Employee Time Off Sync with Workday Integration

Remote now integrates with Workday to sync approved future time off data, allowing customers to use Workday as a single source of truth for worker time off reporting in Remote. This feature automatically transfers time off information from Workday to Remote, ensuring records remain accurate and current. Customers can also map various time off types between both platforms and customize their synchronization preferences.

Is Workday integration right for me?

Before enabling the integration, it is important to understand its eligibility and how the data synchronizarion works to ensure it aligns with your requirements. The following points outline important information about time off integration to help you assess if it fits your needs:

• Data synched: The integration syncs both future time-off requests and past requests within your defined lookback period.
  • The integration will only sync data as far back as January 1 of the current calendar year to ensure your records remain up to date without pulling legacy data from previous years.
  • Unapproved time off requests in Workday are not synced.
  • Only time off requests for employees synced through the integration and currently onboarded with Remote will be included in the sync.
  • For tenants that differentiate between Time Offs and Absences, we are only syncing time offs at the moment. Absence syncing will be available soon.
• Sync direction: One-way from Workday to Remote.
• Supported customer types: Employer of Record (EOR) customers. Time off for contractors is not currently included in the integration.
• Time off mapping: During setup, you need to map the time off types between the two platforms to ensure seamless synchronization.

Prerequisites

Before you begin configuring Employee Time Off, ensure that your environment meets the following requirements. Completing these steps in advance will prevent integration errors during setup.

1. Integration & Access:

• Remote Workday Integration: The Remote Workday integration is installed.

• Administrative Privileges: You have Integration Administrator or Payroll Interface Administrator security permissions on the Workday tenant and administrator access to the relevant legal entities in Remote.

2. Workday Configuration:

• Domain Permissions: Ensure all required domain security policies are updated in Workday to allow the integration to read time-off data.

• Employee Synchronization: The Employee Sync feature must be enabled and verified to ensure user records are mapped correctly between systems.

For detailed steps on how to configure your system, please refer to the Employee sync configuration article.

How to ensure aligned time off balances in Workday and Remote

When synching approved time off requests through the integration, various factors impact balance calculations in both Workday and Remote, such as:

• Public holiday schedules
• Time off request history from the start of employment
• Annual allowances for each leave type
• Carryover policies for unused time off

If maintaining consistent balances across both systems is a priority, consider aligning your time off policies in both Workday and Remote before or soon after activating the integration.

Remote's time off data is used for payroll processing. To ensure consistency, you can manually transfer Remote's public holiday details, carryover policies, and annual allowances into Workday, as this cannot be done through the API integration.

If differences in time off data are not addressed at this point, a more detailed review and alignment will be required during the offboarding process to ensure correct payment for any unused paid time off. However, if synchronized balances in Workday and Remote are not critical for your organization, you can choose to skip this alignment step.

How to configure the time off integration

Before proceeding, make sure you have the Workday integration set up in Remote. Now, you can enable the time off integration by following these steps:

Add additional permissions to your API credentials

To access time off data, the API credentials require additional permissions beyond those needed for employee data sync. To set these permissions, 

1. Go to Maintain Permissions for Security Group in your Workday account.
2. Leave Operation Maintained selected.
3. Choose Source Security Group as the security group you are using.

4. Now add the following permissions.

   Worker Data: Time Off (Time Off)
   Worker Data: Time Off (Time Off Manager View)
   Self-Service: Time Off
   Worker Data: Time Off (Time Off Balances)
   Worker Data: Time Off (Time Off Balances Manager View)
   Worker Data: Leave of Absence
   Set Up: Time Off
   Set Up: Time Off (Calculation - Generic)
   Set Up: Time Off (Calculations - Absence Specific)
   Set Up: Leave of Absence

Map time off between Workday and Remote

Since your company's time off types may differ in Workday and Remote, it is important to map them correctly for a smooth data sync. For example, maternity leave could be labeled as "FMLA" in Workday but "Maternity Leave" in Remote. Proper mapping ensures that the data stays accurate across both platforms.

Follow these steps to configure time off mapping:

1. Navigate to Company Settings > Integrations > Workday.
2. On the Workday integrations page, go to the Settings tab.

3. Click on Map Now under Time Off requests.

   

4. Select the time off type from Workday and match it to the corresponding type in Remote. You can also map to custom leave types in Remote, such as self-care days or birthday leave.

5. Once all time off types are mapped, click on Save to confirm your changes.

   

Enable auto-sync for approved time off requests

To enable automatic syncing of approved time off, do the following:

• From Workday > Settings, switch the Automatically sync time off requests toggle.

  

• Perform an instant sync by navigating to the Overview tab and clicking the Sync button.

  

• Review any errors in the Time Off tab and resolve them as needed.

  

Disable time off integration

To disable the time off integration without impacting the employee sync date for Workday, simply turn off the Automatically sync time off requests toggle in Workday integration settings.

Any previously synced time off data in Remote will remain intact and will not be deleted once the integration is disabled.

Integration special considerations

• Regularly monitor the People, Time Off, and Events tabs to identify any time off requests that couldn't be processed automatically. We recommend checking these tabs once a month, preferably before the payroll cutoff date to ensure any issues are addressed promptly.
• Currently, the time off sync only applies to full-time EOR and GP employees, not contractors.
• When employees submit time off requests in Remote, they will receive a notification directing them to submit the request in Workday instead. Once approved, the request will sync automatically with Remote. However, the option to add time off in Remote will remain available for making corrections to past entries if needed.
• To avoid discrepancies, time off should only be added in Remote for past corrections, not for future requests.

