Ceridian Dayforce to Workday Data Migration
Moving from Dayforce to Workday? Settle automates the mapping between Ceridian's continuous calculation payroll model and Workday's worker-centric architecture — preserving employee records, pay history, benefits enrollment, and compliance data.
Working with enterprise teams on active migration programs
Days
to production-ready mappings
Roughly half
the cost of consulting-led delivery
Every row
validated before go-live
Enterprise migrations routinely run months behind schedule. Yours doesn't have to.
This guide is for VPs of IT, data architects, and migration leads at companies moving data from Ceridian Dayforce to Workday — whether you're scoping, planning, or mid-program.
Ceridian Dayforce stores HR and payroll data in a unified platform with continuous calculation payroll, real-time benefits administration, and workforce management. Workday uses a different architecture — worker-centric records with effective-dated business processes, separate compensation plans, and benefit elections. Settle translates Dayforce's payroll-first data model to Workday's HR-first architecture automatically.
Based on the founding team's enterprise migration experience
Last updated July 2026
How Settle automates your Ceridian Dayforce to Workday migration
Settle maps Dayforce's payroll-first data model to Workday's HR-first architecture — translating earning codes, deduction codes, and tax configurations to Workday compensation elements while preserving calculation accuracy.
YTD payroll balances, tax withholdings, and benefit deductions are migrated with precision — Settle generates the balance adjustment records needed for Workday's first payroll run to produce correct results.
Benefits enrollment is translated from Dayforce's real-time administration model to Workday's benefit election framework — active plans, coverage levels, dependent enrollment, and COBRA participants all transfer.
Compliance data (ACA tracking, EEO codes, state tax registrations) is mapped to Workday equivalents with upcoming filing deadline flags so nothing falls through the cracks during transition.
Get your Ceridian Dayforce to Workday mapping analysis — see results in under an hour
Migration timeline: manual vs. Settle
Traditional approach
Timeline
9–15 months
Estimated cost
$600K–$1.5M
Team size
5–12 consultants
Typically requires
×Manual field mapping in spreadsheets
×Custom ABAP/SQL extraction scripts
×3–5 mock migration cycles
×Dedicated source system consultants
×Manual reconciliation testing
With Settle
Enterprise benchmarksTimeline
Days
Estimated cost
A fraction of consulting cost
Team size
2–4 internal resources
Included
✓Schema profiling & analysis
✓AI-generated field mappings
✓Transformation SQL
✓Validation & readiness reports
✓Production-ready load files
Common challenges migrating from Ceridian Dayforce to Workday
Payroll-first model to HR-first model
Dayforce organizes around payroll — earning codes, deduction codes, and tax configurations drive the data model. Workday organizes around HR events — worker records, staffing events, and compensation changes drive the model, with payroll as a downstream process. Settle maps Dayforce's payroll elements to Workday's compensation plans, earning codes, and deduction codes while preserving the calculation accuracy needed for the first Workday payroll run.
Explore related migrations →Continuous calculation to batch payroll
Dayforce's continuous calculation engine processes payroll in real time as changes occur. Workday uses scheduled payroll runs with retro-processing for past-period adjustments. YTD balances, tax withholdings, and benefit deductions from Dayforce must be migrated with precision to ensure Workday's first payroll run produces correct checks and tax deposits.
Explore related migrations →Workforce management data
Dayforce includes workforce management — schedules, time and attendance, labor allocation — tightly integrated with payroll. Workday Time Tracking is a separate module with different scheduling and allocation patterns. Time and attendance data must be migrated or archived, and the WFM-to-payroll integration must be reconfigured.
Explore related migrations →Benefits administration translation
Dayforce administers benefits with real-time eligibility, evidence of insurability tracking, and carrier feeds. Workday uses benefit plans, benefit groups, and benefit elections with a different enrollment workflow. Active enrollments, COBRA participants, and pending life events must all transfer with correct coverage and dependent information.
Explore related migrations →Compliance data and reporting
Dayforce stores compliance data — EEO reporting, ACA tracking, OSHA records, state-specific tax registrations — in its own format. Workday tracks compliance differently. Settle maps compliance-specific fields to Workday equivalents and flags data required for upcoming compliance deadlines (ACA 1095-C filing, EEO-1 reporting) to ensure no gaps during the transition.
Explore related migrations →Ceridian Dayforce to Workday field mapping — what data moves
12 data objects typically migrated
| Source Object | → | Target Object |
|---|---|---|
| Employee Record | → | Worker |
| Employment History | → | Staffing Events |
| Earning Codes / Pay Elements | → | Compensation Plans / Earning Codes |
| Deduction Codes | → | Deduction Codes / Benefit Deductions |
| Pay History / YTD Balances | → | Payroll Balance Adjustments |
| Benefits Enrollment | → | Benefit Election |
| Dependents / Beneficiaries | → | Dependent / Beneficiary |
| Department / Org Structure | → | Supervisory Organization |
| Position / Job | → | Position / Job Profile |
| Time Off Balances | → | Time Off Balance |
| Tax Configuration / W-4 | → | Tax Elections |
| ACA / EEO Data | → | Compliance Fields |
Typical enterprise migrations include 500K–10M+ records across these objects. Settle handles profiling and mapping at enterprise scale.
The cost of manual Ceridian Dayforce to Workday migration
Ceridian Dayforce to Workday migrations happen when companies outgrow Dayforce's talent management, workforce planning, or analytics capabilities and want Workday's deeper enterprise HCM platform. This migration is common at the 2,000–10,000 employee scale when organizations need advanced compensation modeling, succession planning, learning management, or global payroll consolidation that Workday provides. It's also driven by PE firms and enterprise companies standardizing on Workday across divisions.
The core technical challenge is that Dayforce and Workday are both comprehensive HCM platforms but organize data differently. Dayforce uses a continuous calculation payroll engine where pay data is tightly integrated with time and attendance, benefits, and HR — changes ripple through the system in real time. Workday separates HR events from payroll processing with distinct business processes for each. Dayforce's earning codes, deduction codes, and tax configurations must map to Workday's compensation elements and payroll codes.
These migrations are managed by Workday implementation partners over 9–15 months. The data conversion — mapping Dayforce's employee records, payroll configuration, benefits enrollment, and compliance data to Workday — requires deep expertise in both platforms.
Consulting-led delivery for migrations in this class typically runs $600K–$1.5M. Settle prices it fixed and scoped — read the full cost breakdown. For HR and payroll paths specifically, see the UKG migration guide.
Frequently asked questions
Related migration paths
Exceptions surface before the first load, not after the third.
Built by the team that ran Fortune 500 migrations by hand. Currently onboarding enterprise design partners on active migration programs.
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