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Rippling Vs Workday - Which HR Software Is The Best?

Rippling Vs Workday - Which HR Software Is The Best?

By Maryam Haneef ·

Jan 20, 2025 · 7 mins Read

Rippling Vs Workday

Statistics indicate that the human resources (HR) industry is projected to grow from $47.4 billion in 2021 to $90 billion by 2025. This reflects businesses’ increasing confidence in using these software solutions to simplify and manage their administrative functions. Within this rapidly evolving landscape of employee management and all it entails, Rippling HR and Workday stand out as two celebrated names.

Read the following Rippling Vs. Workday blog to explore their key functionalities and what makes them stand out!

Rippling Vs Workday – A Brief Summary

Feature	Rippling	Workday
Human Capital Management	Automates administrative tasks Offers comprehensive assistance Provides custom workflows	Interactive dashboard for effective collaboration Self-service reports Real-time information insights
Payroll Processing	Configurable payroll system Multiple pay times Global payroll	Automates and optimizes complex payroll Global payroll processing Countless payroll runs
Learning Management	AI-powered performance evaluation tool 360-degree feedback Custom learning courses	Workday Skills Cloud for workforce performance evaluation Facilitates targeted learning
Expense Management	Regular check-ins in monthly spending Automatic alerts for big expenses Enables reimbursement across 100 countries	Valuable insights about monthly expenses Automates spend monitoring Facilitates compliance with global laws
Analytics And Reporting	Pre-built report templates Formula Fields to automate calculations Dynamic visuals	5,000+ configurable, pre-built reports 175 customizable dashboards Dynamic data visuals

What Is Rippling?

Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI), Rippling is a cloud-based HR platform that serves businesses of all sizes. It simplifies end-to-end administrative tasks, thereby saving time and allowing employers to focus on various business strategies. From hiring, onboarding, and enrolling in different benefits plans to managing global payroll, the software acts as a full-service HR platform. Additionally, it allows employees to manage their monthly expenses and assists in saving up for rainy days.

Rippling caters to various sectors, including healthcare, construction, manufacturing, non-profit, finance, etc.

Unique Features Of Rippling

Identity And Access Management: Companies can implement stronger security measures with Rippling and allow role-based data access to employees. Managers can also monitor and enable user groups to store data in the software's zero-knowledge vault.
Bill Pay: The software automatically captures relevant data that helps employers generate accurate bills in no time. They can upload and forward invoices to relevant vendors and contractors. Additionally, Rippling detects duplicate bills and notifies the managers.
Corporate Cards: Managers can issue personalized corporate cards for their employees, both in physical and virtual form, and monitor their spending. They can define rules for card usage and implement custom policies to effectively track employees’ expenses.
Inventory Management: The platform allows efficient inventory management with its automated workflows. Employers can track, onboard, and assign new devices to employees through Rippling.

Pros And Cons Of Rippling

Pros:

A centralized dashboard that facilitates efficient management of all HR functions through a single platform
The software gives automated reminders on the homepage when tasks are completed
Allows users to distribute a specific percentage of their paycheck across multiple bank accounts

Cons:

Timesheets are automatically processed and often fail to display companies' holiday schedules
The mobile application user interface (UI) can be a bit confusing for new users

What Is Workday?

Built on cloud architecture, Workday is an AI-powered HR platform designed to simplify complex administrative tasks. It is easily scalable and grows with the increasing needs of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) without affecting its performance. From processing payroll to managing finances and improving employee experience, Workday offers all these services and more.

Moreover, by offering global payroll services, Workday serves a wide range of industries on an international scale. Some of its renowned clients are Shutterstock, Levi Strauss & Co., Puma, Deloitte, Thomson Reuters, etc.

Unique Features Of Workday

Vendor Management: By providing global invoicing and extensive configurable capabilities, Workday helps employers globally manage vendors and contractors. Organizations can optimize freelance labor, including spend management, headcount, location, etc.
Financial Planning: Workday seamlessly integrates with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and General Ledger (GL), thereby assisting businesses in effectively managing finances. Finance managers can utilize its agile reports and dashboards to make strategic decisions and detect and mitigate risks.
Close And Consolidation: The software helps companies accelerate financial close processes and maximize the efficiency of finance teams. It provides financial reports across several currencies and delivers expense statements on time. Collectively, Workday ensures work agility and data-driven decision-making.
Operational Planning: By facilitating transparent communication and efficient collaboration across different teams, the platform ensures seamless operational planning. With integrated AI and machine learning (ML) tools, businesses can build predictable forecasts.

