Matrix Reports: An Overview

Matrix Reports provide a way to summarize data while still maintaining the ability to drill directly into more detail and are the second most popular report type in Workday behind Advanced Reports.

Matrix Reports are commonly used to create worklets on dashboards and you can easily add a chart/graph to provide a visual representation of your data. Matrix Reports are also a prerequisite to Composite Report development.

For those familiar with the power of pivot tables in Excel, Matrix Reports offer a similar functionality within the Workday environment. Both tools allow you to summarize and analyze data across various dimensions. Let us investigate the following example to illustrate this functionality in more detail.

Downloading Data and Using Excel Pivot Tables

As an illustration, let's consider a scenario where you download data from a Workday report containing details like Worker ID, Worker Full Name, and Cost Center. You could then export this data to Excel and create a pivot table to see a summarized count of workers by Cost Center.

Below is a snapshot of the downloaded data from an Advanced Report:

And then summarized as a pivot table in Excel:

Workday Matrix Reports: A Native Solution

Let us look at the same example utilizing Matrix Reports.

Here’s the beauty of Matrix Reports: you can achieve a similar summarized view directly within Workday, eliminating the need for data export and external tools like Excel.

This simple Matrix Report provides the summary of worker count by Cost Center:

Benefits of Using Matrix Reports over Pivot Tables

There are several advantages to using Workday Matrix Reports instead of downloading data and resorting to external tools like Excel:

• Real-Time Data: Matrix Reports work with live Workday data, ensuring you're always analyzing the most current information. It also ensures data integrity.

• Better Analysis: Link directly to data within Workday. Matrix Reports allow you to drill into instances from the report for more insight.

• Reduced Manual Work: Skip the data export and manipulation steps. Matrix Reports provide summaries directly within Workday.

• Streamlined Collaboration: Easily share reports with colleagues within Workday, fostering teamwork and data-driven decision-making.

Author: Alex from Alabama