Used For

• +**Your payroll team spends 40 hours every two weeks fixing errors from three different systems** → One database handles everything from time tracking to tax compliance automatically
• +**Finance closes take 2 weeks because data lives in 12 different spreadsheets** → Real-time dashboards show revenue, costs, and forecasts without manual reconciliation
• +**HR can't find talent internally because nobody knows who has what skills** → AI matching suggests internal candidates before you post expensive job listings
• +Handles multi-country payroll with different tax rules - no juggling separate systems for each region
• +Custom reporting that actually works - build dashboards for turnover, profitability, whatever executives want this quarter

Best For

• >You're managing 1,000+ employees across multiple countries and drowning in manual processes
• >Your current HR system crashes every payroll run and finance closes take weeks
• >You've outgrown smaller tools and need one system that won't break when you hit 5,000 employees

Not For

• -Companies under 500 employees — you're paying Ferrari prices to drive to the grocery store
• -Anyone wanting something simple out of the box — this requires a dedicated admin or consultant who bills $300/hour
• -Small businesses hoping to save money — the hidden costs and add-ons will triple your budget

Pairs With

• *Salesforce (where your sales data lives, syncs to show revenue per employee metrics)
• *Tipalti (handles the actual payment processing that Workday can't do well)
• *Slack (where employees complain about the new self-service portal)
• *Tableau (because executives want prettier charts than Workday's default reports)
• *DocuSign (for offer letters and contracts since Workday's e-signature is basic)
• *ADP (sometimes still needed for complex payroll edge cases Workday can't handle)
• *ServiceNow (for IT tickets when Workday integration breaks)

The Catch

• !Implementation starts at $1M+ and takes 6-12 months with expensive consultants who speak only in Workday jargon
• !Your HR team will spend 30% of their time maintaining configurations instead of helping employees
• !No free trial, no monthly plans - you're signing a multi-year contract worth millions before you really know if it works

Bottom Line

The 800-pound gorilla of HR software - handles everything from hiring to payroll to budgeting, but costs everything too.