Switch Guide: Moving from Workday to Ceridian Dayforce
Workday is a powerful HCM platform built in California with a US-first design philosophy. Ceridian Dayforce is built by a Toronto-headquartered company (now rebranded as Dayforce Inc.) with deep Canadian roots, native Canadian payroll, and a unified platform that processes payroll in real time rather than in batch runs. For large Canadian employers who've struggled with Workday's complexity, implementation costs, and US-centric HR model, Dayforce offers an enterprise-grade alternative that speaks Canadian fluently — from Quebec labour law to provincial employment standards to T4 filing.
What You'll Gain
- Real-time payroll: Dayforce calculates payroll continuously in real time — you can see payroll impact of any HR action immediately, not just at batch run time.
- Native Canadian and US payroll in one platform: No separate systems for Canadian and US employees.
- Canadian headquarters: Dayforce is built by a Canadian company with Canadian enterprise DNA.
- Workforce management included: Scheduling, time and attendance, and labour cost management built into the same platform.
- Canadian data residency: Canadian data stored in Canada by default.
- Simpler implementation: Dayforce's implementations are typically shorter than Workday's for comparable scope.
What You Might Miss
- Workday's reporting: Workday Prism Analytics and Workday Adaptive Planning are best-in-class for financial and HR analytics.
- Global reach: Workday supports 100+ countries natively. Dayforce's global payroll is less comprehensive.
- Integration marketplace: Workday's partner ecosystem and pre-built integrations are more extensive.
- Skills Cloud: Workday's AI-powered skills framework and talent marketplace are more advanced than Dayforce's talent management.
Migration Checklist
- Scope your migration carefully — Define exactly which modules you're migrating (payroll, HR, time, benefits). Phase your implementation if doing full HCM replacement.
- Extract data from Workday — Work with your Workday admin to extract worker, position, compensation, benefits enrollment, and payroll history data.
- Engage a Dayforce implementation partner — This is an enterprise implementation — use a certified Dayforce partner with Canadian payroll expertise.
- Data cleansing — Clean and validate your extracted data before migration. This phase is often underestimated.
- Configure Dayforce — Implementation partner configures org structure, pay groups, earning/deduction codes, and business rules.
- Parallel payroll testing — Run Dayforce parallel to Workday for 2–3 pay periods to validate payroll accuracy before cutover.
- Benefits transition — Coordinate your benefits broker for enrollment migration.
- Go-live and post-cutover support — Plan for elevated support needs in the 90 days following go-live.
Data Export Tips from Workday
Workday data extraction requires your Workday admin to build custom reports or use the Workday Integration System. Key extracts needed: Worker data (personal, position, compensation history), organizational hierarchy, benefit plans and enrollments, payroll history (by pay period for minimum 3 years), time-off plans and balances, and custom fields. Work with Dayforce's implementation team early — they have experience with Workday data mapping and know where the common translation issues are.
Timeline Estimate
Enterprise HCM migrations typically take 6–12 months. This is not a quick switch — plan accordingly. A phased approach (payroll and core HR first, then workforce management, then talent) reduces risk. A full single-phase Workday-to-Dayforce migration for a 1,000+ person company typically requires 9–12 months of implementation work.