Workday Financial Management MCP Server

Create a powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Workday Financial Management in minutes with our AI Gateway. This guide walks you through setting up seamless financial system integration with comprehensive accounting capabilities and instant OAuth authentication.

About Workday Financial Management API

Workday Financial Management is a cloud-based financial management platform that helps organizations streamline financial operations, improve decision-making, and ensure compliance. It provides integrated tools for accounting, budgeting, reporting, and financial analysis across the entire enterprise.

Key Capabilities

• General Ledger: Complete chart of accounts and journal entry management
• Budgeting & Planning: Advanced planning and forecasting capabilities
• Financial Reporting: Real-time reporting and business intelligence
• Expense Management: Comprehensive approval workflows
• Revenue Management: Recognition and billing processes
• Cost Center Tracking: Multi-dimensional financial organization
• Audit Trail: Complete compliance and reporting
• Integration: Seamless connection with HR, procurement, and other systems

API Features

• REST API: Modern RESTful interface
• OAuth 2.0: Secure authentication
• Real-time Data: Instant financial updates
• Bulk Operations: Mass data processing
• Custom Reports: Flexible reporting capabilities
• Workflow Automation: Automated accounting processes
• Multi-currency: Global financial management
• Audit Logs: Complete transaction history

What You Can Do with Workday Financial Management MCP Server

The MCP server transforms Workday Financial Management API into a natural language interface, enabling AI agents to:

General Ledger Management

• Chart of Accounts

  • "Retrieve all asset accounts in the chart of accounts"
  • "Create new expense account for marketing department"
  • "Update account hierarchy structure"
  • "Get account balance for Q4 2024"

• Journal Entries

  • "Create journal entry for monthly depreciation"
  • "Post accrual entries for end of quarter"
  • "Reverse journal entry from last month"
  • "Search journal entries by account code"

• Account Reconciliation

  • "Generate bank reconciliation report"
  • "Show unreconciled transactions for cash accounts"
  • "Mark transactions as reconciled"
  • "Track reconciliation status by account"

Budgeting & Planning

• Budget Management

  • "Create annual budget for 2025"
  • "Update departmental budget allocations"
  • "Track budget vs actual spending by cost center"
  • "Generate budget variance report"

• Forecasting

  • "Create revenue forecast for next quarter"
  • "Update expense projections based on actuals"
  • "Generate rolling 12-month forecast"
  • "Compare forecast scenarios"

• Budget Monitoring

  • "Check budget availability for purchase order"
  • "Alert when budget threshold is exceeded"
  • "Track budget utilization by department"
  • "Generate budget consumption analysis"

Financial Reporting

• Standard Reports

  • "Generate balance sheet for December 2024"
  • "Create profit and loss statement by division"
  • "Produce cash flow statement for Q4"
  • "Generate trial balance report"

• Custom Analytics

  • "Show expense trends by category over 12 months"
  • "Analyze revenue by product line and region"
  • "Compare year-over-year financial performance"
  • "Generate KPI dashboard for executives"

• Compliance Reports

  • "Create audit trail report for external auditors"
  • "Generate tax reporting package"
  • "Produce regulatory compliance documents"
  • "Extract SOX compliance evidence"

Expense Management

• Expense Processing

  • "Submit expense report for business travel"
  • "Approve pending expense reports"
  • "Track expense report status"
  • "Generate employee expense summary"

• Expense Analytics

  • "Analyze travel expenses by department"
  • "Identify policy violations in expense reports"
  • "Track average expense processing time"
  • "Generate expense trends by category"

• Policy Enforcement

  • "Check expense against company policy"
  • "Flag out-of-policy expenses for review"
  • "Generate policy compliance report"
  • "Track policy exception approvals"

Revenue Management

• Revenue Recognition

  • "Process monthly revenue recognition"
  • "Track deferred revenue balances"
  • "Generate revenue schedule by contract"
  • "Calculate revenue recognition for subscriptions"

• Billing Management

  • "Create customer invoices"
  • "Track accounts receivable aging"
  • "Process payment applications"
  • "Generate billing analytics"

• Revenue Analytics

  • "Analyze revenue by customer segment"
  • "Track recurring vs one-time revenue"
  • "Generate revenue pipeline report"
  • "Compare actual vs contracted revenue"

Cost Center & Organization Management

• Cost Center Operations

  • "Create new cost center for project"
  • "Update cost center allocations"
  • "Track spending by cost center"
  • "Generate cost center performance report"

• Worktags & Dimensions

  • "Assign worktags to transactions"
  • "Track expenses by multiple dimensions"
  • "Generate cross-dimensional analysis"
  • "Update worktag hierarchies"

• Allocations

  • "Process monthly cost allocations"
  • "Create allocation rules for shared services"
  • "Track allocation history"
  • "Generate allocation audit report"

Accounts Payable

• Invoice Processing

  • "Create vendor invoice"
  • "Match invoice to purchase order"
  • "Approve invoices for payment"
  • "Track invoice status"

• Payment Management

  • "Schedule payment runs"
  • "Generate payment proposals"
  • "Process ACH payments"
  • "Track payment history by vendor"

• Vendor Analytics

  • "Analyze spending by vendor"
  • "Track payment terms and discounts"
  • "Generate vendor performance report"
  • "Identify duplicate vendor records"

Accounts Receivable

• Customer Invoicing

  • "Create customer invoices"
  • "Send invoice reminders"
  • "Apply customer payments"
  • "Track invoice status"

• Collections Management

  • "Generate aging report"
  • "Identify overdue accounts"
  • "Track collection activities"
  • "Calculate bad debt provisions"

