Top 3 Tips for a Successful Workday Integration with Jira Service Management

If you use Workday as your HCM and are planning to integrate it with Jira Service Management (JSM), you’ll quickly realize there’s more to it than just connecting APIs. A well thought out integration can mean the difference between a smooth, automated HR workflow and a flood of unnecessary tickets.

Based on our experience, here are three proven tips to ensure your Workday–JSM integration runs efficiently.

1. Leverage Workday Custom Reports and the Test Option

When pulling Workday data into JSM, Custom Reports are your best friend. They give your Workday team full control over:

• Which fields are included
• How values are filtered
• What changes are tracked

How to configure a Workday Custom Report (RaaS):

1. Log in to your Workday tenant.
2. Search for “View Custom Report” and click My Reports.
3. Select your report and click OK.
4. From the View Custom Report page, go to:

   Actions → Web Service → View URLs

    

5. Enable it as a Web Service via the Advanced tab.
6. For REST, copy the JSON URL from the View URLs Web Service page.

Example URL:
https://wd2-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/service/customreport2/mytenant/report_owner_username/report_name?format=json&Last_Updated=2023-10-01&Department=Sales

Example field mapping in OnRamp:

report_name:report_owner_username/report_name

filter:Last_Updated={last_successful_date_time}

filter:Department=Sales

key:WorkerID=customfield_10128

map:Worker=customfield_10122

map:Title=customfield_10123

map:Cost_Center[0].Reference_ID=customfield_10010

Pro Tip: Use the Test option in Workday to preview the results. This makes it easier to identify the correct field names for your JSM mapping.

Loom Video to show how to use the Test Option

2. Design for Incremental Data Extraction

One of the first topics that comes up in integration planning is whether you’ll pull all data or just the changes. Pulling everything can overwhelm your system and create duplicate tickets. Instead, design for incremental extraction.

Two main strategies:

• Entry Date Filtering – Returns a record only once, based on the event initiation or completion date. Ideal for events like new hires.
• Effective Date Filtering – Useful for upcoming changes but will keep returning a record until the effective date passes.

Examples:

• Pull Hire Event Completion Dates for new hires.
• Use Business Process Transaction data sources for precise date/time filtering.
• Leverage Last Functionality Update fields to track updates to existing records.

Why it matters: This approach reduces unnecessary tickets.

Refer to this documentation link for detailed steps. 

3. Choose the Right Identifier for Updates vs. New Tickets

When data changes in Workday (e.g., a hire date adjustment), you don’t want JSM to create a new ticket if one already exists, you want to update the existing ticket. Most customers start with WorkerID as the identifier. It will work for pilots but for production, we recommend the following:

Best practice:

• Use the Business Process Event WID, it stays consistent across corrections or rescinds.

Alternate options:

• Use a composite key (Employee ID + Position ID) to distinguish rehires from updates.

Configuration tip:

config:ignore_update_check=true

Use this setting when you always want a new ticket, regardless of updates.

Outcome: Choosing the right identifier prevents confusion, avoids duplicates, and keeps workflows clean.

Try OnRamp for Workday–JSM Integration

OnRamp is designed with these best practices in mind, making it easier for Workday customers to automate onboarding, offboarding, transfers, and other HR workflows directly in JSM.

If you’re ready to automate HR workflows and eliminate manual ticket management, give OnRamp a try.