3 Workday Reports That Can Save You Thousands in Flex Credits

Workday built the tools to help you manage your API consumption. They're sitting in your tenant right now. Most admins don't know they exist because they were released alongside the Flex Credits model and never made it into the standard training curriculum. Here are three reports that can save you thousands in Flex Credits, and exactly how to use each one.

1. Integration Template Catalog report

What it does: Tells you whether a specific integration counts against your API entitlement.

This is the report that answers the question every Workday customer asks: "Does my integration count?" Instead of guessing or asking your account team, you can look it up yourself.

The Integration Template Catalog classifies each integration in your tenant by its template type. Workday-delivered, unmodified integrations (including Core Connectors) are exempt from API metering. Custom integrations, modified connectors, and partner-built integrations generally count.

How to use it:

1. Navigate to the Integration Template Catalog report in your tenant
2. Export the full list of integrations
3. For each integration, note the template type and whether it's been modified
4. Cross-reference against your PCC API Activity data to quantify the traffic from each category

What to look for:

• Modified Core Connectors - these are the biggest surprise. A connector that was Workday-delivered (exempt) but customized (now potentially countable) can represent hundreds of thousands of API calls you assumed were free. See The Modified Core Connectors Trap for remediation options.
• Legacy custom integrations - integrations built during your original implementation that nobody has reviewed since. Some may be serving decommissioned systems.
• Partner integrations - unless they're certified Built on Workday, they count.

Estimated savings: One modified Core Connector running twice monthly across 5,000 employees can generate 120,000+ API calls per year. Reverting it to unmodified or replacing it with the standard connector removes those calls from your entitlement count entirely.

2. Scheduled Future Processes report

What it does: Shows every scheduled job in your tenant with its recurrence pattern.

This is the report Workday's own API FAQ recommends as the first place to look if you only have an hour: "Run the Scheduled Future Processes report and look at any schedule with minute-based or hourly recurrence."

High-frequency polling is the single largest source of unnecessary API consumption. An integration polling every minute generates over half a million API calls per year. Most organizations have at least a few of these, set up during implementation when API calls were free and nobody thought about consumption.

How to use it:

1. Run the Scheduled Future Processes report
2. Sort by recurrence interval (ascending)
3. Flag every process running more frequently than every 15 minutes
4. For each flagged process, determine: Does it need to run this often? Can it be event-driven instead? What's the minimum acceptable interval?

What to look for:

• Minute-level recurrence - anything running every 1, 2, or 5 minutes. These are your biggest consumers. One minute-level integration = 525,600 calls/year.
• Hourly jobs that could be daily - an integration syncing employee data hourly when changes happen a few times a week is doing 8,760 unnecessary calls per year.
• Duplicate schedules - sometimes the same integration is scheduled twice (once from the original implementation, once from a troubleshooting session that was never cleaned up).
• Integrations for decommissioned systems - a scheduled job pushing data to a system that was retired two years ago. Still running, still consuming API calls.

Estimated savings: Moving one integration from 1-minute to 15-minute polling saves 491,040 API calls per year. At 60 credits per 10,000 calls above entitlement, that's 2,946 credits saved, or roughly $162 to $295 at typical credit prices. Multiply by the number of high-frequency integrations you find.

3. API Activity Reports (in PCC)

What it does: Shows your actual API consumption broken down by integration, API operation, IP address, and monthly trend.

This is the operational data that turns guessing into measuring. The PCC API Activity Reports provide up to 13 months of monthly data across four views.

Monthly API Trends - your total consumption by month. Tells you whether you're growing, stable, or seasonal. This is the report that answers "am I going to exceed my entitlement?"

Top API Request Sources - which Integration System Users (ISUs) generate the most traffic. This is your 80/20 report. A handful of integrations usually drive 80% of the volume. These are your optimization targets.

Top API Names - which specific API operations are called most. A high volume of Get_Workers suggests polling. A high volume of Put_Worker suggests row-by-row writes that could be batched.

Top IP Addresses - where the traffic originates. This identifies middleware platforms, cloud services, and external systems you may not have inventoried. An unfamiliar IP generating significant traffic is worth investigating.

How to use it:

1. Pull the Monthly API Trends for the last 12 months
2. Calculate your annual total and compare to your Platform Entitlement
3. Pull the Top API Request Sources and rank by volume
4. For the top 5 sources, determine: Is this exempt or countable? Can the traffic be reduced? What's driving the volume?
5. Pull the Top IP Addresses and cross-reference against your known integration inventory

What to look for:

• Your utilization percentage - annual consumption vs. entitlement. Under 80% = headroom. 80-100% = approaching limit. Over 100% = you'll be paying credits after the grace period.
• Unknown ISUs or IPs - traffic from integrations nobody owns or recognizes. These are often legacy, forgotten, or unauthorized integrations.
• API operations that suggest polling - high volumes of Get_Workers, Get_Organizations, or similar read operations repeated at regular intervals.
• Sudden volume spikes - a month where traffic doubled might indicate a runaway integration, a retry loop, or a one-time migration that wasn't cleaned up.

Estimated savings: Identifying and decommissioning one forgotten integration running at 50,000 calls/month saves 600,000 API calls per year.

All three in one hour

Workday's own FAQ says you can get started in an hour. Here's the sequence:

Minutes 1-15: Run the Monthly API Trends in PCC. Know your utilization percentage.

Minutes 15-30: Run the Scheduled Future Processes report. Flag anything under 15-minute recurrence.

Minutes 30-45: Run the Top API Request Sources report. Identify your top 5 consumers.

Minutes 45-60: Run the Integration Template Catalog report. Flag any modified Core Connectors.

You now have a baseline, a list of high-frequency polling candidates, your biggest consumers, and your exemption status. That's enough to know whether you need to act before February 2027.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to sign the UMSA to access these reports? You don't need to sign the UMSA to see your API usage in the PCC - Workday tracks it for all customers. The Integration Template Catalog and Scheduled Future Processes reports are standard tenant reports available to administrators regardless of your contract status.

How far back does the API Activity data go? Up to 13 months of monthly data for currently supported regions.

Can I export these reports? The PCC reports are viewable in the console. Whether CSV export is available depends on your tenant configuration. For deeper analysis, some customers use RaaS or Prism Analytics to extract more detailed API telemetry.

Who should run these reports? At minimum: your Workday administrator and your integration lead. Share the results with whoever manages your Workday budget and your Workday partner.

Model your consumption with our free Flex Credits Calculator, or request a Consumption Baseline Assessment.