When a Workday custom report prints a PDF with missing values, outputs a separate PDF for every line item instead of one consolidated document (or vice versa), or refuses to upload its .rptdesign file, the disconnect lies between the Advanced Custom Report definition in Workday and the Report Designer (BIRT) layout in Workday Studio.

This guide covers the required tenant and report setup, why report schema changes silently blank out printed fields, how the Apply per row deployment setting works, and how to debug .rptdesign files without breaking live forms.

1. Tenant and custom report prerequisites before opening Workday Studio

Report Designer in Workday Studio can only attach a Business Form Layout to a report that satisfies three rules:

  1. Allow .rptdesign uploads in Tenant Setup: In the Edit Tenant Setup - System task, verify that .rptdesign is selected as an allowed file extension for uploading to Workday. If .rptdesign is not allowed in tenant setup, deploying from Workday Studio or uploading the layout file in the browser will fail.
  2. The custom report must be an Advanced report: Business Form Layouts require an Advanced custom report. If you want to customize the printed layout of a Workday-delivered standard report—or add a print layout to a standard report that doesn't have one—first copy the standard report to an Advanced custom report (or use the application's delivered layout override where supported).
  3. Enable the report as a Web Service (RaaS): Open the custom report definition, go to the Advanced tab, and check Enable As Web Service. You must be the report owner or have the report definition shared with you.

2. Exporting XML and XSD safely for offline design

Although Report Designer in Workday Studio can browse web-service-enabled custom reports directly from a connected Sandbox or Production tenant, developers frequently export the report's XML data and XSD schema to design and test layouts offline:

  1. From the custom report's related actions menu, select Web Service → View URLs.
  2. Under Workday XML, right-click REST / Workday XML and use your browser's Save Page As command to save the .xml file locally.
  3. Under XSD, right-click XSD and use Save Page As to save the .xsd schema file locally.

Do not copy and paste the XML or XSD text from a browser window into an editor. Workday explicitly warns that copying and pasting from the browser corrupts character encodings—especially when report data or labels contain non-Western characters—leading to XML parse errors in Studio Report Designer. Also remember that the downloaded .xml file contains real tenant report output, so store and delete it under your client's data handling rules.

3. Why a BIRT layout prints blank spaces where data used to be

Workday's core rule for Business Form Layouts is to do all data filtering, sorting, and calculations in Workday's Custom Report Writer, and use Report Designer in Workday Studio strictly for visual layout.

When an administrator edits a custom report in Workday after a .rptdesign layout has been deployed, two silent mismatches happen:

  • Deleted or renamed report fields become blank spaces: If you remove a field (for example, Legal Name - First Name) from the custom report definition—or replace it with a newly created calculated field that has a different XML element name in the RaaS schema—and that field is still bound in your .rptdesign layout, Workday does not throw a runtime error. Instead, the Business Form Layout silently replaces the missing field binding with a blank space on the rendered PDF.
  • Added report fields are ignored until bound: Adding a new column to the custom report in Workday does nothing to the printed PDF until you refresh the Data Source / Data Set in Workday Studio Report Designer, add the new column to the data set binding, and place it on the layout grid.
  • Filter and calculation drift inside BIRT: Because BIRT allows JavaScript expressions, data set filters, and computed columns inside the .rptdesign file itself, teams sometimes code business logic inside Studio instead of on the Workday custom report. When the Excel output of the report disagrees with the printed PDF output, check the .rptdesign Data Set's Filters and Computed Columns tabs and move that logic into Workday calculated fields on the report definition so both outputs share one source of truth.

4. Deployment settings that break output: Apply per row and Document Expiration

When you right-click your .rptdesign file in Workday Studio's Navigator view and select Deploy → Deploy to Workday, verify five settings in the Deploy Report Design to Workday dialog:

Deployment option Default What it actually controls
Create vs. Select Business Form Layout Create Business Form Layout is checked by default Leave Create checked only on the first deploy. On subsequent updates, select Select Business Form Layout and choose the existing layout from the drop-down list so you update the existing layout instead of creating duplicate layout records on the report.
Apply per row Checked by default When checked, Workday applies the report design separately to each row of the custom report (ideal for individual employee offer letters, compensation statements, or single checks). If your report returns multiple rows that belong on a single summary PDF (such as a tabular register or multi-row statement not grouped on a single parent object), leaving Apply per row checked will generate repeated pages per row instead of one table across the dataset—clear the check box to apply the design to the report's data as a whole.
Active Checked by default Activates the Business Form Layout for the custom report immediately upon deployment.
Use as the Default Business Form Layout Enabled only when a layout already exists on the report Sets this design as the default layout when users print the custom report.
Document Expiration User-specified days Sets the number of days before the generated PDF document expires in Workday. Users can rerun the report if they need the PDF after expiration.

Inspecting and updating Studio report designs with kiweely

Because kiweely connects both to your Workday tenant and to the Workday Studio installed on this computer, you don't have to hunt through XML schemas and .rptdesign bindings manually when a printed form goes blank. In a single conversation, kiweely can inspect the live custom report's RaaS XML/XSD in your tenant, compare every field against the .rptdesign file in your local Studio workspace, update the layout or report definition, and deploy the revised design only after you approve the change.

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