A Complete Guide to Maintaining Quicklinks in Workday

In Workday, Quicklinks are usually delivered as an application: an admin builds a Quicklinks app with the links people need, such as a support center or policy hub, and places it on the Home page. Users then combine it with their own apps, Menu shortcuts and Favorites. Maintaining Quicklinks means keeping those links current, correctly secured and easy to find.

This guide is for Workday admins and HRIS teams who own navigation, and for power users who want to get to their daily pages faster.

Key takeaways

• Workday describes applications as giving users quick access to dashboards, reports and tasks from a landing page, and a Quicklinks app is the standard way to add extra links there.
• Admins can make applications required or optional based on a user's security; users can't remove required apps.
• Users have their own tools too: optional apps, Menu shortcuts and a Favorites list of business objects, reports and tasks.
• Most broken links come from retired pages, renamed reports or security changes, so review after every release.
• A short quarterly review keeps navigation useful without much effort.

What are Quicklinks in Workday, and what are they not?

Workday's training material for administrators describes applications as giving users "quick access to dashboards, reports, and tasks directly from a Workday landing page." It also notes that the Help link in the worker profile menu points to one page set in tenant setup, and that to add other links, such as one to a support center, you create a Quicklinks application and include the links as required on the Home page. You can read this in Workday's tenants and tools course manual.

So a Quicklinks app is an admin-managed set of links, not a personal bookmark list. That is the most common source of confusion. Users who want personal shortcuts have other options:

Tool	Who manages it	Best for
Quicklinks application	Admins	Shared links every user in a group needs, such as help, policies or a support center
Required applications	Admins, based on security	Apps a role must always see; users can't remove them
Optional applications	Users	Apps a user adds or removes from their landing page
Menu shortcuts	Users	Personal shortcuts shown in the Menu alongside apps
Favorites	Users	A personal list of business objects, reports and tasks, also usable when searching in prompts

Search still has a place. For pages someone uses once a month, the search bar is often faster than any shortcut. Our guide on how to search in Workday for reqs, reports, people and tasks covers the search side.

How do you set up a Quicklinks app?

The exact task names and screens change between Workday releases, so confirm them in your tenant and in Workday's documentation. The planning is the part that decides whether the app is useful:

1. Collect the links people actually ask for. Check help desk tickets and onboarding questions. The same five or six destinations usually come up again and again.
2. Group by audience. Managers, frontline staff and HR partners rarely need the same links. Separate apps per audience are easier to maintain than one long list.
3. Write clear labels. "Request time off" beats a report name like "Custom Report 4479". Use the words people would search for.
4. Decide required or optional. Make an app required only when everyone in that group genuinely needs it. Too many required apps clutter the Home page.
5. Test with real security roles. Sign in as, or proxy as, a test user in each role and check that every link resolves.
6. Publish a short "what's on your Home page" note in onboarding materials.

If you also configure worklets and dashboards, the same principles apply. See how to configure worklets in Workday Core HCM for that side of the landing page.

How can users organize their own shortcuts?

Workday's admin training says you can rearrange applications by selecting MENU on a landing page and then Add Apps or Edit. Users can add and remove optional applications this way. A few habits keep a personal setup useful:

• Pin only daily tasks. If you use a page once a week, search for it instead.
• Use Favorites for objects and reports. Favorites can hold business objects, reports and tasks, and they show up when you search in prompts, which saves typing.
• Think in workflows. A manager who approves time, checks open requisitions and runs a headcount report each day should have those three within one click. The monthly expense report doesn't need a slot.
• Prune quarterly. A long list of shortcuts is as hard to scan as the original menu.

The Nielsen Norman Group's usability heuristics describe the goal well: minimize memory load by making actions and options visible. Good Quicklinks and shortcuts do exactly that.

Why do Quicklinks break, and how do you fix them?

A link that stops working usually comes down to one of three causes:

• The target was retired or renamed. Reports get replaced and processes change. Find the replacement and update the link.
• Security changed. In Workday, domain security policies control which tasks and reports a security group can reach, and Workday notes that policy changes take effect only after the Activate Pending Security Policy Changes task is run. Workday's configurable security framework manual explains this. If a user can see a link but not open it, check their groups first.
• The link pointed at a filtered or temporary view. Links copied from a search result or filtered report may not resolve later. Link to the task or report itself.

Security is the one that confuses users most, because the link looks fine and simply fails. If you are reviewing access more broadly, our guide on designing role-based access with Workday security groups will help.

How should admins maintain Quicklinks over time?

Quicklinks go stale quietly. Nobody files a ticket for a link they stopped clicking. A light routine prevents that:

1. Assign an owner for each Quicklinks app, ideally the team whose pages it points to.
2. Check every link after each Workday release and after major configuration changes. Add the Home page to your test scripts; our Workday release regression testing plan shows how to fold this in.
3. Review quarterly for links nobody needs, labels that no longer match page names and audiences that have changed.
4. Retire before you add. When a new link is requested, ask what it replaces.
5. Collect feedback from new hires after their first month. They notice missing links that long-time users have learned to work around.

Navigation is a big part of whether self-service gets used at all. For the wider picture, see our guide to employee self-service portal design, access and adoption.

FAQ

Can admins push Quicklinks to all users?

Yes, through applications. Workday lets admins define applications as required or optional based on a user's security permissions, and users can't remove required ones. A Quicklinks app made required for a security group will show on those users' landing pages. Personal shortcuts and Favorites, by contrast, are managed by each user.

Why can a user see a Quicklink but not open the page?

The link and the page are secured separately. If the target task or report sits in a domain the user's security groups can't access, the link fails. Check the domain security policy, confirm the user's groups, and remember that policy changes only take effect after pending security changes are activated.

How many Quicklinks should one app have?

Keep it short enough to scan at a glance, usually under ten. If a list keeps growing, split it by audience or task type. Long lists push users back to search, which defeats the purpose. Remove links nobody uses during your quarterly review instead of letting the app grow indefinitely.

What to do next

• List the five links your help desk sends most often and check whether they are on the Home page.
• Audit each Quicklinks app with a test user in every relevant security role.
• Add Home page links to your release regression checklist.
• Share a one-page guide for users on adding optional apps, shortcuts and Favorites.

Sources

• Workday: HCM Core for Administrators, Workday Tenants and Tools
• Workday: HCM Core for Administrators, Configurable Security Framework
• Nielsen Norman Group: 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Last reviewed: October 2026.