Workday Financial Management and Tradeshift integration

What moves between them

The flow runs primarily from Workday Financial Management into Tradeshift. ml-connector reads supplier invoices and purchase orders from Workday and submits them as UBL business documents to Tradeshift for supplier visibility and confirmation. Receipts, invoice acknowledgments, and status updates then flow from Tradeshift back into Workday to mark invoices as acknowledged and reconcile AP records. GL accounts and cost allocations are preserved in the UBL line item metadata so suppliers see the correct GL dimensions. Workday supplier data is synchronized with Tradeshift company profiles so the buyer and supplier reference data stays aligned.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector manages two separate credential sets and presents them correctly at each endpoint. It generates OAuth 1.0a signatures for every Tradeshift request using the tenant-scoped consumer and token secrets, and stores both OAuth 1.0a credentials and Workday refresh tokens encrypted at rest. For Workday, it obtains a fresh 1-hour access token by exchanging the stored refresh token whenever a REST call requires it. On the Tradeshift side, it constructs UBL 2.0 envelope XML from Workday invoice and PO records, wraps them in the Tradeshift JSON envelope with the correct documentProfileId, and submits them via POST. When Tradeshift returns an acknowledgment or receipt, ml-connector parses the UBL response, maps it back to Workday GL dimensions, and posts the result as a journal entry or payment record. Polling happens on a schedule tied to your payables cycle, using Workday date-range filters for efficiency and Tradeshift's changedAfter parameter to skip unchanged documents. Workday ISU credential setup and Tradeshift OAuth token provisioning are required on the customer side before the integration can begin.

A real-world example

A global consumer goods company buys from hundreds of suppliers and uses Workday Financial Management for GL, invoicing, and AP. They signed up for Tradeshift to let suppliers collaborate on invoices and receipts electronically. Before integration, the AP team created invoices in Workday, emailed them to suppliers separately, then waited for email confirmations or calls before updating payment status. Now, when an invoice is entered in Workday, ml-connector automatically submits it to Tradeshift in UBL format where the supplier can view, confirm, or dispute it electronically. When the supplier acknowledges receipt in Tradeshift, ml-connector reads the confirmation, updates the AP record in Workday, and the invoice moves toward payment. Month-end close is faster because AP records are already reconciled with supplier confirmations, not held up waiting for email replies.

What you can do

• •Submit supplier invoices and purchase orders from Workday Financial Management to Tradeshift as UBL 2.0 business documents.
• •Receive supplier confirmations, receipts, and payment acknowledgments from Tradeshift and post them back to Workday AP and GL.
• •Synchronize supplier reference data between Workday and Tradeshift company profiles so both systems agree on buyer and supplier details.
• •Authenticate Workday with OAuth2 refresh tokens and Integration System User credentials, and Tradeshift with OAuth 1.0a server-to-server signatures.
• •Poll on a payables calendar, parse and transform UBL documents, and track GL dimensions through the full invoice-to-payment cycle.

Questions

Which direction does data move between Workday Financial Management and Tradeshift?

Invoices and purchase orders flow from Workday Financial Management to Tradeshift for supplier visibility and confirmation. Receipts, invoice acknowledgments, and payment status updates flow from Tradeshift back into Workday to keep AP records in sync. GL account dimensions and cost allocations are embedded in the UBL document metadata so both systems see the same financial classification.

Does Workday's lack of webhooks slow down the sync?

No. ml-connector polls Workday on a schedule tied to your payables cycle, typically every 15 to 60 minutes depending on invoice volume. Combined with Tradeshift's changedAfter timestamp filter, polling is efficient and does not require Workday webhooks. Safe polling intervals for Workday financial entities start at 5 minutes, so near-real-time sync is possible without throttling.

How does ml-connector handle OAuth 1.0a signing for Tradeshift?

ml-connector stores Tradeshift OAuth 1.0a credentials encrypted and generates a valid OAuth 1.0a signature on every request using the tenant-scoped consumer and token secrets. It also includes the required X-Tradeshift-TenantId header on each call. Workday credentials are managed separately using OAuth2 refresh tokens, which are exchanged for access tokens on demand and cached during the polling interval.