#happy2022workday day-037

Happy 2022 day-037! Today’s update…

Today we talk not only about Calculated Fields but also about the #Workday Business Object Model (BOM).
As we wrap up recent focus on #CFs4all and prepare for the 3/3 Reporting Share-a-thon, it’s important to tie the functions (CFs) with the data they operate on (BOM). Understanding the data requires knowing the data types.

Here are 7 data types used in the CF functions:
1) [1:1] Single instance
2) [1:M] Multi-instance
3) [T] Text
4) [D] Date
5) [N] Number
6) [C] Currency
7) [B] Boolean

For example, the Increment and Decrement Date (IDD) calculated field function takes as input a [D] and a [N]. The [N] amount is added to the [D] date (subtraction happens via a negative value for [N].) The result of the IDD function is a date. Essentially, pass in a date and a number and get back a date.

Say you wanted to do a 90 day review of new hires. Add 90 days to the Hire Date for a worker and you now have a new field you could call “90 day review date” (or to help report writers know this was a calc field you created as compared to a field delivered as part of Workday, and to place it on the bottom of alphabetized list of fields, you could call it “zCF IDD 90 days past hire date”.)

That’s an overview of IDD. There’s more to it than that, but those basics are good enough as we focus on the transition from the functions to the data and the BOM.

This might be a different approach from what others have told you (including myself, prior to today)… Think of every CF as a function call.

Yesterday’s #happy2022workday post listed all 34 possibly CF functions. That’s it. 34 in total to choose from. But, the total number of Business Objects (BOs) that you could use is a different story. There are thousands of BOs. Many have several hundreds and even thousands of fields. The kicker is that typically 1/3 to 1/2 of the fields on a BO are other BOs (see above data types (1) and (2) for [1:1] and [1:M] “Related” BOs, known as RBOs.)

If learning the CF functions have been a challenge, take a breath and be prepared for what I’ve seen as the larger challenge when creating CFs – the BOM. The BOM goes beyond knowing the 7 data types and into which Business Objects (BOs) are “related” to other BOs. To help all active participants with the BOM as well as CFs, we now have a group here on LI called Learning Workday CFs and BOM, here.

Join us and enjoy the sharing!