Workday service levels, tenants and termination are the contract terms that decide what a Workday customer receives beyond its subscribed quantities: the availability and support commitments, the rules for extra non-Production tenants, and what happens when payments are late or the relationship ends. They sit in the Universal Main Subscription Agreement (UMSA), the Universal Service Level Availability and Support Policy and the Additional Tenant Terms.[1][2][3] Workday states that because the Service runs on one operational model for all customers, “the applicable SLA cannot be modified on a customer-by-customer basis”.[4]
This article quotes the UMSA for the Americas. Other regional UMSA versions may differ in wording and should be checked against the executed agreement.
Editions
The service levels do not vary by edition. They vary by product line: the policy gives separate figures for HiredScore, for Contract Intelligence and Contract Lifecycle Management, for Planning, and for Workday Learning, powered by Sana. All other product lines share the default figures.[2]
Metrics
The policy measures availability as Monthly Uptime Percentage and speed as Service Response, a share of online transactions completed within a time. Neither is a licensing metric, and neither changes the subscribed quantities. Licensing metrics are covered in Workday subscription licensing.
Service availability
The Universal Service Level Availability and Support Policy (last updated 2026-09-17) sets a Monthly Uptime Percentage of 99.9% for all Workday Service product lines except HiredScore, which is 99.5% measured only during HiredScore Hours (6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time, Monday to Friday, excluding holidays) (Monthly uptime commitment 99.9 percent; HiredScore 99.5 percent).[2]
Availability is calculated as total minutes minus unplanned outage minus scheduled maintenance, divided by total minutes minus scheduled maintenance. Scheduled Maintenance may not exceed 3 hours a week plus 4 hours a month plus 4 hours a quarter. Maintenance that overruns counts as Unplanned Outage, and unused maintenance time does not offset outages. Workday may change the windows with 30 days’ notice as long as they are not extended (Scheduled Maintenance capped at 3 hours weekly, 4 monthly and 4 quarterly).[2] The measurement point is the availability of Production Instances at the Production data center’s internet connection points.[2]
Service Response. For most product lines, at least 50% of online transactions must complete in one second or less and at least 90% in 2.5 seconds or less. The commitment does not apply to Contract Intelligence and Contract Lifecycle Management, HiredScore or Planning. It excludes background jobs, Workday Web Services, AI features including Enhanced Features, Early Access features and analytics. Workday “may enforce reasonable and documented system limits” where custom reports and integrations exceed the limits published on Community.[2]
Disaster recovery. Workday tests its Disaster Recovery Plan every six months.[2]
| Product line | Recovery Time Objective | Recovery Point Objective |
|---|---|---|
| All product lines except those below | 12 hours | 1 hour |
| Contract Intelligence and Contract Lifecycle Management | 24 hours | 6 hours |
| HiredScore | 12 hours | Not applicable |
| Workday Learning, powered by Sana (Talent Management) | 3 days | 24 hours |
Service Credits
The UMSA ties the SLA to a fixed ladder of remedies. If Workday fails the monthly Service Availability or Service Response commitment during any rolling six-month period (a “Failure”), the customer must request a remedy within 60 days. The remedies are a meeting on corrective actions for the first Failure, then “a 10% Service Credit for a second Failure”, “a 20% Service Credit for a third Failure” and “a 30% Service Credit for a fourth Failure”. Credits are deducted from the next invoice for Subscription Fees, or refunded if there is no further invoice, and they are the customer’s exclusive remedies for a Failure (SLA Service Credits of 10, 20 and 30 percent for repeated Failures).[1]
Production support
Workday works toward resolution based on severity and business impact but “does not provide specific resolution commitments”, and it supports only functionality that is generally available in Production use. Cases are submitted through Community by Named Support Contacts who are trained on the Workday products.[2]
| Severity | Meaning (summarized) | Response commitment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Service unavailable or vital processes blocked, no workaround (for example payroll, month-end close) | 1 hour, 7 days a week; escalated if not resolved in 1 hour |
| 2 | Critical process blocked with significant impact, no workaround | 6 hours, Monday to Friday; escalated after 6 hours on request |
| 3 | Important process blocked, workaround not optimal | 24 hours, Monday to Friday |
| 4 | Non-critical process delayed, workaround exists | 24 hours, Monday to Friday |
| 5 | Non-system issues and general requests | 48 hours, Monday to Friday |
Source for the table: policy sections B.2 and B.3 (Support response: Severity 1 within 1 hour, 7 days a week).[2] The SLA excludes issues caused by the customer, by events outside Workday’s control, by customer or third-party software, hardware or services, and by applications built under the Workday Developer Program.[2]