Pros And Cons Of Workday

Pros:

Reliable platform for efficiently managing and tracking holidays, leaves, paid time off (PTO), and other HR activities
Seamless integration with other financial processes to achieve accurate and timely results
Assists in effectively managing the workforce, including assigning tasks and monitoring their progress

Cons:

The software can lag at times, especially during peak hours when multiple users are using the same functionality simultaneously
Does not automatically save drafts. So, if users fail to save their manual entries, the data will be lost

Rippling Vs Workday – Key Functionalities Comparison

Human Capital Management

Rippling helps businesses save time and streamline tasks by enabling employers to automate the entire employee lifecycle. Once any changes are made along the employee development path, it automatically adjusts changes in payroll and taxes. From onboarding and promotions to offboarding, the system provides thorough assistance.

Companies can build workflows for any data, including bonuses, course creation, or survey analysis, with Rippling.

Workday facilitates companies in automating manual tasks with its AI-powered tool, ‘Workday Illuminate™’. Its interactive dashboard allows managers to collaborate with other team members and ensure transparent communication. Plus, employers can predict data trends and manage other administrative tasks through the platform’s advanced self-service reports, gain real-time insights, and spot and mitigate potential risks.

Winner: By offering an intuitive interface and automated workflows, Rippling helps users save time, reduce errors, and achieve maximum work output. Therefore, it is the champion of this round.

Payroll Processing

Rippling provides a configurable payroll system that allows businesses to effectively manage payroll, direct deposit, compliance, and taxes. It offers different pay types so employers can pay all employees and contractors on time, whether they are working full-time, on-site, remote, or freelance contractors.

Plus, Rippling provides access to all essential payroll documents, including 1099, W-2, and W-4 forms. By integrating with other tools, such as expenses and benefits, the software streamlines reimbursements and benefits deductions.

Workday simplifies complex payroll tasks by syncing payroll with HR transactions, such as recruitment, onboarding, etc. It offers real-time insights into the general ledger and keeps managers updated with payroll data, while automating the entire process. The software allows businesses to process global payroll and pay their remote team members and contractors on time.

By offering advanced analytics and reporting, Workday ensures companies stay informed about all payments and focus on other strategic initiatives.

Winner: While both platforms offer extensive payroll management, including global payroll processing, Rippling wins this round for supporting various pay types and providing documents to ensure compliance.

Learning Management

Rippling enables companies to upskill their new employees by evaluating their performance and giving regular feedback. With the assistance of AI-powered ‘Talent Signal,’ employers can thoroughly review employees’ work and provide constructive feedback.

Once the areas for improvement have been identified, managers can leverage Rippling’s learning programs and customize them based on their criteria and needs. In addition, employers can give continuous feedback to employees to improve their performance.

Workday helps organizations develop and retain top talent with its efficient features. It offers 'Workday Skills Cloud,’ an advanced tool that helps managers evaluate employees' skills and identify gaps.

Additionally, companies can upskill their workforce by facilitating targeted learning and curating development paths that align with employees’ personal goals and interests while benefiting their professional growth.

Winner: By precisely monitoring employees’ skillset and curating development pathways to assist their professional growth and knowledge base, Workday claims victory in this round.

Expense Management

Rippling enables businesses to monitor expenses with automated workflows. It eliminates the need to review the costs at the end of each month and facilitates a regular check-in. Every time there is a major spend, an alert is sent to notify the HR executives.

The software allows employers to regulate their workforce spend management by enabling role-based access to the expense data. In addition, Rippling enables employers to reimburse their employees and contractors across 100 countries.

Workday helps managers track expenses by offering real-time insights into spending management. From optimizing contracts to listing expenses and controlling costs, the software enables businesses to streamline all such activities.

By automating expense monitoring, administrators can reduce potential errors and manage reimbursements in a timely manner. Moreover, Workday enables companies to stay compliant with global requirements to avoid any legal troubles.

Winner: As both platforms offer extensive spend management services, including real-time updates, global access, and complete optimization of the expenses, it is a tie.

Analytics And Reporting

Rippling assists businesses in keeping workforce data organized, secure, and centralized so it can be easily accessed. Managers can create insightful reports by accessing the software’s dynamic visuals and pre-built report templates and presenting data in graphs, pie charts, scatter plots, etc. Additionally, Rippling’s ‘Formula Fields’ tool allows managers to execute automatic calculations of large volumes of data and save time.

Workday offers extensive analytics and reporting capabilities, ensuring employers can have a seamless, error-free experience. Employees and administrators can monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with the platform’s 175 configurable dashboards and gain real-time insights.

To further streamline report generation and data analysis, managers can benefit from Workday’s 5,000+ pre-built, customizable reports. Additionally, the software offers custom descriptions and color palettes to highlight key details in analytical reports.

Winner: While both platforms provide advanced reporting tools and dynamic visuals to make analytical reports easily comprehensible, Workday is the crowned winner of this round for offering a large set of configurable dashboards and reports.

Final Word

Both Rippling and Workday offer efficient human resources management and payroll services. However, if you are a small or mid-sized business and need to streamline HR tasks and finances, Workday can serve you best. On the contrary, if you are a growing enterprise and need a platform that can accommodate your growing administrative, payroll, and technical needs, Rippling should be your go-to software!