Setup Considerations: Multiple Units of Measure (UOM)

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of multiple units of measure. It explains:

Why to set them up.

How they fit into the rest of Workday.

Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.

Security requirements and business process configurations.

Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.

Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What They Are

You can enter multiple UOMs for inventory and procurement functions on purchase or catalog items. You can also configure supplier-specific UOM information on purchase items.

Business Benefits

You can automatically convert items into different UOMs during item fulfillment, put away, and replenishment, streamlining your inventory transactions.

During the directed picking process, you can fulfill stock requests containing a UOM that doesn't match the stocked UOM, reducing errors.

You can restrict available UOMs on supplier requisitions, as defined on your purchase items, eliminating ordering errors, and saving you time.

You can define an ordering UOM and pricing for that UOM on purchase items so that you don't have to load supplier information from supplier catalogs.

Use Cases

Associate multiple UOM and their unit prices on purchase items and their suppliers and catalog items.

Configure separate item stocking and issuing UOMs for an inventory site.

Define advanced pricing for a time period, company, or ship-to location for ordering or just-in-time UOMs.

Record stock items in up to 2 decimal places, so you can stock liquid or powdered products.

Questions to Consider

Questions	Considerations
On which procurement processes can you use multiple UOMs?	When you configure multiple UOMs, you can define multiple units on: Counts Replenishments Inventory Fulfillment Picking Workday converts to the desired UOM. You can define automatic UOM conversions on inventory sites for directed picking. When Workday converts item UOMs during the break-down or build-up process during picking, and you cancel the picking list, the items remain converted. You can also set inventory sites to compare the base UOM quantity only during inventory counts, helping to prevent incorrect inventory adjustments. When you don't configure multiple UOMs, Workday uses the UOM that you set as default for the transaction type on purchase items.
How do you set up your service purchase item?	For purchase items that are services, you don't need to configure a UOM. When you calculate the price of a service by time, you can set an hour UOM on the purchase item, and set the unit price as the price per hour. Set the UOM as default for ordering.
Did you have to dispose items at put away?	When you make an inventory return adjustment on a transfer-type stock request, Workday derives the unit of measure (UOM) from the put-away transaction rather than the ordering UOM. This helps to reduce UOM mismatches.

Recommendations

Validate that the item cost at put-away is the same as the item cost at the UOM specified to avoid large valuation discrepancies.

Display packaging strings on inventory, procurement, and supplier transactions for improved visibility of different UOMs and their item conversion factors.

When you ship items internationally, you must set a base conversion factor to handle metric or nonmetric conversions.

Requirements

None.

Limitations

You can't change the base UOM on an item when it’s transferred or issued.

Tenant Setup

To help reduce UOM mismatch errors, enable ordering UOMs for catalog and supplier items only on transactions on the

Edit Tenant Setup - Financials

task.

Security

Domain	Considerations
Manage: Inventory domain in the Inventory functional area.	Enables you to manage and route these UOM inventory processes: Consignment usage requisitions. Inventory replenishment. Inventory reservations. Pick-line allocation removals.
Process: Purchase Item Requests domain in the Procurement functional area.	Enables you to perform purchase item-related tasks that where you can configure and use UOMs, and UOM reporting.
Set Up: Inventory domain in the Inventory functional area.	Enables you to: Perform inventory tasks and view related reporting. Set up UOM conversion options by inventory site.
Set Up: Purchase Item domain in the Procurement functional area.	Enables you to set up or update purchase items and UOMs.
Set Up: Unit of Measure in the Common Financial Management functional area.	Enables you to maintain UOMs for inventory transactions.

Business Processes

Business Process	Considerations
Change Conversion Factor Request Event	Enables you to: Change your conversion factor between an item's stocking UOM and base UOM. Route conversion factor change requests for approval.
Mass Maintain Purchase Item Requests	Enables you to define and restrict UOMs on existing purchase item updates.
New Purchase Item Request	Enables you to define and restrict UOMs when you create new purchase items.

Reporting

Report	Considerations
Unit of Measure	View configured units of measure and their configured dimensions.
View Purchase Items	View: Configured UOMs on purchase items. Default UOM settings for transactions. Inventory site UOM options for purchase items.
View New Purchase Item Request	View: Configured UOMs on purchase item requests. Default UOM settings for transactions for new purchase item requests. Enables you to view a portion of a new purchase item request and might not reflect the current purchase item configuration.
View Mass Maintain Purchase Item Request	View: Configured UOMs on purchase item requests. Default UOM settings for transactions for purchase item requests. The report might not reflect the current purchase item configuration.

Integrations

You can use these web services to upload data for UOMs and UOM conversions:

Web Service	Considerations
Get Inventory Location Attributes Put Inventory Location Attributes	Adds, retrieves, or updates inventory location UOM conversion preferences for counting and picking.
Get Inventory Put-Away Rules Put Inventory Put-Away Rule	Adds, retrieves, or updates put-away rules for put-away transactions, including UOM restriction rules.
Get Purchase Items Put Purchase Item	Adds, retrieves, or updates purchase item information. Includes UOM configurations, conversion factors, and defaults for stocking, ordering, and issuing. You can use the web services to update UOMs for replenishment, by inventory site.
Get Unit of Measure Sets Put Unit of Measure Set	Adds, retrieves, or updates, UOM information for groups of transaction UOMs.

Connections and Touchpoints

Touchpoint	Considerations
Supplier Invoicing	UOMs display on invoice lines based on the items you select. You can define an alternate UOM on these invoice lines provided that UOM is also configured on the item.
Spend Management Transactions	UOMs displays on all purchase item spend on transaction lines.
Customer Invoices	You can define more than 1 UOM for each sales item on customer invoices. This enables customers to order multiple quantities of the same item in different UOMs.

Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships in your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.

Set Up Purchase Items for Inventory