HRIS & Workday Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the HRIS, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and Oracle HCM concepts that show up in audits, integration design and security reviews.
AI Readiness (HRIS)
The state in which an HRIS tenant's data and configuration are clean enough that AI features produce reliable results.
Read definitionGDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
EU regulation governing the processing of personal data — applies to any organization processing EU residents' personal data, including in HRIS systems.
Read definitionHCM (Human Capital Management)
A broader category than HRIS — covers the full lifecycle of attracting, managing and developing the workforce.
Read definitionHRIS (Human Resource Information System)
Software that stores, manages and processes detailed employee data and HR-related policies.
Read definitionHRMS (Human Resource Management System)
Older industry term for HRIS, often used for systems that combine HR and payroll.
Read definitionISO 27001
International standard for information security management systems (ISMS) — the global counterpart to SOC 2.
Read definitionOracle HCM Cloud (Oracle Fusion HCM)
Oracle's cloud HCM platform — strongest where Oracle Financials or Oracle Database investments already exist.
Read definitionRPA vs HRIS Integration
RPA mimics a human clicking the UI; an HRIS integration calls the API. RPA is faster to build and more fragile; integrations are slower and more durable.
Read definitionSAP SuccessFactors
SAP's cloud HCM suite — strongest where SAP S/4HANA is already the financial system of record.
Read definitionSegregation of Duties (SoD)
A control principle that splits a sensitive process across multiple people so no single person can both initiate and approve a financially-material action.
Read definitionSOC 2 (Service Organization Control 2)
An AICPA audit framework that evaluates a service organization's controls against the Trust Services Criteria — Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy.
Read definitionSOX ITGC (IT General Controls)
The IT controls auditors test under Sarbanes-Oxley — access management, change management, IT operations and computer operations.
Read definitionTenant Health
The configuration health of an HRIS tenant — security, business processes, integrations, data quality and AI readiness — measured continuously rather than at audit time.
Read definitionWorkday
A cloud-based HRIS and Financials platform used by ~10,000 enterprises including 60%+ of the Fortune 500.
Read definitionWorkday Absence Management
Workday's native module for managing time-off plans, requests, balances, accruals and statutory leave compliance.
Read definitionWorkday Business Process (BP)
A configurable workflow in Workday — sequence of steps, approvals, notifications and security checks for a single transaction type.
Read definitionWorkday Calculated Fields
Custom Workday fields whose value is computed at runtime from other fields, using Workday's calculation function library.
Read definitionWorkday Compensation
Workday's compensation module — covers compensation packages, plans, grades, pay ranges, focal review (Advanced Compensation) and one-time payments.
Read definitionWorkday EIB (Enterprise Interface Builder)
Workday's spreadsheet-based bulk data load tool — used for one-off mass changes or simple recurring inbound integrations.
Read definitionWorkday Extend
Workday's low-code platform for building custom applications that run inside the Workday tenant.
Read definitionWorkday Illuminate
Workday's family of AI/ML capabilities embedded across the HCM and Financials platform.
Read definitionWorkday ISU (Integration System User)
A non-human Workday account used by an integration to authenticate to the API.
Read definitionWorkday Payroll
Workday's native payroll engine — available for the US, Canada, UK and France; partner payroll connectors elsewhere.
Read definitionWorkday Prism Analytics
Workday's data lake and analytics product — lets customers blend Workday data with non-Workday data for advanced reporting.
Read definitionWorkday Recruiting
Workday's native applicant tracking system (ATS) — covers requisitions, candidates, assessments, offers and onboarding handoff.
Read definitionWorkday Release (R1 / R2)
Workday's twice-yearly platform updates — R1 in March, R2 in September — that ship new features and occasional regressions.
Read definitionWorkday Report Writer
Workday's in-tenant tool for building custom reports against the Workday object model — Simple, Advanced, Matrix, Composite, Search, Trending and Transposed types.
Read definitionWorkday Security Group
A grouping mechanism in Workday that controls who can see and do what — three types: Role-Based, User-Based, and Integration System.
Read definitionWorkday Studio
Workday's Eclipse-based IDE for building complex inbound and outbound integrations.
Read definitionWorkday Tenant
A single isolated instance of the Workday platform — every customer has at least one Production tenant plus several non-production tenants.
Read definitionWorkday Time Tracking
Workday's native time-and-attendance module — captures worked time, integrates with Absence and Payroll, supports multiple entry methods.
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