Workday 2026R1 introduces a focused set of advancements for your Absence and Time Tracking configuration. These updates bring opportunities to simplify Time Tracking processes, improve accuracy, and support employee experience.
Here are the pivotal updates and key features in Absence and Time Tracking and their impact on your business.
Workstream | Key Updates | Feature Description | Business Impact |
Absence | Multiple Time Off Entries for the Same Date as One Request on Mobile | Building on the 2025R2 enhancement, this feature now lets you submit multiple time entries for the same day directly from your mobile device. | If workers are allowed to request multiple time-off entries on a single day, they can now do so directly from their mobile devices. They will also be able to edit individual days within the same request. This enhancement improves overall user experience and ensures consistency across both desktop and mobile platforms.
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Hide Time Off from Plan Balance When Plan in Absence Table Option | Previously, when multiple time offs existed on a time off plan linked to an absence table, but only one time off was configured on the tiers, the plan balance appeared twice in the View Balance section of Manage Absence and Request Absence. With this new feature, you can edit the time off entries that are not linked to the table, ensuring the balance is displayed only once (in the absence table listing). | The new option enables you to hide a time off plan balance when the plan is linked to an absence table, and the time off isn’t part of the absence table tiers. This improves user experience and avoids the confusion of seeing duplicate balances. | |
Purge Comments from Time Off Entries and Time Off Corrections | Workday delivers a new Time Off Entry Comments purgeable data type (PDT) that enables you to purge comments from time off entries and time off corrections for workers. | Purging comments from time off entries and corrections will help you maintain compliance with data protection and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. | |
Time Tracking | Segment Security for Time Entry Codes to Prevent Edit and Delete | Previously, through a workaround, access to Time Entry Codes could be restricted to managers or administrators; however, employees were still able to accidentally or intentionally modify restricted time data. Workday has introduced Segment Security for Time Entry Codes, enabling organizations to secure time entry codes using segment-based security and providing greater control over which codes workers, managers, and administrators can use, edit, or delete. | This feature will improve compliance with company policies and labor laws by ensuring that users only see and interact with the time of entry codes relevant to their roles and responsibilities. It reduces errors and the overhead associated with correcting misreported time, which leads to more efficient payroll processing and fewer pay-related issues. It significantly reduces payroll errors and ensures data integrity by aligning time of entry modifications with organizational security policies. |
This new feature enables you to define time calculations based on a worker’s position. Previously, all time calculations were driven by worker eligibility, regardless of the position selected on the time block. With this update, you can configure position-based time calculation groups, where calculations run according to the position selected on the time block. Additionally, it is now possible to enable position to display on time blocks for workers with a single position. This helps improve visibility into position changes, such as promotions.
| You will now have greater flexibility in how calculations are generated for workers with multiple positions, ensuring the correct premiums are applied based on position eligibility, while clearly visualizing totals for each position. You will also have increased visibility into time blocks for single-position workers by recording the position, even when job changes occur in mid-period. | ||
Workday is introducing a new AI-powered assistant, the Frontline Agent, to support managers and time approvers during the time approval process. It identifies routine timesheets ready for approval and flags those containing anomalies, warnings, or errors. | By enabling this feature, Workday aims to reduce the administrative burden on time approvers by automatically approving routine timesheets and highlighting only those that deviate from expected schedules or historical behavior. This will also improve payroll accuracy and will lower labor costs, particularly in high-volume industries with hundreds of weekly reviews. | ||
Workday is delivering a new purgeable data type (PDT) that enables the permanent removal of worker and position data, including comments, attachments, and time attestations, from worker time blocks and time clock events for both active and terminated workers. | This new PDT increases control over organizational data and supports global data protection and compliance requirements, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards. |
Conclusion
Workday 2026R1 brings essential Absence and Time Tracking enhancements to support smoother time-off processes and consistent approval workflows.
Our upcoming blogs will cover the recent updates and their enhancements in Finance.
Need support implementing the important Absence features for your business? Use our free Workday Release Strategy Template to reduce implementation risk and optimise workflows with clarity.
