Compensation planning
Comp planning in Workday is one of the most painful modules to configure and run — most large customers end up exporting to Excel for the actual planning round and re-importing the results.
What people actually say
✕Mid-market companies of 500-2,500 employees can expect to pay between $300k-$500k annually for Workday HCM and Payroll, with compensation and advanced modules layered on top.
Source: Outsail, Workday pricing breakdown ↗✕Reviewers describe Workday's compensation review process as powerful but rigid — managers commonly fall back to Excel exports for the actual planning round and re-upload the results.
Source: Capterra Workday HCM verified reviews ↗✕Honest Workday review notes that the depth and customisability that make Workday strong for huge enterprises become a maintenance burden for everyone smaller, with comp planning called out specifically.
Source: Jibble, honest Workday review by a tech CEO ↗
Compensation planning is a spreadsheet-shaped React grid on top of your warehouse — managers see their reports, recommended raises against bands, budget remaining, and ratings from the talent module in the same view. Bands live in Postgres, FX conversions run nightly, scenario modelling is a Postgres CTE, and lock-down dates are a column. No round-trip to Excel, no per-cycle consultant invoice, and the approval chain is the same TypeScript state machine the rest of the system uses.