Counting / floors: tenants
A subscription includes the customer’s Production Instance. More environments are bought as additional tenants on an Order Form or in Workday Community, and the Additional Tenant Terms (v25.7H) apply to them.[3]
- Non-Production only. Tenants “are for non-Production use only and are intended solely for planning, testing and training purposes” (Additional tenants: non-Production only; renewal at then-current rate).[3] The UMSA definition of Production excludes “any non-production sandbox, preview, or implementation Instance” (Production excludes sandbox, preview and implementation Instances).[1]
- Tied to the core subscription. The tenant Order Form ends automatically when the MSA ends or when the customer no longer has a valid subscription for any Workday SKU provided in a tenant. Tenant fees are non-cancelable, non-refundable and cannot be credited toward other fees.[3]
- Automatic renewal. Where the Order Form provides for it, the tenant term renews for periods equal to the Initial Order Term, “for a maximum of five (5) Renewal Terms”, unless the customer gives notice of non-renewal through a support case at least 15 days before the end of the current period. Renewal fees are at Workday’s then-current rate on the Workday Deployment Tenant Pricing page (Additional tenant Order Forms auto-renew for up to five Renewal Terms; 15 days non-renewal notice).[3]
- Demonstration Tenants refresh only from Workday’s current base tenant copy and must not hold Customer Content or Customer Data; “only sample, fictitious data should be entered” (Demonstration Tenants may hold only sample, fictitious data).[3]
- Suspension. Workday may suspend access to tenants on 30 days’ written notice if tenant fees are not paid.[3]
Non-Production environments also matter for consumption: actions taken for testing and evaluation in non-Production environments do not use Flex Credits, and only Production API Requests count toward Platform Entitlements.[5]
Payment and suspension
- Fees are due within 30 days of the invoice date, except fees under a reasonable and good faith dispute, and the customer “may not withhold, reduce, or set-off fees” (Fees due within 30 days of invoice; no withholding or set-off).[1]
- Overdue amounts may accrue late charges of 1% of the outstanding balance per month or the legal maximum, whichever is lower (Late charges of 1% per month on overdue payments).[1]
- If a payment is more than 90 days past due and Workday has then given at least 30 days’ written notice, Workday may suspend the Service until paid (Suspension for non-payment after 90 days past due plus 30 days notice).[1]
- Workday may also suspend access during the Order Term if it reasonably determines this is needed to preserve the integrity or security of the Service.[1]
Termination and exit
No termination for convenience. Workday’s FAQ states that it “does not agree with the concept of ‘termination for convenience’”, because the parties commit to a multi-year Order Term (No termination for convenience).[4] The UMSA allows termination only for uncured material breach after 30 days’ notice, or for insolvency. Terminating the Agreement terminates all Order Forms. If the customer terminates for Workday’s breach, Workday refunds prepaid fees for the affected Service after the termination date. Termination for any other reason “will not relieve Customer of the obligation to pay all future amounts due under all Order Forms” (Termination other than for Workday breach leaves all future Order Form amounts payable).[1]
Transition Period. If the customer asks in writing before termination, Workday continues the Service for up to three months after termination. Monthly fees are 1/12 of the fee for the preceding 12 months “plus an additional five percent”. Transition assistance is a separate statement of work under a professional services agreement (Transition Period of up to three months at 1/12 of annual fee plus 5 percent).[1]
Retrieval Period. On written request made on or before expiration or termination, Workday gives limited access for up to 60 days at no additional cost solely to retrieve Customer Content, in a machine-readable format. Afterwards Workday may delete the customer’s Instance (Retrieval Period of up to 60 days at no additional cost).[1]
Service warranty. During the Order Term Workday warrants that the overall Service will not be materially decreased and will perform materially as described in the Documentation. A breach of this warranty lets the customer terminate the affected Service under the material breach clause.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. Workday hosts the Service; customers deploy nothing.[4]
Cloud / BYOL
Not applicable. There is no customer-hosted or bring-your-own-license option.[4]
Programs
The terms in this article apply to every Workday Order Form. Flex Credits and reseller purchases are described in Workday licensing.
Out of scope
- Professional services, transition assistance rates and training.
- Security, privacy and data processing exhibits.
- Regional UMSA versions other than the Americas, and negotiated deviations in signed agreements.