Employee guidelines

If your country utilizes the Workday↔Remote time off integration, past and future time off requests made in Workday will automatically sync to Remote. However, you may still need to log time off in Remote in the following situations:

1. Modifying or cancelling past time off requests: If you need to adjust or cancel a past time off request, you will need to make the change in Remote, as it directly impacts payroll.
   • Example: You had an approved time off request for June 5-15, 2025, but only took leave from June 5-10. Since the Workday integration was enabled on July 1, 2025, you will need to manually correct the dates in both Workday and Remote to ensure accurate payroll processing.
2. Fixing conflicting future time off requests: If there is an overlap or inconsistency between Workday and Remote, you will need to manually resolve the issue in one of the platforms.
   • Example 1: You have a time off request in Remote for September 1-3, 2025, but in Workday, the same request is for September 1-5, 2025. In this case, you will need to update one of the requests to match the other.
   • Example 2: You have time off requests in both Workday and Remote for the same dates but with different time off types. In this scenario, you will need to adjust one the requests to keep the type consistent.
3. Avoiding partial-hour time off requests: Remote supports whole-hour increments for time off requests. If you submit a request in Workday for partial hours (e.g., 3 hours 20 minutes), Remote will round the time using the following rules:
   • If the request is less than 0.5 hours, it will be rounded down to the nearest whole number. For example, 4 hours 20 minutes will be rounded to 4 hours.
   • If the request is 0.5 hours or more, it will be rounded up to the next whole number. For example, 4 hours and 50 minutes will be rounded to 5 hours.
   • For requests based on a percentage of workday, the total time off will be calculated as: (number of work hours per day)*(leave percentage). The result is then rounded using the same rules as above.
4. Time off measured in days: For now, time off requests measured in "Days" assume an 8-hour workday. If this does not match your requirements, please reach out to our support through the Support chat widget from the Remote platform.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure accurate time off tracking and payroll processing in both Workday and Remote.

Troubleshooting time off sync errors

In some cases, Remote may not be able to automatically process incoming time off data from Workday due to missing or conflicting information. You can review skipped time off requests and errors in the Time Off and Events sections. Employees must correct the issue that causes the conflict in either Workday or Remote, depending on the source of error.

Explained below are some of the common errors faced when integrating time off data in Workday and Remote.

1. Time off with type [TYPE] was not synced due to nonexisting mapping for this time off type

   • Description: This error occurs when a time off request in Workday isn't mapped to a corresponding type in Remote.
   • Solution: Ensure that all time off types in Workday are mapped to valid types in Remote. Check and update the time off type mapping in the integration settings.

2. Error when time off type is not allowed for a given country

   • Description: This error occurs when a mapped time off type isn't valid for the employee's country.
   • Solution: Update the time off type to one that is allowed in the employee's country and perform a manual sync to resolve the issue.

3. Error when time off overlaps a single Remote time off

   • Error message: The error message will begin with Time off couldn't sync because time off [EXISTING REMOTE TIMEOFF SLUG] already exists with different... . Possible variations of this message include:
     • end_date: [EXISTING REMOTE TIMEOFF END DATE]
     • start_date: [EXISTING REMOTE TIMEOFF START DATE]
     • status: [EXISTING REMOTE TIMEOFF STATUS]
     • timeoff_type: [EXISTING REMOTE TIMEOFF TYPE]
   • Description: This error occurs when a time off request overlaps with an existing time off record in Remote but contains conflicting details.
   • Solution:
     • Adjust in either Remote or Workday so the fields match and try syncing again.
     • If the error persists, cancel the overlapping time off request and attempt to sync again.

4. Multiple existing time off records were found, so we couldn't sync this time off. Their identities are: [REMOTE TIMEOFF SLUG, REMOTE TIMEOFF SLUG, ..]

   • Description: This error occurs when multiple time off records exist in Remote, blocking the sync process.
   • Solution:
     • Update either in Remote or Workday so only one time off entry matches exactly.
     • If that's not possible, cancel the conflicting time off entries and try syncing again.

5. Time off with more than 8 hours a day requested: %{timeoff_days: ["maximum hours requested for a day reached"]}

   • Description: This error occurs when an employee requests more than 8 hours off in a single day. Remote supports a maximum of 8 hours per workday.
   • Solution:
     • Ask the employee to modify their time off request to ensure it does not exceed 8 hours a day.
     • Double-check the working hours settings in Workday, as it may be set to more than 8 hours per day.

Frequently asked questions

My balances in Workday and Remote are different

If you notice differences in your time off balances between Workday and Remote, check the following in both systems:

• Public holiday calendars
• Time off request history from the start of employment
• Annual allowances for each leave type
• Carryover rules for unused time off

Since these additional factors also impact balance calculations, any differences in them could lead to mismatched balances between the two platforms.

Time off request for employee not syncing in Remote

Time off requests are only synced for active employees (those fully onboarded in Remote) who have been successfully integrated. To verify which employees are synced,

1. Navigate to the People tab in Remote.
2. If an employee is missing, add them by following these steps.

Need further assistance?

If you are unable to resolve the issues after following the mentioned steps, please contact our support team with the following information:

• A screenshot of the Time Off tab showing the syncing error (hover over the ‘Failed’ tag to view the error details).
• A screenshot of the corresponding time off request in Workday.