• Cash Application

  • "Apply payments to invoices"
  • "Resolve payment discrepancies"
  • "Process batch payments"
  • "Generate cash receipts report"

Audit & Compliance

• Audit Trail

  • "Generate complete audit log for account"
  • "Track all changes to journal entries"
  • "Show user activity by date range"
  • "Export audit evidence for external review"

• Internal Controls

  • "Verify segregation of duties"
  • "Track approval workflows"
  • "Identify control exceptions"
  • "Generate controls testing report"

• Compliance Monitoring

  • "Check compliance with accounting standards"
  • "Generate regulatory filing data"
  • "Track policy compliance by transaction type"
  • "Produce compliance certificates"

Integration & Automation

• Data Synchronization

  • "Sync financial data with HR system"
  • "Import bank transactions automatically"
  • "Export data to tax software"
  • "Integrate with procurement system"

• Workflow Automation

  • "Automate month-end close process"
  • "Schedule recurring journal entries"
  • "Trigger approval workflows"
  • "Automate financial reconciliations"

• Custom Integrations

  • "Connect to business intelligence tools"
  • "Feed data to analytics platforms"
  • "Integrate with CRM for revenue data"
  • "Export to external reporting systems"

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

1. Workday Financial Management Account

   • Active Workday tenant with Financial Management module
   • Appropriate user permissions for API access
   • Tenant URL (e.g., https://wd2-impl-services1.workday.com/ccx/service/your-tenant)

2. OAuth 2.0 Configuration

   • Workday Integration System User (ISU) created
   • OAuth 2.0 client registered in Workday
   • Client ID and Client Secret from Workday
   • Appropriate API scopes granted (read, write, admin)

3. AI Gateway Account

   • Active account at AI Gateway Portal
   • API key for authentication

Setup Instructions

Step 1: Configure OAuth in Workday

1. Create Integration System User (ISU)

   • Navigate to Create Integration System User task in Workday
   • Set up ISU with appropriate security group membership
   • Note the username for OAuth configuration

2. Register OAuth 2.0 Client

   • Go to Register API Client for Integrations task
   • Select Non-Expiring Refresh Tokens for production use
   • Add required scopes: read, write, admin
   • Note the Client ID and Client Secret

3. Configure Redirect URI

   • Set redirect URI to: https://gateway.aigateway.cequence.ai/oauth/callback
   • Save the OAuth client configuration

4. Grant Security Permissions

   • Assign ISU to appropriate security groups
   • Grant domain permissions for Financial Management
   • Enable API access for required financial objects

Step 2: Create MCP Server in AI Gateway

1. Access AI Gateway Portal

   • Log in to https://portal.aigateway.cequence.ai
   • Navigate to Gateways → Create New Gateway

2. Select Workday Financial Management

   • Choose Workday Financial Management from the application list
   • Click Next to proceed

3. Configure OAuth Settings

   • Authorization URL: https://impl-cc.workday.com/{your-tenant}/authorize (Replace {your-tenant} with your actual tenant name)
   • Token URL: https://impl-cc.workday.com/{your-tenant}/token
   • Client ID: Paste from Workday OAuth client
   • Client Secret: Paste from Workday OAuth client
   • Scopes: Select required scopes (read, write, admin)

4. Complete OAuth Flow

   • Click Authorize to initiate OAuth flow
   • Log in to Workday when prompted
   • Approve the authorization request
   • Verify successful connection

5. Configure Gateway Settings

   • Set gateway name (e.g., "Production Financial Management")
   • Configure rate limiting if needed
   • Set usage quotas based on your plan
   • Click Create Gateway

Step 3: Test the Connection

1. Verify Setup

   curl -X GET "https://gateway.aigateway.cequence.ai/v1/financial/accounts" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_GATEWAY_TOKEN"

2. Test Basic Operations

   • Retrieve chart of accounts
   • Query financial reports
   • Check account balances
   • Verify data access

Using Your Workday Financial Management MCP Server

Setup Instructions:

• Claude Desktop
• Cursor
• Windsurf

Example Prompts

Try these natural language queries:

"Show me the balance sheet for December 2024"
"Create a journal entry for depreciation expense"
"What's the budget vs actual for marketing this quarter?"
"Generate accounts payable aging report"
"Show all open invoices over 60 days"
"Track expenses by cost center for the year"

API Scopes & Permissions

Available Scopes

Scope	Description	Required For
read	Read-only access to financial data	Reporting, queries
write	Create and update financial records	Journal entries, invoices
admin	Full administrative access	System configuration

Best Practices

• Use minimum required scopes for security
• Create separate ISUs for different integrations
• Rotate credentials regularly for compliance
• Monitor API usage to stay within limits
• Enable audit logging for all API calls

Rate Limits & Quotas

• Standard API: 200 requests per minute
• Bulk Operations: 50 requests per minute
• Report Generation: 20 requests per minute
• Real-time Queries: 500 requests per minute

Security Considerations

• Store credentials securely using secrets management
• Enable IP whitelisting in Workday for API access
• Use short-lived tokens for sensitive operations
• Implement proper error handling and logging
• Regular security audits and access reviews

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "Invalid OAuth token"

   • Verify token hasn't expired
   • Check OAuth client configuration in Workday
   • Ensure ISU has proper security permissions

2. "Access denied to financial object"

   • Verify ISU security group membership
   • Check domain permissions for financial objects
   • Review security policy configuration

3. "Tenant not found"

   • Verify tenant name in authorization/token URLs
   • Check tenant is active and accessible
   • Ensure correct environment (production vs sandbox)

Support

• Documentation: Workday Financial Management Docs
• AI Gateway Support: Support Portal
• Community: Workday Community