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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-06-26
Troubleshooting: Unable to Sign in to Workday VNDLY

Troubleshooting: Unable to Sign in to Workday VNDLY

Users receive the "Unable to login. Please contact an administrator." error message.

Cause
Solution
The VNDLY-generated email wasn't used for the initial sign in to Workday VNDLY.
When your account is created, an automated email is sent to the email address in your profile. To log in to Workday VNDLY for the first time, you must access the link provided in the email, where you can create your password.
Email address was used instead of username to sign in.
For some Workday VNDLY accounts, your username might differ from your email address. If you prefer them to be identical, you can update your username by modifying your profile within Workday VNDLY. However, if you utilize single sign-on and need to adjust your password or username, reach out to your IT team for assistance.
You can't remember your password.
To reset your password:
  1. On the
    Sign In
     page, enter your username in the
    Username
     field, and click
    Continue
    .
  2. On the
    Password
     page, click
    Forgot Password
    .
  3. On the
    Forgot Password
     page, enter your username in the
    Username
     field, and click
    Email Me Reset Instructions
    .
You'll receive an email with details on resetting your password.
The username entered isn't valid.
To confirm your username is accurate:
  1. Verify you're using the correct username and check for any spelling errors.
  2. Remove any extra spaces by closely checking both the start and end of your entry to ensure no additional spacing is included.
  3. Check for invisible characters by reviewing your username in a text editor to find and delete any invisible characters that may be at the end of your username.
The initial sign-up registration process hasn’t been completed.
To finish registering your account, complete the initial sign-up process:
  1. Locate the Workday VNDLY invitation email by searching your inbox as well as your spam and junk folders.
  2. Finalize your registration by clicking the link provided in that email.
You’re trying to log in using the same device that your authenticator app is running on.
If you enabled multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your user account, try to log in using a separate device from the one running your authenticator application.
Your user account configuration specifies an incorrect login method. For example, you might be attempting a VNDLY login when your organization requires single sign-on (SSO), or the other way around.
Contact your administrator to confirm whether you should be using SSO or the standard VNDLY login. Then sign in using the appropriate login method.
You’re using an incorrect tenant URL for the Workday VNDLY tenant.
Confirm the tenant URL. To ensure you're accessing the correct Workday VNDLY tenant, verify the URL with your administrator.
Your VNDLY account is locked because of too many failed login attempts.
Your account will be automatically unlocked after 30 minutes. Once this period has passed, try logging in again with your correct credentials. If you don’t remember your password, use the
Forgot Password
 link.

SSO login failures display an "Oops, our circuits got crossed" message and error code.

The message in the error log is "Attempted log in via SAML failed. Unable to find user for Username." The username provided by your Identity Provider (IdP) doesn’t match the Workday VNDLY username. This often occurs when a user's username or email has recently changed on the IdP, but hasn’t been updated accordingly in VNDLY.
  1. Verify that the username is in Workday VNDLY.
  2. Compare the username used in your IdP with your Workday VNDLY username.
    If the usernames are different, your administrator will need to update the Workday VNDLY username to precisely match the username used by your IdP. Once the usernames are identical, you should be able to successfully log in to Workday VNDLY via single sign-on (SSO).

A contractor didn’t receive an email invitation for VNDLY sign in.

Cause
Solution
The email address entered for the contractor was incorrect or the email was filtered into the contractor's spam or junk folder.
After confirming the email wasn't filtered into the contractor's spam or junk folder, a program team user or vendor user should log in to Workday VNDLY, navigate to the contractor's profile, and click
Resend Credentials
.
After resending, the contractor should check their email inbox, including spam and junk folders, and verify their login using the provided link. They'll be able to log in after their email is verified.
The contractor's email domain may be on a suppression list.
Check the notification settings in VNDLY.
From the header, click
More
Company Settings
. From the
Communication
 section, click
Notifications
, then the
Settings
 tab. In the
Email Recipient Rules
 section, ensure that either the:
  • Email notifications allowed for any domain
     is selected.
  • Email notifications allowed for specific domains and/or email addresses (enter below)
     is selected, and the contractor's specific email domain is added in the
    Domains
     field.
The contractor might have previously blocked incoming emails from Workday VNDLY.
For potential blocking or whitelisting issues, the contractor should contact their internal IT team for further investigation and assistance.

A contractor receives the "Oops, our circuits got crossed" error when trying to log in to VNDLY.

Cause
Solution
An incorrect username is being used for login.
Verify the contractor's username in their user profile in VNDLY. Once confirmed, ask the contractor to use that exact username for all login attempts.
If the contractor uses single sign-on (SSO) to log in to VNDLY, the SSO details don’t match between VNDLY and the Identity Provider (IdP).
Verify all SSO-related details within the client's IdP configuration aligns with the authentication type settings configured for that contractor in VNDLY.

A new SAML SSO setup generates assertion errors for test users, even though it was successful in test environments.

If your team has verified all configurations, and users encounter login issues during the Identity Provider initiated login flow, the
Allow unsolicited
 setting in VNDLY might not be selected. This setting controls whether VNDLY accepts authentication assertions that it didn't explicitly request.
Select the
Allow unsolicited
 check box. For navigation instructions, see Configure SAML Single Sign-On.
Selecting the
Allow unsolicited
 setting enables VNDLY to accept assertions initiated directly by the Identity Provider (IdP), which is common in IdP-initiated login scenarios. Note: This setting should be unselected unless your tenant is configured for IdP-initiated login.