Payroll Agent¶
Overview¶
AI-powered conversational assistant for payroll practitioners. Provides task assistance, information retrieval, and data summarization through conversational AI.
Supported Payroll Countries: Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, UK, U.S.
Setup Prerequisites¶
- UMSA (opt-in if on MSA)
- Workday Flex Credits and Platform Entitlement Policy (production only)
- Set Up Agent System of Record
- Security: Agent Compliance, Agent Management Hub, Manage: Agents, Reports: Agent Reporting, Setup: Agents (ASOR functional area); Reports: AI Agent Security (System functional area)
Setup Steps¶
- Agent Management Hub → Unregistered Workday Agent tab → Register Payroll Agent → Confirm → OK
- Agent Registry → click Payroll Agent → Configure Agent
- Enable skills via toggle slider
- Populate Available To per skill (sets interaction policy)
- Click Activate (ASU activates automatically)
Result: Access Workday Chat to use the Payroll agent.
Deactivation: Deactivate/reactivate anytime in Agent Management Hub; ASU deactivates automatically with agent.
Skills¶
Core Payroll Data Retrieval (required for other skills)¶
Retrieves basic information about workers, pay groups, companies.
Payroll Data Insights¶
Provides payroll knowledge and performs actions; involves human intervention when necessary. Reduces manual report generation via conversational data queries.
Supported question types:
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Averages | "What was the average gross pay for workers in [pay group] over the last 3 periods?" |
| Basic Worker Pay | "What was [worker name] gross/net pay last period?" |
| Basic Pay Group Pay | "Show workers in [pay group] that made more than [amount] in [month]?" |
| Basic Pay Group Info | "Which pay groups are paid on a monthly schedule?" |
| Earning/Deduction Inclusion | "List all earnings and deductions with current values." |
| Earning/Deduction Exclusion | "Which workers in [pay group] did not have [earning/deduction] last period?" |
| Period Comparison | "Compare gross pay of [pay group] Q1 2025 vs Q1 2026." |
Current scope: Payroll results, result lines, basic worker info, pay group info. Does not answer questions about compensation plans, cost centers, or specific payroll calculations like overtime.
Identify Missing Data and Configuration¶
Monitors system for missing or outdated critical payroll data.
Functionality: - Find and notify workers missing payment elections (all Workday Payroll countries) - Find and update FLSA work period calendars expiring within 90 days (U.S. only)
Required security: - Worker Data: Payroll (Payment Elections) domain → find/notify missing payment elections - Set Up: Payroll (FLSA) - USA domain → find/update expiring FLSA calendars
Example queries: - "Identify and update expiring FLSA work calendars." - "Find and notify workers missing payment elections."
Notifications sent to practitioner (bell icon) when job completes: - Payment elections: related pay group, workers missing elections, whether workers were notified - FLSA calendars: name of updated calendar, number of work periods added
Minimum Wage Analysis¶
Analyzes impact of minimum wage rate changes for U.S. states and Canadian provinces (changes within past 6 months or up to 6 months in future).
Scope: U.S. and Canada only.
Setup required before use: 1. Enable Set Up: Minimum Wage Agent domain (CAN Payroll + USA Payroll functional areas) 2. Enable Minimum Wage Background Scheduler via Edit Tenant Setup - Payroll → Tax Elections/Taxes section - Estimated employer costs available after 01:00 PST next day - Only includes workers with hourly plan assignments that enforce minimum wage
Example queries: - "What is the minimum wage for this state/province?" - "How many workers are affected by the minimum wage change?" - "Show me how this minimum wage rate will affect my overall employer costs."
Set Up Notifications for Missing Payment Elections¶
Prerequisite: Worker Data: Payroll (Payment Elections) domain (Core Payroll functional area)
Configure delivery override for email notifications: 1. Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications → Payroll tab → Missing Payment Elections row 2. Select Override Parent Notification Type Settings 3. Rule prompt → Create Notification Routing Rule → set Channel: Email, Default Frequency: Immediately
Customize email template: 1. Email Template Behaviors report → filter for Missing Payment Elections Email 2. Create Email Template task → select Missing Payment Elections Email behavior 3. Add rows: static content (header), static content (body), dynamic content (Actionable Link) 4. Maintain Email Templates task → verify custom template Active check box is selected
Limitations¶
- Only supports U.S. English
- Remembers only 20 interactions per sequence
- Proxy sessions exclude Payroll agent functionality
- Some skill functionalities are country-specific (e.g., FLSA calendar updates: U.S. only)
- May misinterpret questions or produce unexpected results — always verify output against source of truth
FAQ¶
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does the Payroll agent respect security? | Yes, respects existing Workday payroll security |
| Why can't I see Agent Management Hub? | Verify ASOR functional area is enabled and users have correct security domain access |
| Agent seems hung up on earlier chat | Ask question differently or start a new thread |
| Why won't agent answer compensation plan/cost center questions? | Scope limited to payroll results, result lines, basic worker info, pay group info |