palette from the report definition:
    1. Access the
      View Custom Report
       task and open the applicable report definition.
    2. On the
      Output
       tab, access the custom color palette from
      Chart Options
      .
    3. Select
      Custom Color Palette for Report
       from the related actions menu of the
      Color Palette
      .
    4. Select
      Color Palette for Report
       to access the task.
    5. Select
      Custom Color Palette for Report
       >
      Edit
       or
      Custom Color Palette for Report
       >
      Delete
       from the related actions menu of the
      Custom Color Palette for Report
      .
    6. Make your color modifications or delete the palette and click
      OK
       and
      Done
       to save the report definition.
  9. To edit or delete an existing custom color palette from the report results:
    1. Run the custom report.
    2. On the
      Chart
       tab, access the custom color palette.
    3. In the custom color palette task, make your color modifications or delete the palette.
    4. Click
      OK
       to save the changes and refresh the report chart results.
When you run the report, the chart displays with the custom color palette. If the chart returns more than 50 values, the custom palette repeats its sequence for the remaining data points.
Your custom palette selections are maintained when you switch between different chart types that support categorical color palettes, such as stacked column or donut charts. If you switch to an unsupported chart type, such as
Heat Map
 or
Waterfall
, the chart automatically uses the default Workday palette.
If you configure quadrant sentiments, those sentiments continue to control the quadrant colors. Workday applies the custom palette only to individual data points where no sentiment-based color has been configured. When a custom color palette is applied, the
Fill Patterns
 option is unavailable for supported clustered, stacked, and 100% column and bar charts, and funnel charts.
If you delete the palette, Workday automatically reverts the chart to the default Workday colors.